W: Cloverdale captures Putnam County crown

Reprinted courtesy of:
Greencastle Banner Graphic

Friday, January 9, 2009
By CAINE GARDNER, Sports Editor

14 wrestlers earned All-Putnam County honors at
Thursday night’s Putnam County Meet. They include Tyler Ruble, Shawn
Shipp, T.J. Franklin, Trevor Teal, Donnie Helterbrand, Jeff Couse, Zach
Waycott, Antonia Hernandez, Jesse Vermillion, Lee Secrest, Jesse
Ford, Scott Mayhew, Jacob Wright and Chris Hurst.
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CLOVERDALE — If Thursday was any indication, the state of wrestling is
as strong as ever in Putnam County. All four county schools battled it
out at Cloverdale, with the host Clovers coming out on top with a 3-0
record on the night. Greencastle was second by going 2-1, South Putnam
third at 1-2 and North Putnam went 0-3.

Cloverdale came out strong and rode that wave of momentum to the
Putnam County championship. They also placed six wrestlers on the
All-Putnam County team, which pleased head coach Steve Livingston.

“I think that, obviously, I’m happy with the six All-Putnam
County kids,” he said. “We had six guys in 14 weight classes, so almost
half of the team was filled by Cloverdale guys. That’s a good
accomplishment for not only our guys on the team, but their practice
partners getting them there.”

Shawn Shipp (112), Donnie Helterbrand (130), Jeff Couse (135),
Zach Waycott (140), Lee Secrest (160) and Scott Mayhew (189) were
Cloverdale’s individual champions. It was Mayhew’s first match of the
year and Waycott was awarded his fourth All-Putnam County honor.

For Greencastle, it was a difficult night. They knew, due to
forfeits, that it would take an almost perfect evening. They fought,
came away with four champions and a second place finish.

“We’re disappointed, we wanted to come out with a win,” GHS
head coach Matt McComish said. “We made some mistakes and were giving
up forfeits, so we knew that we basically had to wrestle perfect
matches in order to win the whole thing and we didn’t do that. We just
have to get ready for conference and sectional.”

GHS wrestlers Trevor Teal (125), Jesse Vermillion (152), Jesse
Ford (171), Jacob Wright (215) all went 3-0 to earn honors. McComish
commented on how the Tiger Cubs will look to build upon their strong
showing Thursday and be ready for its upcoming meets.

“Positives, we had four champions that did a good job. Jacob
Wright won a good match at 215,” he said. “We just have to keep
working.”

Cloverdale’s Lee Secrest looks to the ref during his
matchup with North Putnam’s Keegan Foltz at Thursday’s Putnam County
Meet. Secrest won the 160 weight class.
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When asked what GHS needs to focus on, their coach thinks his team needs to go back to what they do best.

“Fundamentals. You know, we’re getting away from basic wrestling and we just need to get back to it,” he said.

The Eagles field a very young squad, and head coach Todd Crosby felt he
saw some true grit out of his team. They fought hard and when all was
said and done, they had clinched third place.

“They kept working,” Crosby said. “When you have nine freshmen
and you have three other kids that haven’t wrestled before — today I
was really pleased. They just did a good job and kept at it the whole
time. Extremely pleased with the effort they all put into it.”

South Putnam had two seniors and a freshman capture individual
titles on the night. Seniors Antonio Hernandez (145) and Chris Hurst
(285) ended their final county championship with All-County honors,
while freshman T.J. Franklin captured the 119 title.

Crosby voiced how pleased we was with his champions after the meet and acknowledged the heart of one of his veteran grapplers.

“I felt bad for Logan Kinney, he may have broken his ankle
before it all started. He wanted to stay and keep wrestling,” Crosby
commented. Kinney injured his ankle prior to the start of competition
and wrestled on it for a 2-1 record and second place at 160.

North Putnam had a single champion on the night and head coach
Kenny Kerns thinks the future looks bright for his Cougar squad. The
Cougars went 0-3 on the night, but Kerns tried to keep things in
perspective.

“Yeah I’m disappointed, but I look at the roster and nine of
the 10 are freshman and sophomores,” he noted. “I’m excited about the
future, but we’re just not being aggressive and I don’t understand it.
We work hard in practice, we wrestled hard in practice, but for some
reason we’re having trouble transferring it from practice to the meet
— and it drives me up a wall.”

It was Tyler Ruble who gave North their lone champion on the night in a battle with Eldin Hesselgrave at 103.

Both wrestlers are having banner years and when the tiny titans
collided, something had to give. Ruble and Hesselgrave went at each
other for three periods, with Ruble coming away with a 9-4 win and the
title.

Livingston believes the rivalry between the two could create an atmosphere that both wrestlers can flourish in.

“You always like to find a guy like that (Tyler Ruble) close to
where you live to push you and get you to that next level,” he said.
“If they do it right, they will feed off each other and both of them
will be better and they’ll represent our county well come state
tournament time.

“Obviously I’m at Cloverdale and want to see good thing for
Cloverdale, but wrestling is bigger than Cloverdale. If the level of
wresting at all the schools in Putnam County goes up, our level is
going to go up because we want to compete,” Livingston added.

Kerns couldn’t be more in agreement and thinks that when wrestlers storm into sectional, they will be making some noise.

“I think come sectional time, I think they will be shocked at our county — I really do,” he said.

Cloverdale will travel to South Vermillion at 9 a.m. Saturday,
while Greencastle will compete at the Avon Tourney at 9 a.m. Saturday.
South Putnam will be at the Monrovia Invite at 8:30 p.m. and North
Putnam will host Rockville at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

At Cloverdale

Putnam County Wrestling Meet

Team Results

Cloverdale 3-0, Greencastle 2-1, South Putnam 1-2, North Putnam 0-3

Individual Champions

103 — Tyler Ruble (NP) 3-0

112 — Shawn Shipp (CHS) 3-0

119 — T.J. Franklin (SP) 3-0

125 — Trevor Teal (GHS) 3-0

130 — Donnie Helterbrand (CHS) 3-0

135 — Jeff Couse (CHS) 3-0

140 — Zach Waycott (CHS) 3-0