Tiger Cubs power through illness in Holiday Tournament; JV grapplers step up

Monday, December 21, 2009
Jesse Vermillion stands up and tries to break free from his Sullivan opponent in the 160-pound match Saturday at McAnally.

GREENCASTLE -- Even though Greencastle had a few of their key wrestlers out of commission due to being under the weather, the Tiger Cubs put on a solid performance at their annual Holliday Classic Saturday afternoon.

The Tiger Cubs finished the day with a 3-1 overall record with their only loss on the day coming in the their match with South Vermillion. The Wildcats topped Greencastle 42-34.

"All the matches were real difficult and real close today," GHS coach Matt McComish said. "We beat Monrovia by a point and the match with Sullivan came down to the last few matches. The matches were real real close and there wasn't an easy one all day."

Greencastle turned out three individual champions with perfect 4-0 records in Nick Pingleton in the 103-pound class, Trevor Teal in the 125-pound class and Jesse Ford in the 171-pound class. Even though he only had three champions, McComish was impressed with his whole team.

"We had a few guys go 4-0 and some went 3-1 and even the guys who were 2-2 on the day wrestled really hard," McComish said. "We had some JV guys step up today because we are kind of beat up right now. We also had several guys who were under the weather right now. But we did what we could with our lineup and we wrestled hard."

One of the guys who stepped up was Kyle Kelly. Kelly, who usually wrestles the 103-pound class jumped up to 112 where he went 3-1 on the day. Dustin Law, Greencastle's 112 pounder jumped up to 119 to fill in for Jody Kollins who was out for the day. He finished 2-2 for the day.

Riley Boswell, a freshman, also jumped a weight class. He wrestled the 130-pound division, filling in for Tyler Hudson who was another Tiger Cub who was out sick. He finished with a 1-3 record.

Another freshman who stepped up big for Greencastle was Blaine Fenwick. He replaced Ben Hesler in the 189-pound class and amassed a 3-1 record for the day.

"I was definitely happy with the performances we had today," McComish said. "Our freshmen are still stepping up and they are getting better day and they keep coming into the wrestling room to work everyday."

The JV and freshmen wrestlers weren't the only ones who McComish noticed an improvement in. Ford's 4-0 performance Saturday stood out to McComish just as much as his underclassmen going 3-1.

"He is having a good year," McComish said about Ford. "I think last week when we went down to Jasper for that tournament and wrestled that kind of competition; he saw what he needs to step it up even more. And he did this week. He worked really hard all week."

But the one match that impressed McComish the most was Jesse Vermillion's 160-pound match against Sullivan.

"Sullivan's wrestler is ranked in the top 10 in the state and Jesse only lost to him by one point," McComish said. "He is getting were we want him to be. Now he has to keep working and take the next step and he's going in that direction and getting better and better each day."

At McAnally

Team Scores

Greencastle 65, Covington 9; Greencastle 42, Monrovia 41; Greencastle 42, Sullivan 39; Greencastle 34, South Vermillion 42

Individual records

103 -- Pingleton 4-0

112 -- Kelly 3-1

119 -- Law 2-2

125 -- Teal 4-0

130 -- Boswell 1-3

140 -- Lewis 2-2, Mundy 2-2

160 -- Vermillion 2-2

171 -- Ford 4-0

189 -- Fenwick 3-1

215 -- Hayden 2-2

HWT -- Mobley 3-1