Who to watch at the state wrestling meet: Bloomington South, Owen Valley have contenders

Bloomington South's Cam Meier and Delaney Ruhlman and Owen Valley's Branson Weaver are set to begin their run in the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) state wrestling finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Here's what to watch and what to know as the season comes to a conclusion under the spotlights:

Tickets, TV, times

First-round matches take place on Friday in two sessions following the parade of competitors at 1:30 p.m. The first session for weights 106-145 starts at 2 p.m. with the session for 152-285 starting at 5:30. All winners will come back for Saturday's finals starting at 9 a.m. with the semifinals to follow. Gainbridge will be cleared and the consolation matches starting at 4:30 p.m. and the championship matches at 7:30.

Tickets are $15 per session or $25 for all sessions. All seats are reserved and will be sold only online at ticketmaster.com. All matches will be available for a fee at ihsaatv.org. Bally Sports Channel will broadcast the finals.

Also follow the tournament live at trackwestling.com

Who will be there3 for the show: Trio survive Evansville wrestling semistate

Cam Meier: 106 pounds

THE DRAW: No. 9 Meier (34-4) vs. No. 5 Julianna Ocampo. Winner gets No. 11 Hruai Lian of Perry Meridian (34-4) or No. 22 Logan Haney of Crown Point (22-14).

WHAT IT MEANS: Oddly enough, two of the three wrestlers to return to state at 106 pounds face off in Round 1. Ocampo, who transferred from New Haven to Snider, already has an impressive resume, becoming the first female to win a title at the Al Smith Classic. Meier was third at that same event, but they did not meet. Her only loss this season to a wrestler from Indiana came in last week's semistate final. Wrestlers ranked 1, 4 and 6 will battle it out in the other half of the upper bracket. That group includes Lake Central's Mason Jones, who beat Meier in the semis, then lost to Ocampo 2-0 in the Al Smith final. No. 3 Ayden Bollinger of Delta knocked off No. 1 Layne Horn of Rochester in the semistate semis before getting a tech fall of Ocampo in the final. So Horn and Avon's fourth-ranked Nathan Rioux will meet in the first round.

Branson Weaver, 138 pounds

THE DRAW: No. 8 Weaver vs. No. 1 Cole Solomey, Kankakee Valley (44-1). Winner gets No. 15 Gavyn Whiteheads of New Castle (30-3) or Cooper Baldwin of Peru (36-4).

WHAT IT MEANS: Tough, tough draw but that's what a fourth-place finisher at semistate usually ends up with. Solomey is a senior and three-time state medal winner, taking seventh at 120, sixth at 132 and second at 138 last year after knocking out Edgewood's Cash Turner in Round 1. His only loss this year came in the regional final to a freshman, No. 5 Jeffrey Huyvaert of New Prairie (44-1) in a 4-3 decision, and Solomey avenged that loss in the semistate final. The only other wrestler ranked in the top 10 in the lower bracket is Evansville Semistate champ No. 2 Cheaney Schoeff of Avon.

Delaney Ruhlman, 170 pounds

THE DRAW: No. 1 Ruhlman (37-0) vs. No. 9 Tanner Reed of Columbia City (38-4). Winner gets No. 5 Aidan Costello of Hobart (41-3) or No. 19 Noah Weaver of Rossville (44-2).

WHAT IT MEANS: Ruhlman will likely have to get through three top-10 wrestlers to make the final for a third year in a row, starting with Reed, a senior making his first trip to state. Three of his four losses have come to No. 7 Duke Myers of Bellmont (41-3), who was fifth at 160 in 2022 and is likely to face Warren Central's Anthony Cashman II (30-5) in the lower bracket's other second round match. Costello, a sophomore who lost his state opener at 152 last year, lost his semistate final to No. 2 Cody Goodwin of Crown Point, 7-5. In the upper bracket, Goodwin, a senior, and Center Grove's Noah Clouser are likely to clash in Round 2, with No. 4 Kyle Harden of Cathedral favored to make the other semi. If Goodwin (21-4) and Ruhlman survive, it'll be the third year in a row Ruhlman will face a CP athlete in the final.

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Who to watch from Bloomington South, Owen Valley at state wrestling meet