Jeff captures sectional crown

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Ian Emerson of Floyd Central won the Jeffersonville Sectional 152 pound championship by pinning Josh Sampson of New Washington. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

 

 

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Mark Daugherty of Charlestown, left, finished second in the 160 pound class at the Jeffersonville Sectional after being pinned by Providence wrestler Jacob Golembeski. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

 

 

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Caleb Browner, wrestling at 171 pounds for Jeffersonville, lost 7-5 to John McAndrew of floyd Central in the sectional championship. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

 

 

By MATT CRESS

Matthew.Cress@newsandtribune.com

 

JEFFERSONVILLE ? Tyler Tatgenhorst and Jon Clark have won some big matches before, but their efforts have never paid off quite like this.

 

The senior leaders for the Jeffersonville wrestling team dominated when it counted most and lifted the Red Devils to a place where they have never been ? both Hoosier Hills Conference and sectional champions in the same season.

 

Tatgenhorst won a 12-3 decision over Providence?s Cody Davidson in the 215-pound final, while Clark pinned Floyd Central?s Ramsey Traughber in the heavyweight championship match and their points pushed the Devils to an 18 1/2-point victory over the Highlanders to win the team title at Saturday?s Jeffersonville Sectional at Johnson Arena.

 

The pair of victories gave Jeff five of the 14 individual champions and shut the door on a surprising run by defending sectional champion Floyd Central. The Highlanders ended with 275 points to the Devils? 293 1/2 to end up second in the team standings, taking three individual titles despite having no No. 1 seeds heading into the meet. Floyd also put seven grapplers in the finals ? the same amount as Jeff ? to take four second-place finishes and four thirds, advancing 12 into next weekend?s Jeffersonville Regional.

 

Floyd?s big day also took its toll on Charlestown, which began with four top seeds but claimed two championships and finished third overall while advancing 11 wrestlers onto the next round. The top four finishers in each weight class moved on to the regional.

 

Providence had two champions to end up a distant fourth, 45 1/2 points behind Charlestown. New Albany was fifth, followed by Corydon, New Washington, Christian Academy of Indiana, Salem and Pekin Eastern in the 10-team field. Corydon claimed the two titles that did not go to the top four overall teams.

 

Still, Jeff ruled the day and finally broke its jinx. Saturday marked the first time the program has ever claimed an HHC title and sectional crown in the same year. The Devils also will send 13 grapplers to the regional, which coach Danny Struck said is likely a school record.

 

?The kids know about it and had been talking about it all year,? said Struck of his team?s difficulty in winning the two titles. ?It was their goal last year and we?ve been pushing the guys toward it since they were freshman. It?s a happy day for the program.?

 

A freshman actually set the tone for Jeff, as No. 2 seed Alonzo Shepherd won a 5-1 decision over Corydon?s Matt LaHue to win the 103-pound bracket. Devil junior Curtis Smith followed by marching through the 112 division, pinning No. 2 seed Justin Wolf of Charlestown in 1:13 to capture the title.

 

Jeff senior Brett Walker overcame his No. 3 seeding at 130, beating Floyd?s No. 2-seeded Aaron Witt in the semifinals and upsetting Providence?s Omar Salguero by an 11-2 decision in the final.

 

Still, Floyd kept pace by getting strong consolation finishes from Logan Kelly (103), Zach Thomas (112) and Witt (130). And when Daniel Murphy beat Charlestown?s Tyler Newcomb, the No. 1 seed at 140, and No. 2 Ben Hughes of Providence for the title, it was obvious the Highlanders were in it to stay.

 

?I think we wrestled pretty well today,? said Floyd coach Brandon Sisson. ?We had a lot of kids step up. We came up short, but we scored more points than we did last year.?

 

Ian Emerson upset 39-1 Josh Sampson of New Washington in the 152 finals, pinning Sampson in 4:57 to keep Floyd in the hunt and John McAndrew beat Jeff?s Caleb Browner by a narrow 7-5 decision to capture the 171-pound title. McAndrew?s win put him up 2-1 in the season series with Browner, who came in at 33-4.

 

After Floyd?s Pat McKinney lost to Providence?s Ethan Cook in the final bout at 189, that left it up to Tatgenhorst and Clark to close it out. Struck said that?s exactly the outcome he wanted.

