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GHS wins WCC title
CLOVERDALE -- Cloverdale High School hosted the 35th annual West Central Conference wrestling championship Saturday, as Greencastle walked away with the team championship and three individual champions.
The Tiger Cubs have captured the WCC title three of the past four years and have produced 32 champions over the years.
"This was good, clean competition," Tiger Cubs coach Russ Hesler commented after the meet.
"It was a total team effort, we're a very young team."
Greencastle trailed Cloverdale going into the final round of matches; but on the strength of three first-place finishes, a second and six third-place finishes, the Tiger Cubs were able to leapfrog the Clovers to gain the championship.
"It's not only the champions that we won with," Hesler said. "It was the guys that placed third and those point getters."
Greencastle captured individual titles at 112 with Nolan Lewis defeated North Putnam's C.J. Lofton in the final round.
Robert Bittles delivered at the 171 weight class, defeating South Putnam's Josh Sanders in a very physical match.
"He's (Bittles) been a junkyard dog, wrestling with a hurt shoulder." Hesler commenting on Bittles.
At 160, Chris Pingleton joined his brother, Charlie, as the only four-time WCC champions. He won by technical fall against Speedway's DaMarcus Austin in the final round to capture the title.
North Putnam and South Putnam both had two individual champions on the day.
North Putnam captured the 189 class as Jacob Stigall defeated Cloverdale's Alex Gardiner by decision and Emmett Boruff remained undefeated on the season with a win over Cloverdale's Dylan Stone at the heavyweight class.
South's champions came at 145 as Jon Parker defeated Monrovia's Jake Elliott by technical fall and Jeremiah Parrish defeated Cloverdale's Lee Secrest by decision at 152.
Cloverdale, which led most of the day, was able to win only one individual champion as Ben Cheatham won the 215, downing Greencastle's Mike Rumley.
"It was all heart," Cloverdale Brian Siddons said. "We had some good performances."
Siddons also noted that some of his wrestlers finished higher than they were seated.
An exciting and positive day was capped by even more positive reactions as members of all team mingled and congratulated one another after a day of hard battling.
"It's the best entertainment money can buy," a smiling coach Hesler said after the win.
Greencastle will travel to Speedway tomorrow night at 6 p.m., while North Putnam will travel to Turkey Run at 6:30 p.m. South Putnam will host Tri-West at 6:30 p.m. and Cloverdale will host Southmont at 6:30 p.m.
At Cloverdale
Final team standings -- 1. Greencastle 185.5 2. Cloverdale 165 3. South Putnam 138.5 4. Cascade 129 5. Monrovia 118.5 6. Speedway 85 7. North Putnam 74
Individual champion standings
103 - Ethan Guernsey (Cascade) pin Brittney Hughes (Cloverdale)
112 - Nolan Lewis (Greencastle) pin C.J. Lofton (North Putnam)
119 - Raeff Garrett (Monrovia) pin Eric Hunter (South Putnam)
125 - Colin Ernst (Cascade) pin Seth Green (South Putnam)
130 - Vince Ringer (Monrovia) dec. Justin Arnes (Cascade) 9-6
135 - Garrett Smith (Cascade) dec. Benjamin Sanders (Cloverdale) 14-2
140 - Nic Denton (Cascade) dec. Jered Dillon (Monrovia) 19-3
145 - Jon Parker (South Putnam) T-fall Jake Elliot (Monrovia)
152 - Jeremiah Parrish (South Putnam) dec. Lee Secrest (Cloverdale) 12-9
160 - Chris Pingleton (Greencastle) T-fall DaMarcus Austin (Speedway)
171 - Robert Bittles (Greencastle) pin Josh Sanders (South Putnam)
189 - Jacob Stigall (North Putnam) dec. Alex Gardiner (Cloverdale) 19-13
215 - Ben Cheatham (Cloverdale) dec. Mike Rumley (Greencastle) 7-4
Heavyweight - Emmett Boruff (North Putnam) dec. Dylan Stone (Cloverdale) 3-1
Next meet - Greencastle will travel to Speedway tomorrow night at 6 p.m. while North Putnam will travel to Turkey Run tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. South Putnam will host Tri-West at 6:30 p.m. and Cloverdale will host Southmont at 6:30 p.m.