Putnam County wrestlers advance to Regional meet

Sunday, February 1, 2015
South Putnam's Kyle Shaffer tries a takedown against Cloverdale's Jacob Gibson. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

AVON--Nine Putnam County wrestlers survived a grueling day at the IHSAA Avon Wrestling Sectional Saturday, advancing to the regional round at Mooresville High School next week.

South Putnam led the charge for the county schools, placing fifth overall and advancing five wrestlers, while Greencastle finished sixth and supplies the other four regional qualifiers.

North Putnam had five individual place finishers on the day while Cloverdale had three wrestlers place on the podium. Both schools have two wrestlers that will prepare as alternates.

Ryley Cook of Greencastle tries to gain control of the match against a Brownsburg wrestler. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

Avon won the overall team title, claiming six individual champions to edge out second place Brownsburg 267.5-252 while Ben Davis finished third.

No. 10 Kyle Shaffer was the lone sectional champion from the four schools, defeating Avon's No. 11 Evan Elmore for the second time in a week-and-a-half, 13-7 at 182 pounds.

Joe Masters placed second at 285 pounds, knocking off No. 13 Brett Henson of Avon 3-2 before falling in the final to No. 2 Norman Oglesby of Ben Davis.

Greencastle's Andrew Ruiz (back) holds down Reuben Edwards of North Putnam in Saturday's match. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

Kieffer Vittetow placed fourth at 120 pounds, as did Jacob Lorimer at 126 pounds and Bradley Ballard at 220 pounds. Cody Wyatt and Will Cruse placed fifth at 170 and 195 pounds, respectively, while Levi Whitaker took sixth at 138 pounds.

South Putnam head coach Josh Hendrickson said the squad overcame some early struggles to have a solid outing.

"It was a good day," Hendrickson said. "I thought we could get as many as eight people out but we still got five out, which is impressive.

"I thought the kids wrestled well. Some kids started off a little sluggish and I don't know if they were shell-shocked or what, but they came back and wrestled well."

Hendrickson pointed out the five advancing wrestlers and noted that each had a difficult road to get through the sectional.

"Joey Masters had a huge match in the semi-finals against (Brett Henson), who he just lost to a week-and-a-half ago at our dual meet," Hendrickson said. "He told me after that meet he thought he could beat that kid, came out today, wrestled well and beat a quality opponent and also gave (Norman Oglesby) a run for his money for a little while.

"There were a lot of people who thought his first match with Elmore was a fluke. He proved that wrong today.

"One senior, Bradley Ballard, made it out, which was his goal," Hendrickson added. "His goal was to make it to regional and he wrestled well to do it.

"Kieffer Vittetow probably wrestled the day of his life today and had to beat (Bailey Chatterton) to advance. Jacob Lorimer beat (Michael Anderson) to get out and as one of our captains, he deserved to do well and be able to advance."

Greencastle picked up four fourth-place finishes through Keaton Boswell at 106 pounds, Ryley Cook at 113 pounds, Trae Carrington at 132 pounds and Andrew Ruiz at 170 pounds.

James Brown finished fifth at 160 pounds while sixth-place finishes were picked up by Michael Anderson at 126 pounds, Cade Winslow at 195 pounds, Braden Lady at 220 pounds and Joe January at 285 pounds.

Greencastle head coach Charlie Pingleton said the team had a good idea of where they stood and what they needed to do next season.

"They did good today," Pingleton said. "We're young and our goal is to get better each weekend.

"I think the guys are starting to buy into it and they finally got to see some really good competition this year. Now they know where they want to be next year.

"Some of these guys wrestled tough with really good kids," Pingleton added. "They wrestled state qualifiers and hung with them, so they know they can be as good as them.

"That builds confidence and helps us get ready for regionals and from here on out."

North Putnam claimed a pair of fifth-place finishes through Jacob Plessinger at 132 pounds and Bobby Scheele at 220 pounds while sixth-place finishes went to Terran Wittig at 106 pounds, Jacob Scott at 113 pounds and David Flanelly at 182 pounds.

Cougar head coach Bucky Kramer felt the young squad held their own.

"It was a good showing for us today," Kramer said. "We had five fifth and sixth-place finishers and while we're not happy with those places, we knew with this young a team that would be the case.