 

?They?re used to that,? he said. ?We?ve put them in pressure situations a lot. We?ve pumped both of them up by having them face tough opponents all season and when today came, they were ready.?

 

Charlestown got its first title from Jeff Stotridge, who beat Jeff?s Devon Miller 9-1 in the 119 final. But from there the Pirates struggled, with 31-0 Eddie Duran losing a 5-3 decision to Corydon?s Ryan Hutchinson in the 125 title bout.

 

Aaron May, the No. 2 seed at 135, ended up falling in the semifinals to Floyd?s Garrett Blackman by pin in 1:22, a blow to the Pirates? hopes despite the fact that he rebounded for third place.

 

?Overall, it seemed like we just didn?t get many breaks today,? said Charlestown coach Tom Kendrick, who will retire at the end of the season and may have seen his final sectional as Pirate mentor. ?But the goal is to get guys to state and we got ourselves into position to take guys to state. We weren?t off today, it just wasn?t our best.?

 

Overall, the Pirates still crashed five finals and collected five thirds, the most of any school in the tournament. Taylor Newcomb was Charlestown?s other champion, edging Floyd?s Ben Moberly in the 145 final.

 

Providence will take seven grapplers onward to the regional, highlighted by Cook and Jacob Golembeski, who pinned Charlestown?s Mark Daugherty to win the 160-pound title. Also advancing for the Pioneers were Salguero, Hughes, Davidson, Steve Meyer (fourth at 152) and Joey Libretto (fourth at 171).

 

New Albany got its best finish of the day from junior Tim Martin, who beat Jeff?s Renaldo Weekly 5-1 for third place at 125. But the Bulldogs got five fourth-place finishes to send six on to the next round of the postseason.

 

Sampson was the only regional qualifier for New Washington, while Christian Academy got a fifth-place finish from senior Andrew Speth and five sixth-place finishes. The Warriors did not advance any grapplers to the regional, but they still scored 64 points ? nearly doubling the total of ninth-place Salem.

 

 

 

SATURDAY?S RESULTS

 

JEFFERSONVILLE SECTIONAL

 

(Top four in each weight class advance to Jeffersonville regional)

 

Team scores ? 1. Jeffersonville, 293 1/2; 2. Floyd Central, 275; 3. Charlestown, 232 1/2; 4. Providence, 187; 5. New Albany, 162; 6. Corydon, 117; 7. New Washington, 67; 8. Christian Academy of Indiana, 64; 9. Salem, 31; 10. Pekin Eastern, 27 1/2.

 

103 ? 1. Shepherd (JE), 2. LaHue (CO), 3. Kelly (FC), 4. Guy (NA).

 

112 ? 1. Smith (JE), 2. Wolf (CH), 3. Thomas (FC), 4. Snyder (NA).

 

119 ? 1. Stotridge (CH), 2. Miller (JE), 3. Freeman (PE), 4. Van Hook (FC).

 

125 ? 1. Hutchinson (CO), 2. Duran (CH), 3. Martin (NA), 4. Weekly (JE).

 

130 ? 1. Walker (JE), 2. Salguero (PR), 3. Witt (FC), 4. Rodriguez (NA).

 

135 ? 1. Falardo (CO), 2. Blackman (FC), 3. May (CH), 4. Visser (JE).

 

140 ? 1. Murphy (FC), 2. Hughes (PR), 3. Ty. Newcomb (CH), 4. Ratliff (SA).

 

145 ? 1. Ta. Newcomb (CH), 2. Moberly (FC), 3. Hendrick (JE), 4. Rickman (NA).

 

152 ? 1. Emerson (FC), 2. Sampson (NW), 3. Bailey (JE), 4. Meyer (PR).

 

160 ? 1. Golembeski (PR), 2. Daugherty (CH), 3. Shallers (FC), 4. Graham (JE).

 

171 ? 1. McAndrew (FC), 2. Browner (JE), 3. Martin (CH), 4. Libretto (PR).

 

189 ? 1. Cook (PR), 2. McKinney (FC), 3. Bowen (JE), 4. Nickles (CH).

 

215 ? 1. Tatgenhorst (JE), 2. Davidson (PR), 3. Metzger (CH), 4. DeWitt (CO).

 

285 ? 1. Clark (JE), 2. Traughber (FC), 3. Aguirre (CH), 4. Hoke (NA).