Cloverdale captures county title

Friday, December 17, 2010
The Cloverdale wrestling team won the 2010 Putnam County Wrestling Tournament Thursday with a record of 3-0. They also had seven wrestlers named to the All-County squad. Members of the Cloverdale team are Nick Schwomeyer, Shawn Shipp, Kyle Everhart, Jeremy Boldman, Andrew Beatty, Kyle Mannion, Eldin Hesselgrave, Donnie Sandusky, Chris Routh, Jeff Couse, Donnie Helterbrand, Justin Grever, Tyde Frederick, Alex Law, John Smith, Michael Gramer, Matt Hall, Zach Couse, Cody Stout, Kody Kohler, Kurt Davis, Joey Schwomeyer, Conner Rooksberry, Braxtyn Sinclair and Devon Bassett.

CLOVERDALE -- Coming off its third place finish in last year's Putnam County Tournament, Cloverdale was poised to surprise some people. The Clovers took top honors in 2010, with seven wrestlers being named All-County.

"Coming in we knew we had the potential to win it. I don't know if you look at the past, what you did last year to decide who will be the favorite, obviously we wouldn't have been the favorite coming in," CHS head coach Steve Livingston said.

"We didn't know what the other schools had to offer, we didn't know what their wrestlers are like, but we knew what ours were like and we knew he had the talent to win county," he added.

Cloverdale won the tournament with a record of 3-0, followed by Greencastle at 2-1, South Putnam at 1-2 and North Putnam at 0-3. Greencastle had four wrestlers named All-County, while South Putnam added two and North Putnam added one.

The first round of matches ran an hour-and-a-half, with many matches going three periods. In the opening round, Greencastle defeated North Putnam 49-24 and Cloverdale downed South Putnam 60-21.

In the second round, South Putnam took care of North Putnam 43-30 and Cloverdale defeated Greencastle 48-30. Cloverdale rounded out its night with a win over North Putnam 58-24 in the third round and GHS was victorious over South Putnam 48-25.

Cloverdale wrestlers named to the All-County squad were Shawn Shipp (112), Jeremy Boldman (119), Eldin Hesselgrave (130), Jeff Couse (140), Donnie Helterbrand (145), Tyde Frederick (152) and Matt Hall (171).

Greencastle wrestlers earning the honor were Kody Collins (135), Carter Lewis (160), Jesse Vermillion (215) and Will Mobley (285). South Putnam had Joe Waters (125) and Tanner Thompson (189) make the team, while North Putnam placed Tyler Ruble (103) on the squad.

The night didn't go by without injury. In the 160 weight class, Greencastle's Carter Lewis and South Putnam's Andy Waters were doing battle. After a stoppage in the match, Waters staggered slightly and raised his hands to his face in the area of his jaw.

A minute passed by and when the referee came over, Waters grabbed his headgear and finished the match. It was learned following the match that Waters might have suffered a broken jaw during the match. Shortly after the tournament ended, Waters left for the hospital to have his jaw looked at.

What makes Thursday night even more impressive for Cloverdale is the fact they entered the tournament after not wrestling in more than a week.

"We haven't wrestled since a week from last Saturday and so we kept telling the guys 'Hey, don't put it off to next Tuesday to get ready for county.' We had a while to heal up, focus on county and we came in 100 percent. (We had) a full roster for the first time we have all of our guys in the lineup and it showed," Livingston said.

He said his guys have been wrestling well, working hard and good things are happening to them. He also didn't take anything away from the other schools, but said his team knew who the team to beat was.

"We knew coming in, in our hearts, we were the team to beat. We got third here last year with two county champs, so obviously people probably weren't betting on us this year coming off a year like that," Livingston said.

At Cloverdale

2010 Putnam County Tournament

1. Cloverdale, 2. Greencastle, 3. South Putnam, 4. North Putnam

2010 All-County

103 -- Ruble (NP)

112 -- Shipp (CHS)

119 -- Boldman (CHS)

125 -- Waters (SP)

130 -- Hesselgrave (CHS)

135 -- Collins (GHS)

140 -- J. Couse (CHS)

145 -- Helterbrand (CHS)

152 -- Frederick (CHS)

160 -- Lewis (GHS)

171 -- Hall (CHS)

189 -- Thompson (SP)

215 -- Vermillion (GHS)

285 -- Mobley (GHS)

-- Denotes three-time champion

-- Denotes four-time champion