Eagles place 3rd at state duals

Sunday, January 5, 2014
South Putnam's Rudy Harris takes down his opponent during the State Duals on Saturday. Harris finished the meet with a perftect 3-0 record. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

WESTFIELD -- A year ago at the first-ever Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals, South Putnam's wrestling squad finished bottom of the Class A totem pole.

Invited for the second year in a row, the Eagles showed how far the program had come with a third-place finish Saturday at Westfield High School.

South Putnam head coach Josh Hendrickson said the team had spent all season proving itself deserving of a trip back.

Jacob Lorimer competes at the state duals meet. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

"I'm happy that the team was able to make it here today," Hendrickson said. "They had to earn the right to be here.

"Everybody wrestled well. We wrestled to win and we accomplished that today."

The opening round saw a pair of Eagle squads clash as South Putnam took on Fremont, the No. 2 seed in the draw.

While some looked at the Steuben County school as a dark horse candidate in the small class tournament, many more were surprised when South Putnam took the opening dual 41-39.

Wins by fall from Kieffer Vittetow, Jacob Lorimer, Joe Waters, Kyle Shaffer, Rudy Harris and Jacob Williams, along with a forfeit win by Lane Hacker, helped the Putnam County squad overcome two forfeits of its own.

According to Hendrickson, talk of South Putnam's spot in the duals from outsiders gave the squad plenty of motivation in the opening round.

"I know there were a lot of people in the wrestling world that didn't expect us to fare well today," Hendrickson said. "I think we proved them wrong today.

"We talked to the team about what was being said and they took it personal and used it to fire themselves up."

South Putnam found yet more Eagles to contend with in the semi-final round against Churubusco, one of the finalists from the 2013 tournament.

The two holes in South Putnam's lineup stung more in the round as they fell to the eventual Class A champions 46-30.

Waters and Shaffer picked up decision wins while Lorimer, Harris, Williams and Hacker each earned pinfall victories.

Hendrickson said that the match with Churubusco came down to slightly different results than the ones against Fremont.

"We wrestled well against Churubusco but they matched up a little bit better against us," Hendrickson said. "We didn't get some pins against them that we did against Fremont and that prevented us from pulling that match out against a very good team."

By the time the final round of the day came up for South Putnam, talk from those outside the program had changed from questions and doubts to admiration and respect.

The Eagles finished the day by taking home third place over West Central, needing a victory by Vittetow at 106 in the final match to secure a 40-36 win.

Nick Owen picked up a much needed victory in his third match of the day, followed by a third win by fall from Lorimer.

West Central won five of the next six matches to build a 30-18 lead with Waters managing to snare a fall in the middle of the run.

Needing victories badly, the Eagles got additional pins from Shaffer and Harris while Williams and Hacker both scored hard-earned decision victories.

Though South Putnam led 36-30, the Eagles' second forfeit had yet to be accounted for, effectively leaving the match tied with the Trojans 36-36 with the 106 pound weight class to go.

Vittetow erased any doubts about the victory with a 10-0 major decision that secured a third-place finish for South Putnam.

Hendrickson was full of praise for the squad's effort on the day and said that it needed all 12 wrestlers in the lineup to do well in each match.

"The big guys carried the weight today but our little guys hung in well, too," Hendrickson said. "It was a great team effort today and we had clutch performances from a lot of guys.

"The seniors wrestled very well. They are the reason we're here and they brought it today. They proved why we were supposed to be here."

After a strong showing at the State Duals and the Ben Davis Giant 16, Hendrickson said that the squad needed to harness the momentum and continue improving over the next month.

"Hopefully, we can keep this momentum going all the way to the sectional," Hendrickson said. "We've had some time off for our bodies to heal up and we're looking to peak at the right time in the season.

"We've still got matches with Plainfield and Avon as well as the WCC meet to come. We've got a long time until sectionals but that means a lot of opportunities to improve until then."



At Westfield
IHSHCA State Duals
Meet Scores

1st Round
South Putnam 41, Fremont 39

Semi-final
Churubusco 46, South Putnam 30

3rd Place Match
South Putnam 40, West Central 36

Individual Results
106 -- Kieffer Vittetow 3-0
120 -- Nick Owen 1-2
126 -- Jacob Lorimer 3-0
132 -- Levi Whitaker 0-3
145 -- Andrew Ballard 0-3
152 -- Dakota Bunten 0-3
160 -- Joe Waters 3-0
170 -- Cody Wyatt 0-3
182 -- Kyle Shaffer 3-0
195 -- Rudy Harris 3-0
225 -- Jacob Williams 3-0
285 -- Lane Hacker 3-0

Next Match: South Putnam will participate in the Monrovia Invitational next Saturday.

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