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Cloverdale wins County wrestling title
CLOVERDALE -- If Thursday was any indication, the state of wrestling is as strong as ever in Putnam County. All four county schools battled it out at Cloverdale, with the host Clovers coming out on top with a 3-0 record on the night. Greencastle was second by going 2-1, South Putnam third at 1-2 and North Putnam went 0-3.
Cloverdale came out strong and rode that wave of momentum to the Putnam County championship. They also placed six wrestlers on the All-Putnam County team, which pleased head coach Steve Livingston.
"I think that, obviously, I'm happy with the six All-Putnam County kids," he said. "We had six guys in 14 weight classes, so almost half of the team was filled by Cloverdale guys. That's a good accomplishment for not only our guys on the team, but their practice partners getting them there."
Shawn Shipp (112), Donnie Helterbrand (130), Jeff Couse (135), Zach Waycott (140), Lee Secrest (160) and Scott Mayhew (189) were Cloverdale's individual champions. It was Mayhew's first match of the year and Waycott was awarded his fourth All-Putnam County honor.
For Greencastle, it was a difficult night. They knew, due to forfeits, that it would take an almost perfect evening. They fought, came away with four champions and a second place finish.
"We're disappointed, we wanted to come out with a win," GHS head coach Matt McComish said. "We made some mistakes and were giving up forfeits, so we knew that we basically had to wrestle perfect matches in order to win the whole thing and we didn't do that. We just have to get ready for conference and sectional."
GHS wrestlers Trevor Teal (125), Jesse Vermillion (152), Jesse Ford (171), Jacob Wright (215) all went 3-0 to earn honors. McComish commented on how the Tiger Cubs will look to build upon their strong showing Thursday and be ready for its upcoming meets.
"Positives, we had four champions that did a good job. Jacob Wright won a good match at 215," he said. "We just have to keep working."
When asked what GHS needs to focus on, their coach thinks his team needs to go back to what they do best.
"Fundamentals. You know, we're getting away from basic wrestling and we just need to get back to it," he said.
The Eagles field a very young squad, and head coach Todd Crosby felt he saw some true grit out of his team. They fought hard and when all was said and done, they had clinched third place.
"They kept working," Crosby said. "When you have nine freshmen and you have three other kids that haven't wrestled before -- today I was really pleased. They just did a good job and kept at it the whole time. Extremely pleased with the effort they all put into it."
South Putnam had two seniors and a freshman capture individual titles on the night. Seniors Antonio Hernandez (145) and Chris Hurst (285) ended their final county championship with All-County honors, while freshman T.J. Franklin captured the 119 title.
Crosby voiced how pleased we was with his champions after the meet and acknowledged the heart of one of his veteran grapplers.
"I felt bad for Logan Kinney, he may have broken his ankle before it all started. He wanted to stay and keep wrestling," Crosby commented. Kinney injured his ankle prior to the start of competition and wrestled on it for a 2-1 record and second place at 160.
North Putnam had a single champion on the night and head coach Kenny Kerns thinks the future looks bright for his Cougar squad. The Cougars went 0-3 on the night, but Kerns tried to keep things in perspective.
"Yeah I'm disappointed, but I look at the roster and nine of the 10 are freshman and sophomores," he noted. "I'm excited about the future, but we're just not being aggressive and I don't understand it. We work hard in practice, we wrestled hard in practice, but for some reason we're having trouble transferring it from practice to the meet -- and it drives me up a wall."
It was Tyler Ruble who gave North their lone champion on the night in a battle with Eldin Hesselgrave at 103.
Both wrestlers are having banner years and when the tiny titans collided, something had to give. Ruble and Hesselgrave went at each other for three periods, with Ruble coming away with a 9-4 win and the title.
Livingston believes the rivalry between the two could create an atmosphere that both wrestlers can flourish in.
"You always like to find a guy like that (Tyler Ruble) close to where you live to push you and get you to that next level," he said. "If they do it right, they will feed off each other and both of them will be better and they'll represent our county well come state tournament time.
"Obviously I'm at Cloverdale and want to see good thing for Cloverdale, but wrestling is bigger than Cloverdale. If the level of wresting at all the schools in Putnam County goes up, our level is going to go up because we want to compete," Livingston added.
Kerns couldn't be more in agreement and thinks that when wrestlers storm into sectional, they will be making some noise.
"I think come sectional time, I think they will be shocked at our county -- I really do," he said.
Cloverdale will travel to South Vermillion at 9 a.m. Saturday, while Greencastle will compete at the Avon Tourney at 9 a.m. Saturday. South Putnam will be at the Monrovia Invite at 8:30 p.m. and North Putnam will host Rockville at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
At Cloverdale
Putnam County Wrestling Meet
Team Results
Cloverdale 3-0, Greencastle 2-1, South Putnam 1-2, North Putnam 0-3
Individual Champions
103 -- Tyler Ruble (NP) 3-0
112 -- Shawn Shipp (CHS) 3-0
119 -- T.J. Franklin (SP) 3-0
125 -- Trevor Teal (GHS) 3-0
130 -- Donnie Helterbrand (CHS) 3-0
135 -- Jeff Couse (CHS) 3-0
140 -- Zach Waycott (CHS) 3-0
145 -- Antonio Hernandez (SP) 3-0
152 -- Jesse Vermillion (GHS) 3-0
160 -- Lee Secrest (CHS) 3-0
171 -- Jesse Ford (GHS) 3-0
189 -- Scott Mayhew (CHS) 3-0
215 -- Jacob Wright (GHS) 3-0
285 -- Chris Hurst (SP) 3-0
Next game -- Cloverdale will travel to South Vermillion at 9 a.m. Saturday, while Greencastle will compete at the Avon Tourney at 9 a.m. Saturday. South Putnam will be at the Monrovia Invite at 8:30 p.m. and North Putnam will host Rockville at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.