GHS Tiger Cubs take home county wrestling team title

Individual champions for the 2012 Putnam County wrestling tournament included Ryley Cook, Nick Havey, Jacob Lorimer, Dean Kleiber, Jordan Sanders, Jacob Camacho, Riley Boswell, Joe Waters, Aaron Langdon, Carter Lewis, Hunter Smith, Rudy Harris and Lane Hacker. Blaine Fenwick is not picutred. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

CLOVERDALE -- The Greencastle High School wrestling team won its second straight Putnam County wrestling championship on Thursday, finishing with a 3-0 team record and earning seven individual county champions.

Tiger Cubs senior Carter Lewis (170) won his fourth consecutive county title.

"It was a good win for us, but we've got to keep looking forward," GHS coach Matt McComish said. "It's always good to win county. We knew we had some tough teams to wrestle when we came in, and we knew it was going to be close

Greencastle's Hunter Smith (black) got the worst of this exchange with South Putnam's Tanner Thompson, but Smith was able to recover to win the match and win his second straight county championship. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

"It was a tough fight all night all night and I'm glad we came away with a win."

Ryley Cook (106), Jordan Sanders (113), Riley Boswell (145), Aaron Langdon (160), Hunter Smith (182) and Blaine Fenwick (220) also won titles for GHS.

"All seven of them wrestled really well," McComish said. "We still have things we can improve on, but we're starting to do some things right. At this time of the season, that's what I want to see."

The South Putnam team finished second in the meet with a 2-1 record. They had six county champions: Nick Havey (113), Jacob Lorimer (120), Jacob Camacho (138), Joe Waters (152), Rudy Harris (195) and Lane Hacker (3-0).

"As a team we wrestled pretty well," SPHS coach Josh Hendrickson said. "(We've got to) fix the basics, work on the things that we've worked on and affect the things that we know."

Camacho won his second straight conference title, and also competed in the best match of the night, a battle with Greencastle's Nick Pingleton.

Tied at five after three rounds, the two battled through the sudden victory period and into the 30-second tiebreaker periods.

Camacho started in the defensive position, then slipped into a reversal. Neither could gain an upper hand in the time remaining and Camacho earned a 7-5 win by decision.

North Putnam finished the meet in third place and it was led by Dean Kleiber, who won his second-straight county title at 126 pounds.

The Cougars finished 1-2, equaling last year's county dual result.

"We had some good performances tonight," NPHS coach Bucky Kramer said. "It's tough on us when we're giving up four weight classes (to forfeit) off the top. You've got to stay happy with what we're seeing. Overall it's a good improvement."

Cloverdale rounded out the field, finishing 0-3 for the second consecutive year.

CHS coach Steven Livingston said his young team has a lot of room to grow.

"I don't think we looked nearly our best tonight," Livingston said. "We just try to stay positive and keep the guys working hard and focus on what really matters and that's the matches at the end of the season.

"Those are the matches that we keep telling our guys, keep your nose to the grind; keep getting better. Win those matches when they count at the end of the season. That's how you get your picture on the wall. That's how people remember you."

Havey, Waters, Smith and Harris each won their second straight county title.

Greencastle's Fenwick suffered an apparent neck injury in his bout against South Putnam's Jacob Williams. He was taken out on a stretcher.

The champion Tiger Cubs return to action Saturday when they host the Holiday Invitational on Saturday at 9 a.m. North Putnam hosts a dual meet with Rockville on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m.

South Putnam will compete in the state duals on Saturday, Dec. 22 at Westfield High School beginning at 9 a.m. Cloverdale is back when they compete at Ben Davis High School on Thursday, Dec. 27 at 8 a.m.

Complete individual results will be included in a future issue of the Banner Graphic.

At Cloverdale
2012-13 Putnam County Wrestling Tournament
1. Greencastle 3-0, 2. SPHS 2-1, 3. NPHS 1-2, 4. Cloverdale 0-3.