Thirteen County wrestlers advance

By DAN SHELTON

Sports Writer

AVON -- Many attended, but only few moved on.

On Saturday, the four Putnam County high schools took part in the 10 high school Avon Wrestling Sectional and a large number of the wrestlers will make the trip to Mooresville this weekend for the regional.

None of the school's won the sectional, but North Putnam and Greencastle did have a few individual champions.

Chris Pingleton and Robert Bittles of Greencastle won their respective weight classes to become 2006 sectional champions. Pingleton won the 145-pound class with a 14-5 major decision over Josh Tuner of Plainfield to maintain his unblemished record of 40-0.

'It's great to win, but I still have more to do,' Pingleton said following the meet.

Bittles defeated Angelo Evans of Plainfield for the 160-pound championship in a close, 7-5, decision.

The Tiger Cubs also have one more individual, Chase Dunigan, advancing to the Mooresville Regional. Dunigan finished third in the heavyweight division. The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the regional.

'I figure we have a couple more advancing, but three going isn't bad,' GHS Coach Russ Hesler said. 'Having two champions out of 10 teams and 14 weight classes isn't bad.'

One other wrestler from Putnam County maintained a perfect record after Saturday's meet, as North Putnam's Emmett Boruff won the heavyweight championship with a 6-4 decision over Ben Black of Danville to claim his first sectional championship.

Boruff was the only member of the Cougars wrestling team to win a sectional championship this year.

'I'm pretty happy about this and I will be ecstatic if I go to semistate,' he said. 'I'm just happy that I am going to regional.'

With his win, Boruff improved his record to 30-0 and he plans on to keep working hard.

'I'm just going to work as hard as I can and go as far as I can,' Boruff said. 'I am just happy I am going again.'

The Cougars had three other wrestlers advance to the Mooresville regional in A.J Brewer, C.J. Spencer and Jacob Stigall. Brewer finished second in the 140-pound class while Spencer placed third in the 125-pound class and Stigall finished fourth in the 189-pound division.

NPHS Coach Kenny Kerns has been having his best coaching season this year and his team's performance Saturday just added to it.

'It's been a good year and I have a great bunch kids,' Kerns said. 'We could have wrestled better, but we didn't do to bad against these big schools.

'We came up here and put on a good showing and the kids didn't want to come up here and make a statement, but show that they could compete with the bigger schools,' Kerns said.

Pingleton and Boruff were the only two wrestlers to leave the Avon Sectional with perfect records.

The other two Putnam County schools, South Putnam and Cloverdale, didn't have any champions but are sending a few wrestlers to Mooresville.

For the Eagles, Jon Parker, Seth Green and Brad Bunten advanced to the next meet. Parker placed third in the 152-pound class with his 8-2 decision over Josh Hatten of Cloverdale who will be advancing for the Clovers in the same division. Green finished fourth in the 119-pound class while Bunten finished in fourth in the 160-pound class.

Despite not having any champions, SPHS Coach Scott Miller was optimistic about his Eagle team for next year.

'We're young and we have a lot of guys coming back and hopefully we can do a better job coaching and get them prepared for the sectional next year,' he said.

Even though he is optimistic about next year, Miller didn't think the Eagles did their best Saturday.

'I don't think we wrestled that well and we had a big let down from last week, but the ones who made it out wrestled well,' Miller said

Joining Hatten from Cloverdale will be Zach Waycott and Alex Gardner. Waycott finished fourth in the 103-pound class while Gardner was runner-up in the 189-pound division.

'We're taking three into the regional and that is one more than last year,' CHS Coach Brian Siddons said. 'And this group is a young group. They just need to get some experience under their belt.'

All the wrestlers that advanced will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Mooresville High School for the regional bracket of the IHSAA tournament.

At Avon

Avon Wrestling Sectional

Team Scores -- 1. Plainfield 260, 2. Avon 241, 3. Brownsburg 227, 4. Geencastle 122, 5. North Putnam 117.50, 6. South Putnam 97, 7. Danville 94, 8. Tri-West 72, 9. Cascade 68.50, 10. Cloverdale 65.50

Championship Round

103 -- Wittman (PL) dec. Stiener (AV) 11-3

112 -- Keers (AV) pin Hechinger (BR) 4:37

119 -- Hateli (BR) dec. Haines (SV) 3-2

125 -- Patrick (PL) dec. Denton (CA) 8-2

130 -- Heath (BR) dec. Walbert (DA) 12-2

135 -- Myers (AV) dec. Carpenter (BR) 9-5

140 -- Carlucci (PL) Tech Fall Brewer (NP) 21-6

145 -- Pingleton (GC) dec. Turner (PL) 14-5

152 -- Johnson (AV) dec. Meehan (BR) 11-5

160 -- Bittles (GC) dec. Evans (PL) 7-5

171 -- Johnson (AV) dec. Ward (PL) 8-4

189 -- Russell (PL) dec. Gardiner (CL) 12-7

215 -- Tucker (BR) dec. Moffitt (PL) 12-9

275 -- Boruff (NP) dec.Black (DA) 6-4

Next Match -- All advancing wrestlers will travel to Mooresville High School for the Regional on Saturday.