By Brady Extin | The Times-Post

NEW CASTLE — Pendleton Heights entered Saturday’s Indiana High School Athletic Association New Castle Semistate with two representatives.

One is headed to tomorrow’s state finals, while an unfortunate draw led to the other falling just short.

Jack Todd was the lone Madison County competitor to punch his ticket to the state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and he did so with two decisive victories.

At 145 pounds, Todd (32-3) began his day with a win by major decision 13-1 against Lawrenceburg’s Brayden Tudor (19-6).

In the quarterfinals, and with a trip to state on the line, Todd defeated Roncalli’s Braden Getz (29-6) by decision 5-2.

“He’s worked consistently hard to get here,” Pendleton Heights head coach Dave Cloud said. “We’re just really proud of the effort that he’s made.”

In a match that was overly physical, and not to Cloud’s liking, Todd, who came in ranked fourth in the state, dropped his semifinal match by decision 3-2 to No. 8 ranked Ike O’Neill from Westfield.

An elbow injury that has bothered Todd all season was re-aggravated in the semifinal match and allowed O’Niell to grab a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.

Todd hung in to grab two points, but the flare-up of the injury paired with the physicality of the match was a little too much.

“We’re just disappointed in the officiating, because we felt as though the other wrestler was continually trying to injure him, not to wrestle him,” Cloud said. “Just disappointed that it was allowed because we can’t control that.”

Todd gutted it out to compete in the consolation final, but dropped the match by major decision 12-1 to New Castle’s Brevan Thrine.

Along with Todd, Pendleton Heights’ Jay Convington had a chance to punch his ticket to state as well.

A dominating first round win by fall in 1:27 over Northeastern’s Ethan Neeley set Covington up with the No. 1 ranked 152-pound wrestler in the state — Bryce Lowery — with a trip to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on the line.

Roncalli’s Lowery entered the day with a perfect 36-0 record on the season, and proved to be just too much for Covington.

Covington dropped the ticket match by technical fall 16-1 to end his junior campaign.

“He was great in his first round, and we knew we had a touch match with Lowery. He’s No. 1 in the state for a reason,” Cloud said. “He just looked like he was two weight classes bigger. I think next year, Jay will be in a lower weight class because he was just outsized and that guy was just more powerful, but overall I’m very happy with the season that he had.”

Lowery went on to pin both his semifinal and championship round opponents in the first period to get to 40-0 on the season.

The state final bracket was drawn on Sunday evening, and has Todd opening up in Round 1 against the person ranked one spot ahead of him in the state rankings, Center Grove’s Wyatt Krejsa (17-0).

With a win, he would face either Plymouth’s Wesley Smith (45-2) or Jay County’s Cameron Clark (36-2).

The remainder of the top half of the bracket includes the New Castle semistate winner, Cathedral’s Dillon Graham (40-4), Brownsburg’s Mason Day (29-11), Delta’s Kolten Rhonemus (36-6) and Crown Point’s Anthony Bahl (18-6).

The opening round will take place at 2 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, with quarterfinal and semifinal matches to take place on Saturday morning beginning at 9 a.m. The consolation round is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and the championship round is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. All matches will be held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.