PENDLETON — Greenfield-Central had a county-best three champions, New Palestine had 13 of 14 wrestlers place and Mt. Vernon had a pair of champs and three others in title matches, but it wasn’t enough to beat Delta at Saturday’s Hoosier Heritage Conference Boys Wrestling tournament at Pendleton Heights High School.
Delta had eight of its 14 wrestlers in the finals and crowned five champions.
Still, it was a close match for the top spot. Delta scored 207.5 points. New Palestine was runner-up with 191, edging Greenfield-Central’s 189 for the second position. Mt. Vernon was fifth with 145, just nine points behind fourth-place host Pendleton Heights with 154.
“It’s a deep tournament, so it’s going to take all 14 to win it,” Greenfield-Central head coach Josh Holden said. “Everybody’s got to place, everybody’s got to place higher than their seed, everybody’s got to get bonus points, and we didn’t have it.”
The Cougars were seeking their fourth straight HHC crown. They had champions at 120 (Jett McGuire), 190 (Clay Guenin) and 285 (Brayden Flener). For Guenin it was his second straight individual title. Greenfield-Central had two others finish runner-up, Mason Thompson (165) and Silas Frye (175).
“What an array of kids.” Holden said of his three champions. “None of them wrestle each other. Usually you think you get champs in pairs because they work out (together).
“Jett wrestles year round and travels all over the country. Clay has done that a little bit and Flener is an all-state football player and came out and said he wanted to learn how to wrestle to make him better for football. … The thing I noticed the most with the three champs, they win on the mat, but they win in the classroom, too. They’re great character kids and they do stuff right and it pays off everywhere else and now it’s paying off on the mat. There’s something to be said for doing things right.”
A year ago, placing 13 of 14 wrestlers was good enough for a G-C title.
This year, New Palestine had similar success with all but one wrestler finishing in the top five, but with the performance of the Eagles, it was only good enough for second place.
Elijah Alonso, a senior, had New Palestine’s lone individual championship, winning the 150-pound weight class. Three other New Palestine wrestlers finished second, including Jaedyn Jeffries (157), Colin Whetsel (190) and Shaun Glass (215).
“(The tournament) was as tough as expected, that’s for sure,” New Palestine head coach Andrew Frey said. “Some matches went our way, some didn’t. I thought it was a three-way race for first and it was pretty close most of the day.
“[Alonso] wrestled really well [Saturday] and had a good week of practice. We’ve tried to build his confidence up, we knew he’s capable and [Saturday] he finally broke through and proved that. It was a good day for him.”
Early in the tournament, Mt. Vernon’s team score was up there with the top three. The Marauders had a strong day, considering they didn’t have a full roster. They had wrestlers in 12 of the 14 weight classes, with five reaching the championship round.
Junior Devin Kendrex won an HHC title for the third time in as many tries. He beat Glass 5-3 in the 215 championship. In another Mt. Vernon vs. New Pal final, Brooks McKeeman won a high-scoring battle at 157 against Jeffries 14-9.
“It’s a good accomplishment but not my No. 1 (goal),” Kendrex, a two-time state qualifier and a state-placer last season said. “But, I felt like I wrestled well, tried to push the pace all the time, but not get gassed.”
The other three Mt. Vernon finalist all lost to Delta wrestlers. At 106, Jensen Boyd pinned MV’s Ty Barnhart in 1:12. At 133, Ayden Bollinger won a 10-5 decision over Marauder junior Connor Bayliss 10-5, and, in a battle of two state-qualifiers from a year ago, Neal Mosier defeated Mt. Vernon sophomore Eli Broady 4-2.
“I thought we wrestled hard, even some of the matches we lost we were up against highly-ranked guys that have a lot of national experience,” Mt. Vernon head coach Randal Hayes said. “We battled those guys for six minutes. Coming in, we knew we were outgunned with a couple of guys still out of the lineup. Going off the seeding, we were down a little bit, but we wanted to battle six minutes, making sure that we gave it everything we got. We talk about being a tough out and, as a team, I think we did that well [Saturday].”
It will be a slow week, competition-wise, for the three teams. New Palestine hosting Greenwood Thursday is the only dual for any of the teams prior to the Jan. 27 sectional. New Palestine and Greenfield-Central will compete at the Shelbyville Sectional. Mt. Vernon will go to the Southport Sectional.
“We’re trying to make sure that we peak when the sectional gets here,” Hayes added. “All of these (tournaments) are great. We want to compete in them and we like winning, but we’re on a path and sticking to that path making sure we’re ready (for the postseason). We’ve got two more weeks for what really matters. [Saturday] was a good stepping stone for that, as a staff, we couldn’t be happier. I thought we wrestled well.”
2024 Hoosier Heritage Conference Boys Wrestling Tournament
Team scores: Delta 207.5, New Palestine 191, Greenfield-Central 189, Pendleton Heights 154, Mt. Vernon 145, New Castle 110, Shelbyville 104, Yorktown 101.
Championship Round Results
106: Jensen Boyd (Delta) over Ty Barnhart (Mt. Vernon) fall, 1:12
113: Ayden Bollinger (Delta) over Connor Bayliss (Mt. Vernon) decision, 10-5
120: Jett McGuire (Greenfield-Central) over Kaid Jackson (Delta) decision, 2-0
126: Neal Mosier (Delta) over Eli Broady (Mt. Vernon) decision, 4-2
132: Tylin Thrine (New Castle) over Sam Mosier (Delta) fall, 4:09
138: Gavyn Whitehead (New Castle) over Justin Boone (Yorktown) fall, 2:53
144: Jack Todd (Pendleton Heights) over Wyatt Hoppes (Yorktown) fall, 5:03
150: Elijah Alonso (New Palestine) over Brady Bryant (Shelbyville) decision, 8-1
157: Brooks McKeeman (Mt. Vernon) over Jaedyn Jeffries (New Palestine) decision, 14-9
165: Kaeb Stebbins (Delta) over Mason Thompson (Greenfield-Central) fall, 1:21
175: Braxton Russell (Delta) over Silas Frye (Greenfield-Central) decision, 5-1
190: Clay Guenin (Greenfield-Central) over Colin Whetsel (New Palestine) major decision, 12-4
215: Devin Kendrex (Mt. Vernon) over Shaun Glass (New Palestine) decision, 5-3
285: Brayden Flener (Greenfield-Central) over Isaac Moss (Delta) decision, 1-0
