Senior Connor Olson, making the most of opportunity to wrestle as an undersized heavyweight for Chesterton, improved record to 8-2 with upset victory by pin at Portage

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Sometimes opportunities present themselves seemingly from out of nowhere. When that happens those who stayed the course even though it seemed impossible for the spotlight to find them tend to be rewarded.
As a junior, Connor Olson was stuck behind Lucas Anderson at 175 pounds and with Patrick Mochen and Greyson Strickland on hand, moving up or down wasn’t a realistic option either.
Yet, Olson enjoys wrestling, knows what he’s doing, and came out for the team again as a senior. A 144-pound wrestler as a sophomore, Olson now weighs 210 pounds. Keegan Gibbons wrestles at 215, which left just one more avenue and a challenging one at that for Olson: heavyweight, meaning he could face wrestlers with as much as a 75-pound weight advantage.
So far, Olson has been up for the challenge and improved his season record to 8-2 with an upset victory at Wednesday’s dual meet at Portage, won by the host school, 44-29.
Behind by a few points, Olson maneuvered his way to a pin of Ryan McClelland 52 seconds into the second period.
Olson isn’t happy with what happened to create his opportunity, but has reason to be proud of what he has done with it so far. Seniors Tyler Nevious and Kenny Callaway suffered football injuries that ended their high school wrestling careers, leaving the Trojans without a wrestler for the 285-pound division.
“I talked to Tyler and Kenny about it and they gave me some advice, and they made me realize I can do this,” Olson said. “They told me I’m faster and I’ve got good technique and I already knew that. These guys might be a little heavier, but I’m able to outwrestle them. It’s been a fun challenge.”
Olson had seen McClelland’s name in the semi-state rankings on indianamat.com, so he knew that he was in for a tough match. He also was confident that he had an advantage in one area that he thinks will be with him most of the way.
“I knew he was getting tired and I knew I had a little more speed,” Olson said. “I’m coming up from a lower weight class. I move a lot faster than these big guys.”
The down side is that the heavyweight division has the state’s most powerful wrestlers, but Olson doesn’t appear intimidated by that.
“I think heavyweight’s a good fit for me. And I love my team and I wanted to step up and help out in any way I could,” he said.
Chesterton wrestling coach Andy Trevino likes what he has seen out of Olson early this season.
“He’s fitting into the weight class pretty well,” Trevino said. “His style always frustrates people, so that’s good. He’s a kind of a squirrelly type of wrestler and big guys don’t like that. So we like him in that weight class, actually.”
Olson said the win was a big confidence booster that will help him the rest of the way, “especially with a tough week coming up next week.”
Chesterton travels to perennial wrestling power Crown Point for a dual meet Wednesday.