County wrestlers place third at state meet

INDIANAPOLIS

After a near perfect opening night at the 75th annual IHSAA State wrestling Finals, Saturday proved to be a mixture of results for Johnson County wrestlers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

For the first time since 1999, no local wrestler made any of the individual state finals.

Instead, three wrestlers — D.J. Smith and Skyler Lykins of Franklin Community High School, and Tyler Hupp of Indian Creek — had the best finishes of any Johnson County wrestlers, each taking third place.

Smith took third at 106 pounds, Lykins at 126 and Hupp at 138. Smith and Lykins, both juniors, will have a chance to come back and improve on their finishes.

“It was a good tournament for me, and I got good experience for next year,” said Smith, who ended his season with record of 41-6. “I hope I can continue to get better, especially here at the tournament.”

Smith dominated Yorktown’s Cael McCormick in the third-place match, 5-0, but he said his finest performance was earlier in the day against a highly-regarded opponent from Garrett.

“My best match was against Hayden Lee in the quarterfinals,” said Smith. “He got third last year, and I knew it would be a tough match. I think that was a good win for me.”

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