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Greencastle roars back to win county wrestling title
CLOVERDALE – Two meets into the 2022 middle school wrestling season, North Putnam handed Greencastle a 54-42 loss.
Wednesday night, the Tiger Cubs got their win back and more, sweeping the county field to win the Putnam County Middle School Wrestling Meet.
“The boys did great,” Greencastle head coach Gibby Tribbett said. “They’ve come a long way.
“The boys got beat at the beginning of the season by North Putnam and came back tonight to handily beat them. I’m super proud, going from not having coaching the past couple of years to stepping up and meeting my expectations, which is all I could ask for.”
Greencastle defeated the Cougars 72-46 in the opening dual before edging out South Putnam 54-42 and easing past Cloverdale 92-21 to win the team title.
“It’s been a complete 180,” Tribbett said about the difference between the two duals against the Cougars. “The boys are good listeners who have done what we’ve asked them to do on the mat.
“There are a lot of kids who’ve experienced growth from getting pinned the first three matches, to not getting pinned, getting takedowns, getting wins and then getting pins.”
The Eagles would beat North Putnam 75-40 and the Clovers 87-30 while the Cougars beat Cloverdale 66-42.
Individually, Greencastle had nine county champions in Zach Sandusky at 80 pounds, Elijah Frank at 85 pounds, Dylan Archer at 95 pounds, David Olsen at 106 pounds, Cayden Blodgett at 120 pounds, Tyler Sandusky at 145 pounds, Zion Slater at 182 pounds, Cameron Mager at 195 pounds and Parker Welker at 220 pounds.
South Putnam had five champions in Gabe Thomas at 126 pounds, Gabriel Feltner at 132 pounds, Eli Owen at 138 pounds Robert Speth at 170 pounds and Preston Pelfrey at 285 pounds. North Putnam and Cloverdale had three champions with Isaac Polley at 100 pounds, Wesley Murphy at 113 pounds, Canden Hankins at 160 pounds for the Cougars and Eli Yarts at 75 pounds, Brenton Cooper at 90 pounds and TJ Hamilton at 152 pounds for the Clovers.
The deciding dual came in the middle session of the evening’s action as Greencastle and South Putnam squared off.
Both teams were empty at 90 pounds thought the Eagles had one additional forfeit at 75 pounds, allowing the Tiger Cubs to start off with a 6-0 lead as Bailey Shadwell received the win.
Zach Sandusky picked up a quick pin over Jackson Webster at 80 pounds while Frank won a hard-fought 8-4 decision over Riley Casteel at 85 pounds.
Archer added a second period fall for Greencastle at 95 pounds over Lou Ogborn before Isaac Boyce got the Eagles on the board with a third-period comeback from 9-4 down to win a 12-9 decision at 100 pounds over Cyrus Gurnon.
Olsen won another tough bout over Damon Cox 6-4 at 106 pounds to extend the Tiger Cub lead to 24-3 before Brody Burge got South Putnam’s first fall of the bout over Jason Brickert in the first period at 113 pounds.
Blodgett responded in kind with a first period fall over Jacob Junkin at 120 pounds while Thomas won a 6-0 decision over Tucker Elkins at 126 pounds.
Feltner and Owen scored back-to-back falls at 132 and 138 pounds over Orio Bowser and CJ Procter respectively to claw back some of the deficit at 30-24 before Tyler Sandusky won a 12-7 decision over Wyatt Speth at 145 pounds.
Greencastle built its lead again with Alex Grove getting a second period fall over Joseph Pulzone at 152 pounds and Dameon Poulton winning a 10-3 decision over Brier Cook at 160 pounds.
Robert Speth secured a second period fall over Ethan Shannon at 170 pounds while Lucas Hall pinned Slater at 182 pounds to keep the team score tight at 42-36.
Mager and Welker finished the job for Greencastle, both picking up first round falls over Jeremy Sutherlin and Dayne Miller at 195 and 220 pounds respectively to win the dual. Pelfrey finished out the match with a fall over Austin Blue at 285 pounds.
Tribbett said the wrestlers pulled together well as the year went along and while a large group would be manning the high school ranks next year, the middle school was going to have a strong group in place again in 2023.
“I fully expect all of my eighth graders going up next year to be varsity wrestlers,’ Tribbett said. “They put the pounding on the high school guys and, having talked with (Greencastle high school wrestling head coach Kyle) Shaffer, we expect them to come into the next season disciplined and ready to go.
“We have a lot of spots where we have tough kids who just couldn’t beat the guy in front of them, so we fill a lot of our weight classes back up with seventh graders who will be eighth graders next year. We have lots of fifth graders in our youth program as well, so we’re going to build off this and hope for the best.”