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Eagle wrestlers win Putnam County Championship
CLOVERDALE -- For the first time this season, all four Putnam County wrestling teams were under the same roof as Cloverdale hosted the 2014 Putnam County Wrestling Meet Thursday evening.
While action on the mat was the main attraction, maneuvers off the mat became a major subplot as South Putnam overcame three forfeits and the rest of the field to retain the county title.
The Eagles started off the night with a 60-12 win over the host Clovers, followed by narrow 42-38 win over runners-up Greencastle and finished the meet with a 51-30 win over North Putnam.
South Putnam also claimed the most individual county winners on the night as Kieffer Vittetow, Jacob Lorimer, Levi Whitaker, Dakota Bunten, Kyle Shaffer, Will Cruse and Joey Masters took the tops spots in their weight classes.
Eagle head coach Josh Hendrickson said the team had a solid effort throughout the night to defend the county title.
"I thought it went well tonight," Hendrickson said. "Jacob Lorimer had a huge match for us at 126 and some other guys stepped up and fought hard.
"We lost a lot of guys to graduation from last year but these guys have come in and been working hard in the wrestling room from day one. It's starting to show and we're starting to get some results from that.
"(North Putnam and Cloverdale) are young, but they have some good wrestlers," Hendrickson added. "I thought we wrestled well all night."
Greencastle was hampered by forfeits worse than the winners were by ceding six weight classes on the evening.
The Tiger Cubs won their opening match 48-36 over North Putnam before losing to South Putnam and finishing the night with a 39-18 win over Cloverdale.
Keaton Boswell, Ryley Cook, Michael Anderson, Andrew Ruiz and Braden Lady all picked up individual weight class wins while James Brown went undefeated on the night in two weight classes.
Greencastle head coach Charlie Pingleton said that having been dealt a lopsided hand with a number of wrestlers out, the team performed well enough to win the meet.
"We did good," Pingleton said. "We gave 36 points up and when you do that, you're not expected to win but we lost to South by one match.
"We've got little things to work on and get our guys healthy. We had one kid come down with the flu and another with ringworm, so there were two forfeits we didn't need to give up.
"I think we're heading in the right direction," Pingleton added. "We only gave up one pin on the night.
"Our goals tonight were to not give up any pins and to get pins. We got pins in every one of our first round matches and only lost two matches all night, which is pretty impressive."
North Putnam's sole team win of the night came over Cloverdale 54-27 in the middle round of the evening but was the only team shut out from having an individual champion.
Cougar head coach Bucky Cramer said his young team finished the night well but needed to get going much faster against good teams.
"What happened tonight is what I thought would happen coming in," Kramer said. "We're a team loaded with freshmen and sophomores and while we have a full squad, we're still really, really young and inexperienced in a lot of spots.
"For that to change, the kids have to continue to work through the course of the season, recognize the situations in front of them and continue to work on what we're coaching.
"Several kids did a nice job tonight," Kramer added. "Jacob Plessinger, Trae Straziscar and Gage Bell all did well for themselves tonight.
"A lot of our guys got better as the night went on. We need to be a team that starts quicker than what we are."
Cloverdale was only able to field five wrestlers and, as a result, would not be able to win any of the team match-ups but had two individual champions in Jackson Szczerbik and Payton Skadra.
Clover head coach Christian Frye said wrestling against several big hitters already this season paid dividends on the night.
"There are some bright spots with only having five guys tonight," Frye said. "Every one of the kids won against their North Putnam opponent and that's great.
"We're seeing progress with our kids with two county champions out of five wrestlers. Of course, we'd like more kids but I felt like the guys that were here wrestled really hard.
"We see tough competition all over, such as at Arsenal Tech and Newcastle," Frye added. "We've seen some good competition and that showed today because they wrestled better than if we would have stayed in smaller meets."
While the county schools adjourn for Christmas break after Friday, Greencastle and North Putnam have a meet Saturday to contend with.
The Cougars head to McCutcheon for the Kyle Osborn Memorial Duals and Kramer said the squad would be in for plenty of hard-nosed wrestling.
"Harrison always has a great squad," Kramer said. "They're tough, physical and they're going to get after it.
"We don't know a lot about Tipton or Lafayette Central Catholic but we know they'll be tough and physical as well and have a couple of solid individual wrestlers for us to compete against."
Greencastle, meanwhile, hosts the Greencastle Holiday Tournament and Pingleton said the team would have to overcome the same obstacles they faced Thursday night.
"Saturday will be similar to what we have here tonight," Pingleton said. "We'll have the same holes and will give up 36 points to other teams.
"We can't give up pins and we have to get pins. We're trying to get better individually and look towards where we want to be at the end of the season."
South Putnam and Cloverdale, meanwhile, return to action at the Ben Davis Giant Duals on the Saturday after Christmas.
Frye said the squad would need to stay sharp during the downtime.
"We need the guys to stay in good shape, keep practicing their skills, work on fundamentals and not get lackadaisical over the long break," Frye said. "It's a hard break but I think we're ready to go when and we want to keep going."
Hendrickson, meanwhile, noted that in the big picture, several potential match-ups could have far-reaching effects for the sectional draw down the road.
"Practice is always tough over the break," Hendrickson said. "We basically get tomorrow and three days next week to prepare for that.
"There's some major sectional implications at that meet and we'd love to get the guys quality matches. You've got to wrestle the best to beat the best and hopefully we get some good ones.
"We'd like to have some team success while we're there," Hendrickson added. "We'll give up some forfeits and that will be tougher against some bigger schools but we're looking forward to some quality mat time for the wrestlers."
At Cloverdale
Putnam County Wrestling Meet
Team Results
First Round
South Putnam 60, Cloverdale 12
Greencastle 48, North Putnam 36
Second Round
South Putnam 42, Greencastle 38
North Putnam 54, Cloverdale 27
Third Round
South Putnam 51, North Putnam 30
Greencastle 39, Cloverdale 18
Individual Champions
106: Keaton Boswell (G)
113: Ryley Cook (G)
120: Kieffer Vittetow (SP)
126: Jacob Lorimer (SP)
132: Michael Anderson (G)
138: Levi Whitaker (SP)
145: Jackson Szczerbik (C)
152: Dakota Bunten (SP)
160: Payton Skadra (C)
170: Andrew Ruiz (G)
182: Will Cruse (SP)
195: Kyle Shaffer (SP)
220: Braden Lady (G)
285: Joey Masters (SP)