Host Eagles win Holiday wrestling tournament

Friday, December 30, 2011
South Putnam's Tanner Thompson was one of four Eagle wrestlers to win individual honors Thursday.

South Putnam's wrestling squad was able to hold off a late Sullivan rally in order to claim their Eagle Holiday Wrestling Tournament title Thursday.

The Eagles had previously knocked off Turkey Run, Attica and Western Boone before a back and forth affair with the Arrows was ended by back-to-back pins from Andy Waters and Tanner Thompson for a 39-36 win.

Several South Putnam wrestlers went undefeated on the day, including J.T. Franklin at 132, Joe Waters at 138, Thompson at 182, Rudy Harris at 195 and Jacob Williams at 220 and Heavyweight.

Nick Owen picked up three wins at 113, as did Jacob Camacho at 145 and Andy Waters at 170. Colton Bunten, Brad Ballard, Jesse Gardner and Lane Hacker each took two wins.

Eagle head coach Josh Hendrickson was impressed with South Putnam's day on the mats.

"I thought we wrestled really well. You never really know what you're going to get at the Holiday Tournament. It's a little out of the ordinary but we had a couple of good practice the last couple of days," Hendrickson said.

"I would say this is the best we've wrestled all season as a team. Overall as a team we did well.

"Tanner Thompson definitely came up clutch with the pin in the final match against Sullivan. Joe Waters also did really well. It was a good turnout.

"We had several individual champions today. None of us gave up pins. We were all getting pins. We wrestled the full six minutes, which is what I want," Hendrickson added.

With the WCC meet quickly approaching, Hendrickson said that the squad was ready to keep going as they head to Monrovia next Saturday, working on the little things between now and then.

"I think we're looking good. Our fundamentals are good. We're not going to add much. We're going to look at our mistakes, our weaknesses on the film and tweak here and there," Hendrickson said.

"Conditioning is always clutch at this time of year. Basically, we're working on the things we need to work on."

At South Putnam

Eagle Holiday Wrestling Tournament

Team Champion: South Putnam

Individual Champions

106 -- Steven Parsley (WB)

113 -- Joe Gilham (S)

120 -- Nate Sullivan (S)

126 -- Cory Orndorff (S)

132 -- JT Franklin (SP)

138 -- Joe Waters (SP)

145 -- Jed Cox (S)

152 -- Riley Witvoet (S)

160 -- No. 6 Austin McCloskey (WB)

170 -- Jeff Girdler (TR)

182 -- Tanner Thompson (SP)

195 -- Rudy Harris (SP)

220 -- Luke Snyder (A)

285 -- Tucker Evans (TR)

Next meet -- South Putnam participates at the Monrovia Invitational next Saturday.