Pendleton Heights vs. Anderson

ANDERSON -- Pendleton Heights wrestling coach Dave Cloud enjoys the atmosphere an intracounty dual meet brings, such as Thursday night's match with Anderson at the Tipi.

But he said after his Madison County champion Arabians won 42-27 the timing of this year's rivalry was not the best.

"It's been a long week with finals (exams), and they've got some time off coming up. So with teenagers it's kind of hard to focus sometimes," said Cloud, whose Arabians captured their fourth straight county title only five days earlier.

But PH got wins from its five county kings who wrestled, as well as another by fall and a decision going to Jacob Brown in a most unusual fashion, when it was originally thought he had lost in overtime.

Brown ended up a 5-4 victor over Devon Browder at 160 pounds instead of falling 7-5, when Browder got a takedown in the final second of OT. Cloud said the referee didn't award Browder a point for a repeat stalling violation by Brown, and any points scored after that don't count if there is a rules misapplication. So a takedown by Browder at the end of the third period was wiped out.

Tremor Bynum, the 195 county champ, scored a second-period fall over Kadin Johnson about 20 seconds after Bynum was about to be pinned himself. Johnson opened the middle period with a reversal and near-fall and went ahead 5-2, but Bynum (20-1) quickly turned the tables and felled Johnson.

The first of the Arabians' county champs to take the mat, freshman 120-pounder Jerod Brown, beat KJ Williams by technical fall 19-4 in two full periods. Brown (19-2) took out Williams 23-12 in the county final.

"He's a great natural talent, and I think he's going to be a great wrestler if he keeps working at it," said Cloud of Brown.

That was the first of five straight wins for PH, with Seth Leicht in the next match at 126 decisioning Christian Chavez 7-6. Leicht replaced county champ Jace Longere, who had the night off.

Three county champs followed Leicht. Elijah Bauer took a 12-4 verdict over KD Williams at 132, then Derek Sikorski pinned Matt Simpson midway through the second period at 138 and Caleb Gibson needed a period and 23 seconds to stop Jakob Hagerman at 145.

At 170, Andrew Jamison earned a 4-2 win over Jon Failkenberg, and Garrett Griffith clinched it for PH with a third-period fall over Keegan Perez at 182.

"The kids need some time off, and some of them looked really tired tonight, and it didn't look like they were focused," Cloud said. "It's a tough week, and we're looking if (the Anderson dual) is something we can do on another week next year."

The Indians scored 21 of their points at bookend weights and the other six when Arthur Lucky bounced back from a 5-0 deficit and pinned Jarod Miller with 30 seconds to go in the second period of their 152 battle.

Anderson jumped ahead 12-0 when 106-pounder Romello Williams won by forfeit and county 113 champ Willie Dennison got a fall over Shayla Meinders at the 47-second mark of the first period.

Venice McCullough survived a late rally by Cade Campbell and took a 12-10 decision at 220, and at 275 senior Elijah Love overcame a 7-2 deficit and pinned Jared Baldwin with 10 seconds left in the middle period.

It was the Indians' senior night, and their other upperclassmen are Simpson, Hagerman, Browder, Perez and Faulkenberg.

"We definitely want to wrestle the toughest competition, and (the Arabians) have set the bar in the county and they're making noise throughout the state," Anderson coach Sean Clark said. "That's where we want to be, and we have to be able to do that, but I felt like my guys pushed the action tonight, and they did well, and they did a lot better than people expected."

PH wrestles next week at North Montgomery's 32-team invitational, and