LINDEN — Youth is prevalent up and down the line-ups of the three Montgomery County wrestling teams.
The difference though is Southmont’s experience and it showed on Saturday in the Mounties’ 70-12 win over North Montgomery and 58-24 victory over Crawfordsville to win their third-straight county title.
Southmont claimed 10 of the 14 classes in the round-robin dual-meet format.
“Obviously the overall team effort was really good,” Southmont coach Jamie Welliever said. “Their preparation was really good and they were ready to go. Good kids, good leadership. Just a good bunch. All three of these schools have had great wrestling programs over the years, and it’s always a good tournament to win.” In total, five of the 10 champions by the Mounties came from sophomores — all of which gained experience in the line-up last season as freshmen.
Brier Riggle was the champion at 106 with a major decision win and a fall, while Jeffrey Pine had a major decision win and fall at 126, and Maddox Cade won by fall twice at 132. Marlin Williams also won twice by pin-fall at 145, and Wyatt Woodall won by fall and received a forfeit at 195.
“They’ve come with a lot of confidence this year, which they should,” Welliever said of his sophomore group. “They know they’ve got to be leaders as well even though they’re only sophomores. We’ve got a good number of freshmen this year as well, so they need that guidance.”
The upperclassmen came through as well for the Mounties.
Seniors Noah Benge and Gerald Hutson each won their respective weight classes at 120 and 138, while Collin Martin and Zayden Dunn each won by fall twice at 220 and 285 respectively.
Crawfordsville claimed the title at three weight classes, and had another wrestler go undefeated on the day.
Cameron Teeple won by forfeit against North Montgomery and by fall against Southmont at 113, while Edwin Gil-Herrera won by fall at 170 against North Montgomery and by fall at 160 against Southmont. Calvin Ditmar won by fall at 182 against the Chargers and by fall at 170 against Southmont.
Ashton Wilson won by fall at 152 against Southmont and 160 against North Montgomery.
“I think our intensity was very good compared to where we’ve been, and I think we are trending in the right direction,” Crawfordsville coach Dave Cutchin said. “I thought we had really good intensity against North Montgomery and tried to carry it into the Southmont match and thought our kids all fought really well.”
North Montgomery, who was short-handed on Saturday — crowned just one champion in junior Gage Galloway at 152 pounds. Galloway won by fall in each of his matches.
“Being short-handed and working through some injuries and illness, we are still learning to work on the little things,” first-year Charger coach Mike Boesch said. Learning how to fight through the hard parts of the match. It’ll come, we have a young team and as we progress this season, hopefully we see more and more improvement.”
