Cougars host Senior Night

Brandon Binnion is the lone senior for the North Putnam Cougars. He finished his regular season with two wins. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

ROACHDALE--The North Putnam wrestling team hosted its final regular season match of the year Thursday night against the Cascade Cadets and came away with a 40-37 win on an Alan Aynes final match pin.

With the match came senior night for lone Cougar senior, Brandon Binnion. The 220-pound weight class wrestler is competing in wrestling for his second year but he has family experience to back that up. He received a forfeit, but pinned a Cadet in exhibition.

"Brandon, for me, has meant personally a lot," NPHS coach Bucky Kramer said. "Between his, family he has something like 40 years of wrestling experience and a couple of state championships. He is a kid who didn't come out for sports his freshman year, but decided he wanted to play football his sophomore year. After that he wrestled his junior year. He really wanted to do this, so he came to all of our camps and all of our workouts. He just works. If I could say anything about him, it's he's a worker. He comes from a good family."

In the three years that Kramer has coached he had never beaten Cascade until Thursday. Earlier in the year they lost to Cascade and he felt that the Cougars rebounded nicely.

"For the team it's big so that we can show we can improve," Kramer said. "It's big for the program to show constant improvement. It's apparent the way the kids have worked. We still only have one kid who won't be back next year, so it shows our ability to grow over the next year."

North Putnam had been down, but the final matches went to the Cougars. Aynes of the 285-pound class, came to center mat down 37-34 for the last event. He pinned Seth Bethel with his team cheering him on. Even Kramer was jumping up and down.

"At one point there was a 12-point swing," Kramer said. "They (Cascade) were up 34-22 and then we got a forfeit and two straight wins. It was big. I want to say Zach Culberson and David Flannelly really did well for us. Even though they lost we tell our kids sometimes a loss is as good as a win. They didn't get pinned and that helped keep those extra bonus points from Cascade."

As Kramer said, Culberson and Flannelly did a good job by not getting pinned. It saved their team a victory because instead of four points the victor would have gotten six.

Also getting wins for the Cougars were Terran Wittig, Trae Straziscar, Jacob Plessinger, Dillon Binnion and Bobby Scheele.

The Cougars get a week off before they hit sectionals. They face a tough format that includes both Brownsburg and Avon. Putnam County as a whole is trying to make strides to beating them Kramer said.

"A lot of positioning and conditioning (to prepare)," Kramer said. "They're not going to learn anything in this next week that they'll put in their tool box. They need to refine mistakes. If they have an opportunity, take it."

At North Putnam

North Putnam 40

106- Wittig NP- win by FF

113- Fox C def. Kimble NP by pin

120- Hudson C def. Culberson by points.

126- Straziscar NP def. Griffith C by points

132- Plessinger NP def. Donovan C by pin

138- Long C def. Winings NP by pin

145- Cooper C- win by FF

152- Binnion NP def. Gordan C by pin

160- Turner C def. Kimes NP by pin

170 Wheat C def. Edwards NP by pin

182- Van Ness C- def. Flannelly by points

195- Binnion NP win by FF

220- Scheele NP def. Church C by pin

285- Aynes NP def. Bethel C by pin