The wrestling team came home with the the big trophy once again on Feb. 22, capturing the State championship at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Irish won their third straight State championship with the help of two individual State winners: Holden Parsons and Zeke Seltzer; one second place finisher, Logan Bailey; one third place finisher, Elliott Rodgers; one fourth place fourth finisher, Tyler Wagner; and three wrestlers who didn’t make it past Friday night but still contributed to the team’s success: Evan Dickey, Johnny Parker and Jacob Huffman.

The Irish won the team title with 102 points. Rounding out the Top 10 were Crown Point, 93.5; Evansville Mater Dei, 85; Brownburg, 63.5; Roncalli, 63; Perry Meridian, 59; Avon, 58; Chesterton, 45; Mishawaka, 45; and Warren Central, 39.

Head Coach Mr. Sean McGinley ’88 said, “I think we wrestled the best we could have, left a little bit out there, but couldn’t have asked for more from my guys.”

But with glory comes drama, and there was plenty of it with a controversial call that reversed Wagner’s match that could have sent him to finals instead of wrestling for a third place finish. McGinley said, “It was a last second scramble. We were down by one (point), time ran out, Tyler was clearly on top of his guy, and the ref signaled a two-point reversal, but went back on his call and made it a one-point escape.

“In my opinion there should’ve been no in between. It was either no points or a two-point reversal. We definitely let the official hear about it; he knew about our displeasure with the call,” said McGinley.

The coach added, “It was unfortunate for Tyler because he was wrestling really great all weekend and had a great chance to win State, but it was just an unfortunate event for him and the team.”

McGinley expects the two underclassmen who didn’t make it past Friday night, Dickey and Parker, to be back and close to the top of the podium next year, along with leaning on Seltzer for another year to be the rock for the team that, 48 hours after winning a State title in 2020, was already setting its sights on 2021.