INDIANAPOLIS — Perhaps a busted lower lip is good luck for Ashton Jackson.
The LaPorte junior is 2-0 in state championship matches when he has one.
“Apparently it is,” he said with a laugh. “It just keeps coming back. I thought it would’ve healed by now, but … I don’t know.”
Jackson said he suffered a large cut down the middle of his lower lip during his 2021 state championship match. One year later, it’s there again. And so is Jackson atop the podium.
Jackson won the state title at 113 pounds with a 1-0 decision against Brownsburg’s Preston Haines at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday.
The win was Jackson’s 50th of an undefeated season and follows his state title at 106 last year.
His opponent in the final match is a familiar one. Jackson said he spends time each summer training with Haines.
“We’ve wrestled each other enough that we know what to expect,” Jackson said.
The expectation was a close, low-scoring match. The lone point scored was awarded to Jackson after Haines was ruled to have illegally locked his hands during the second period.
In the final period, Jackson hung on to Haines for the full two minutes to clinch the title. An escape by Haines would’ve tied the score.
“It was really a do-or-die situation,” Jackson said. “I saw the clock ticking down, I was on top and it was 1-0. It was him or me. And I’d rather come out as the one on top.”
The sweat on Jackson’s face hadn’t dried before his mind shifted to next season.
“Now I’m thinking about capping off an undefeated senior season with this end goal for the third time,” he said.
Cole Solomey made history Saturday, becoming the first Kankakee Valley wrestler to compete in a state championship match. The junior finished as the runner-up at 138 to Crown Point’s Jesse Mendez — Indiana’s 10th four-time state champion — and took pride in the new path he’d blazed.
“I’ve always had this goal,” Solomey said. “The best anyone from our school has ever done is fifth, so winning this morning was a huge accomplishment because I’ve lost two Saturday mornings in a row.”
By wrestling at 138, Solomey knew Mendez would be lurking at every postseason meet. Rather than taking the option of moving up or down a weight class to avoid Mendez, though, Solomey embraced the challenge of facing the top-ranked 138-pound wrestler in the country.
“It’s just not in me to duck kids like that,” Solomey said. “I have to give him his respect. He’s a heck of a wrestler. But I’m not a runner, and I never really have been. I’ve had kids duck me a few times this year, and it was frustrating because that’s one more match I should’ve gotten.”
Solomey also believes the lessons learned in facing Mendez four times this postseason could pay off next season.
“I’ve realized how much better I can be in some positions from wrestling him,” Solomey said. “In the long run, it’ll definitely help me. That’s why I’ve always wanted to wrestle against kids like that.”
Chesterton junior Aidan Torres finished third at 145, an improvement upon his sixth-place finish at 126 as a freshman and his eighth-place finish at 132 as a sophomore. But he had conflicted emotions.
“It’s pretty successful,” Torres said. “Third is the best I’ve done at a state tournament.”
Then he said, “But,” and followed that with a long pause.
“Night after night, I went to bed thinking this was the year I was going to be a state champ,” he said.
Torres then sighed as he talked about his semifinal loss by first-period pin to East Central junior Rider Searcy.
“I think I was better than that kid,” Torres said. “Nine times out of 10, I would’ve beat him. But he caught me in a headlock. It happens. I’m definitely not satisfied, but I’m still proud. It’s still the best I’ve ever done. That match is going to motivate me until the next state tournament.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.