Tiger Cubs claim WCC championship

Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Greencastle wrestling team won the West Central Conference championship Saturday at Cloverdale. Members of the winning team were Will Mobley, Jesse Vermillion, Carter Lewis, Nick Pingleton, Devin Mooney, Riley Boswell, Tyler Hudson, Hunter Smith, Nikko Hayden and Blain Fenwick.

CLOVERDALE -- The Greencastle wrestling team had five individual champions en route to its second straight West Central Conference championship Saturday. Cloverdale came in third on the day, with North Putnam finishing fourth and South Putnam fifth.

Saturday's win was the product of the Tiger Cubs putting in the time on the mat and continuing to improve as their season has progressed. Head coach Matt McComish acknowledged that fact and said his team is now setting its sights on bigger things.

"We did a good job today," he said. "We've shown a lot of improvement as the year's gone on. We started out kind of slow, but we picked it up and we've been working and working and working and it shows... That next step is to keep working and go get sectional and get as many through to regional as we can."

It was North Putnam's Tyler Ruble that got the county's strong wrestling performances going with a pin over Cloverdale's Nick Schwomeyer in the 103-weight class. That was followed up with wins from Cloverdale's Shawn Shipp (112) and Jeremy Boldman (119).

Greencastle's five individual wins began with Kody Collins in the 135-weight class. Collins battled North Putnam's Mike Smith in one of seven championship matches that features wrestlers from schools in Putnam County.

Collins was able to gain the upper hand and defeat Smith with a major decision 13-1. Cloverdale's Donnie Helterbrand picked up a win for the Clovers at 145, defeating Monrovia's Dalton Clements by major decision 16-6. His teammate Matt Hall won the 160-weight class after pinning South Putnam's Andy Waters.

Tiger Cub wrestler Carter Lewis pinned Cloverdale's Tyde Frederick at 152 and teammate Nikko Hayden pinned South Putnam's Jesse Gardner in the 189-weight class. Will Mobley won by decision over Eric Davis 8-3.

Perhaps the most exciting match of the day belonged to Greencastle's Jesse Vermillion. Vermillion battled Cascade's Justin Helmick in the 215-weight class and the two titans had to go to overtime to decide it. As the whistle blew, both wrestlers wasted little time engaging one another, but it was Vermillion who took advantage.

Vermillion was unable to get Helmick to the mat, but after a few unsuccessful tries, he was able to spin behind the wrestler to score two points and earn the championship.

Cloverdale finished in third place and head coach Steve Livingston and the Clovers felt the sting of having two weight classes unfilled.

"Overall we wrestled well, but when you only score points in eight of the 14 weight classes it is difficult to win tournaments," he said. "We will use the results from this tournament to help us prepare for sectionals."

North Putnam head coach Kenny Kerns was proud of his team's fourth place finish on the day.

"We had a couple surprises that didn't make that I thought they would, but overall -- we just scrapped," Kerns said. "A fourth place and that's good for us. The kids were happy about it; of course you always want to win. You have to take the good with the bad and we actually came to wrestle today.

"Of course we have a few things that we worked on that went right over their head, but we'll go back and try it again," he continued. "We'll work on some things for Tuesday night against Turkey Run and then of course our senior night Wednesday night."

Greencastle rebounded well after finishing second at the Putnam County Tournament to come away with the conference win. McComish was frustrated with things following the county tournament, but has been pleased with how his team has responded.

"County was frustrating," he acknowledged. "The guys weren't happy, I wasn't real happy with the way we wrestled, but we took a look at it and we made improvement the way we needed to improve. We really can't stay stagnant here, we have to keep going forward."

North Putnam will travel to Turkey Run tonight at 6:30 p.m., while Greencastle will travel to Speedway at 6 p.m. Cloverdale will host Southmont tonight at 6:30 p.m. South Putnam will be off until the Avon Sectional Jan. 29.

At Cloverdale

1. Greencastle 194, 2. Cascade 170.50, 3. Cloverdale 151.50, 4. North Putnam 114.50, 5. South Putnam 109.50, 6. Monrovia 93

Individual Results

103 -- Tyler Ruble (NP) FALL Nick Schwomeyer (CHS)

112 -- Shawn Shipp (CHS) FALL Skyler Pintor (CAS)

119 -- Jeremy Boldman (CHS) Dec. Nick PIngleton (GHS) 10-4

125 -- Zach Batts (CAS) T-FALL Joe Waters (SP) 16-1

130 -- Kalob Heald (CAS) M-DEC. Eldin Hesslegrave (CHS) 9-1

135 -- Kody Collins (GHS) M-DEC. Mike Smith (NP) 13-1

140 -- Kevin Giza (MON) DEC. Tyler Hudson (GHS) 9-3

145 -- Donnie Helterbrand (CHS) M-DEC. Dalton Clements (MON) 16-6

152 -- Carter Lewis (GHS) FALL Tyde Frederick (CHS)

160 -- Matt Hall (CHS) FALL Andy Waters (SP)

171 -- Nikko Hayden (GHS) FALL Jesse Gardner (SP)

189 -- Cyle Hill (CAS) M-DEC. Tanner Thompson (SP) 11-3

215 -- Jesse Vermillion (GHS) Dec. Justin Helmick (CAS)

285 -- Will Mobley (GHS) DEC. Eric Davis (NP)

- Overtime match