"In terms of seeing this sectional, it's big, but as the season has progressed we have seen high-level competition," Kramer pointed out. "We wrestled Lafayette Harrison, who was in the (Indiana Crossroads Conference) with Avon and Brownsburg until last year, and they could give Avon a run for their money right now.

"Give credit to Avon, Ben Davis and Brownsburg and to the other schools with their very good individual wrestlers."

Kramer added that though the team would only have two alternates going to the regional, the squad was already buzzing about the offseason.

"Our kids were over in the stands already asking when club wrestling starts," Kramer said. "They're ready to go right now and we're happy with them.

"We know that we have a bunch of kids that are going to work hard and not only stick with the program but stick with the sport in general. We have a lot of parent and community support, so things are moving in the right direction."

Nick Blundell and Jacob Gibson finished fifth for Cloverdale at 152 and 182 pounds, respectively while Jackson Szczerbik finished sixth at 145 pounds.

Clover head coach Christian Frye said he was hoping a few wrestlers would hold their seed to advance.

"I felt like it was a rough day," Frye said. "We didn't wrestle up to our potential.

"We had three four-seeds and one unseeded wrestler but we were wrestling for fifth-place and alternate spots, which was disappointing. We have to build on what we have."

Frye felt the squad's efforts over the season and in the sectional would setup a solid foundation for the following season.

"We try to make sure that our schedule is tough so it's not a culture shock coming in here," Frye said. "There are some really great wrestlers here.

"There are a lot of top-10 kids here, so it's a tough sectional. The kids see a lot of really great wrestling here and we've seen a lot of these teams throughout the year so hopefully it will correlate into more success next year."

For the remaining wrestlers, another week of practice is in order. Pingleton said the early week would be physical preparation while the latter half of the week would look more at the mental side of the matches.

"Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we'll get after it pretty hard," Pingleton said. "Thursday we'll start tapering down and try to get mentally prepared."

Hendrickson noted that finding out who the wrestlers would face would be important but practice would feature more of the same work the squad had done all season.

"We'll need to find out who we're wrestling because at Mooresville, the first match is to advance to the semi-state," Hendrickson noted. "We'll see what we can get on them and do the same old thing.

"We'll go back to the grind, do the basics and get them ready to go.


At Avon

IHSAA Avon Wrestling Sectional

Team Scores

No. 11 Avon 267.50, No. 20 Brownsburg 252, No. 11 Ben Davis 186, Danville 133.50, South Putnam 103, Greencastle 82.50, Tri-West 69, Cascade 50, North Putnam 38, Cloverdale 27

Individual Champions

106 -- No. 9 Mason Miranda (A)

113 -- No. 16 Jacob Skaggs (A)

120 -- No. 5 Brock Hudkins (D)

126 -- No. 3 Elliot Molloy (D)

132 -- No. 2 Brayton Lee (BR)

138 -- Nick Weddle (BD)

145 -- Keaton Fainter (A)

152 -- Marcus Miranda (A)

160 -- No. 6 Brendon Helm (A)

170 -- No. 1 Dylan Lydy (BD)

182 -- No. 10 Kyle Shaffer (SP)

195 -- Issac McCormick (BR)

220 -- No. 5 Gunnar Larson (A)

185 -- No. 2 Norman Oglesby (BD)

Match-ups for Mooresville Regional

106 -- Keaton Boswell (G) v Tony Mosconi (Indian Creek)

113 -- Ryley Cook (G) v Kadin Poe (Decatur Central)

120 -- Kieffer Vittetow (SP) v No. 14 Isaac Gomez (Plainfield)

126 -- Jacob Lorimer (SP) v Brody Boles (Mooresville)

132 -- Trae Carrington (G) v Mitch Anderson (Mooresville)

170 -- Andrew Ruiz (G) v No. 5 Jacob Stevenson (Franklin Community)

182 -- No. 10 Kyle Shaffer (SP) v Ivan Wray (Monrovia)

220 -- Bradley Ballard (SP) v Dristin McCubbins (Monrovia)

285 -- Joe Masters (SP) v Gavin Fuqua (Greenwood)

Next Meet: The remaining Putnam County wrestlers will compete in the Mooresville Regional next Saturday.

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