The fight to get the pin and claim victory.
That was the goal for the Trojan wrestling squad for the season. Led by head coach Gary Black Jr. in his second campaign with New Castle, the seasoned group of grapplers clawed their way to a winning regular season record, a team appearance in regionals, and had a senior advancing to the state finals in Indianapolis.
Coming into this season, Trojan wrestlers felt confident about what they could bring to the table.
“The most important quality for the team this year was our pride and determination,” Junior Garrison McCune said.
The Trojans began their 2020-21 campaign on December 5 with a loss to Frankton and a win to Knightstown in a multi-dual match on home soil. As the season progressed, the Trojans kept improving and increasing their confidence, scoring wins against teams such as Southport, Monroe Central, and Muncie Central. The team vastly improved on their losing record last season, a goal for most on the team.
“The team record improved dramatically from the prior year,” Freshman Brenndon Thompson said.
“We also improved by the record we had, because if you look back 2 years we won less than 10 matches as a team,” McCune said.
As the Trojans began to focus and practice for sectionals, they had one goal in mind: advance to regionals as a team. New Castle hasn’t won a sectional title in wrestling since 2016, but in wrestling, teams don’t have to finish first to advance to regionals. After a strong day all-around, the Trojan grapplers accomplished their goal by finishing second in their sectional.
In that sectional, four Trojans captured sectional titles in their weight class: Jack Taylor, Gavyn Whitehead, Jonathan Eberhart, and Brevan Thrine. Those same four grapplers advanced to semi-state at New Castle’s Fieldhouse the next week. Unfortunately, the overall team’s season ended at regionals as they did not qualify for semi-state.
“The most difficult meet this year was Regional because of all of the talent in one building,” Thompson said.
Going into semi-state, phenomenal freshman Whitehead was 25-0 at the 120 pound division. At the 132 pound level, sophomore Thrine was 32-2. Fellow sophomore Eberhart came in with a record of 29-4. At 220 pounds, senior Taylor was 33-1, with his first loss of the year coming the previous week at semi-state. To advance to state, a wrestler has to be in the top four of their weight class.
In the end Jack Taylor, who is only in his second season of wrestling, became the only Trojan to advance to the IHSAA State Finals and in the process secured the 2nd seed in the 220 pound weight class. He is the first Trojan to advance to state in wrestling since 2019.
At the state finals on February 19 and 20 in Indianapolis, Jack Taylor went 3-1 across his four matches, finishing 5th in the state for the 220 pound weight class. Taylor would wrap up his high school career with a 39-3 record in his senior year.
“My goal was to make it to state and I exceeded it by placing 5th in the state,” Taylor said.
The Trojans will only lose two seniors after this season – the aforementioned Taylor and Layne Nicholson. With the majority of the team returning, including semi-state qualifiers Eberhart, Thrine, and Whitehead, the future of New Castle wrestling looks to be bright.
