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South Putnam wins conference wrestling title
CLOVERDALE -- Wrestling teams gathered at Cloverdale High School for the West Central Conference match Saturday. Two Putnam County schools battled for the top spot, with South Putnam coming away with the win 197-189.50 over Greencastle. North Putnam finished fifth, with the host Clovers finishing sixth on the day.
For South Putnam head coach Josh Hendrickson, the win was a culmination of hard work from his team.
"It's good to see the kids getting rewarded for all the hard work they've been doing. It's good for the kids and the program. I've been with these kids since the seventh grade, so ever since I've been coach, these are my kids. It's good to see them achieve something.
"It's very satisfying. They wrestled very well," Hendrickson said.
The Eagles had six individual wrestlers crowned champions, leading the way in the match. Greencastle added three and Cloverdale had one. Of the 14 champions named, 10 came from Putnam County schools.
In the championship round, Nick Owen got things going for South Putnam at 113. He defeated North Putnam's Zach Ruble by major decision 10-2. J.T. Franklin, at 132, defeated Monrovia's Lane Cooper by a pin.
Jacob Camacho continued the wins for the Eagles, winning at 145 by a 12-8 decision over Monrovia's Dayton Clements. At 160, Jesse Gardner won a hard-fought match over Chris Howard by a 6-5 decision.
Tanner Thompson pinned Cloverdale's Cody Stout to win at 182, while Rudy Harris won over Greencastle's Blaine Fenwick by major decision 14-3.
Greencastle's Carter Lewis picked up the first win for the Tiger Cubs on the day at 170, defeating South Putnam's Andy Waters by a pin. Ben Hesler followed with a win by pin over South Putnam's Jacob Williams at 220. Will Mobley won a narrow 5-3 decision over North Putnam's Eric Davis at heavyweight.
Cloverdale's lone win of the day went to Eldin Hesselgrave at 138, defeating North Putnam's Joe Mindiola by major decision 14-6.
North Putnam had four wrestlers finish the day in second place -- Ruble (113), Dean Kleiber (120), Mindiola (138) and Davis (285).
With his team's next meet being sectional, Hendrickson hopes the win Saturday and the overall success of the season continues.
"Hopefully it sends us in a positive direction," he said of the win. "We have two full weeks off before we go to sectional, so we have some time to get back to the basics and kind of review that stuff.
"We had a win Wednesday versus Plainfield, which was big for us. It's been a long time since we've been able to hold up against them and this -- positives. We haven't lost a meet since county. Hopefully we're rolling," Hendrickson said.
Cloverdale will be on the road tonight at Southmont at 6 p.m., while Greencastle will host Speedway tonight at 6 p.m. North Putnam will host Turkey Run tonight at 6 p.m. and South Putnam will be back in action Jan. 28 at the Avon Sectional at 9 a.m.
At Cloverdale
West Central Conference Match
Individual Champions
106 -- Hunter Fox (Cascade)
113 -- Nick Owen (SP)
120 -- Trevor Ellis (Mon)
126 -- Zach Batts (Cascade)
132 -- J.T. Franklin (SP)
138 -- Eldin Hesselgrave (CHS)
145 -- Jacob Camacho (SP)
152 -- Casey Fox (Cascade)
160 -- Jesse Gardner (SP)
170 -- Carter Lewis (GHS)
182 -- Tanner Thompson (SP)
195 -- Rudy Harris (SP)
220 -- Ben Hesler (GHS)
285 -- Will Mobley (GHS)