Tiger Cubs claim county wrestling crown

Friday, December 16, 2011
The Greencastle wrestling team won the 2011 Putnam County Tourament with a 3-0 record Thursday. The team had six individual champions and will host the Greencastle Holiday Tournament Saturday.

CLOVERDALE -- Greencastle come into Thursday's Putnam County Wrestling Tournament hoping to improve on its second place finish at last year's county tournament. With six wrestling earning individual county championships, they did just that, winning the county title with a 3-0 record.

South Putnam was second with a record of 2-1, North Putnam was third with a record of 1-2 and Cloverdale was fourth with a record of 0-3.

"It was a good night. We had to wrestle hard coming in. We knew it was going to be close and we came out with a victory. And now we just have to keep improving from here. We have four matches on Saturday and then we come back the next Wednesday and wrestle Avon, so it doesn't get any easier," GHS head coach Matt McComish said.

Cameron Hinton (106), Nick Pingleton (132), Hunter Smith (152), Carter Lewis (160), Ben Hesler (220) and Will Mobley (285) earned individual county titles after posting 3-0 records on the night.

McComish was pleased with his individual champions and how they're beginning to gel at this point in the season.

"We had six of them," McComish said of his champions. "We'd always like to have more, but the six wrestled really well and even guys who didn't get county championship wrestled really well tonight. I think we really came together as a team and that's something we're building on."

He also noted that he's seeing some good things out of his squad as they mature in the skills as wrestlers.

"We're getting more motion from the bottom really," McComish said. "We're stepping on the mat with a purpose and know what we're trying to set up instead of hoping something happens. So when we step on the mat with a plan, I think we're going to wrestle better. We just have to continue from there and keep breaking things down and go on from there to get better."

South Putnam also moved up a position from last year's county championship, finishing second behind the Tiger Cubs. Nick Owen (113), Jesse Gardner (170), Tanner Thompson (182) and Rudy Harris (195) posted records of 3-0 to earn individual championships.

South Putnam head coach Josh Hendrickson was happy with is team's performance following the meet.

"It was a pretty good night. It didn't turn out quite the way we'd hoped, but I thought we wrestled well," he said. That's what you're looking for. Now we're looking for conference, now that we know everyone who's in the tournament -- we've seen everybody."

He said before the meet he told his team to wrestle for a full six minutes and was happy to say they accomplished that following their matches.

"There was no quit in us on the mat. We kept wrestling, kept fighting. Our champions did great. None of them had it easy. They all had some tough matches and they finished strong," Hendrickson said.

For North Putnam head coach Benny Ault, it was a very good night. Not only did his team produce two individual champions in Dean Klieber (120) and Joe Mindiola (145), but they also wrestled well across the board.

"We've seen South Putnam twice already," he said. "We knew their upper weight classes were good. I was really hoping our lower weight classes would come around and we wrestled them well. That's who we're trying to compare ourselves to from last year, because they've really built a program. He's (Hendrickson) done a great job.

"We wrestled Cloverdale earlier in the year and lost to them by three and I really thought we could win that one. It's just nice to see a switch in emotion and how they wrestle," Ault added.

Another thing he said he liked was the fact his team was able to compete with each of the opposing teams and the amount of wrestlers he's seeing joining the program.

"I'm just ecstatic that we're getting this many boys to turn out and we're not the first ones down in county. I like the constant wrestling and it give the whole program a lift," Ault said. But all in all, I couldn't be prouder of the boys. When you come away and you have black eyes and bumps and bruises and you give it a 110 percent and that's all you've asked for. Then you know they gave it their all."

Graduation hit the host Clovers hard this year and they went from county champions to fourth place this season, but according to head coach Steve Livingston, it wasn't from a lack of effort.

"We did have good effort," he said. "We're at the point in the season now where I can't say we're losing because of lack of effort, which is what we were seeing at the beginning of the season. Knowing we have a young team coming in, we know we're going to make some mistakes and take some lumps here and there."

He said early season losses could be linked to lack of effort, confidence and experience, but not at this stage of the season.

Greencastle will host the Greencastle Holiday Invite Saturday at 9 a.m., while the Eagles will host the Eagle Invitational Dec. 29 at 9 a.m. North Putnam won't be back in action again until the WCC meet on Jan. 14 at 9 a.m.

Cloverdale will host its second annual Friendship Meet this Saturday. Livingston said it would be a day of friendly competition with no scores kept and an opportunity for young wrestlers and coaches to share some camaraderie and grow their love of the sport. The event begins at 9 a.m.

At Cloverdale

1. Greencastle 3-0, 2. South Putnam 2-1, 3. North Putnam 1-2, 4. Cloverdale 0-3

2011 Individual Champions

106 -- Cameron Hinton (GHS)

113 -- Nick Owen (SP)

120 -- Dean Klieber (NP)

126 -- Max Secrest (CHS)

132 -- Nick Pingleton (GHS)

138 -- Eldin Hesselgrave (CHS)

145 -- Joe Mindiola (NP)

152 -- Hunter Smith (GHS)

160 -- Jesse Gardner (SP)

170 -- Carter Lewis (GHS)

182 -- Tanner Thompson (SP)

195 -- Rudy Harris (SP)

220 -- Ben Hesler (GHS)

285 -- Will Mobley (GHS)