AKRON — Going into the wrestling match already down 36 points due to forfeitures, the Manchester Squires just didn’t have the manpower at Tippecanoe Valley Monday night. On the mat, the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings added to the six forfeits with three match victories via pins, rolling to a 58-21 victory, improving to 10-3 on the year. “We have to teach the kids that even if we start the match with 36 points through forfeits, we still have to go out and wrestle aggressively,” Valley coach Scott Smith said. “You can’t take it easy on your opponent, because as soon as you do, they’re going to get the advantage.” Recording pins for the Vikings were junior Devin Childers at 132 pounds, senior Arron Heller at 152 and senior Keaton Bell at 195, while junior Cody Runyon captured an 11-2 major decision at 145. With so many forfeitures and pins, the most competitive match of the night came at 138 pounds, as Manchester junior Clayton Moore posted a 7-5 win over Valley junior Wyatt Nelson. “They have been wrestling each other since they were about 5 years old, so they’ve wrestled each other a lot over the years,” Smith said. Another close match was at 285, where Manchester senior Neil Snep led Valley senior Jaron Kidd 3-0 following a third-period reversal and takedown, before pinning him with 58 seconds remaining. Also for Manchester, Bryce Zook (120) got a pin and the Squires got points for a forfeit at 126. “Right now, we just don’t have kids for the spots,” first-year Manchester coach Jerimiah Maggart said of his 2-5 squad. “We’ll be getting one back from injury this weekend, so we’ll fill one more weight. We have the toughest 14 kids Manchester High School has to offer. We tried to get as many as we could, but these are the 14 we have and I’m happy with them, but we have to be more prepared.” The Squires finished 2-3 at Saturday’s Wabash County Tournament, which left Maggart with a positive outlook going into the Valley match. That didn’t last long, however. “I thought we had a pretty good showing this weekend, when we came out ready to wrestle,” he said. “I didn’t think we did that very well today. We had a lot of guys not come in on weight this weekend, so we had to flip-flop around a little bit. Tippy Valley did a good job of just coming out and taking it to us in most of the spots.” With the win, Valley kept the strong start to its season going and hopes to capture a long-awaited TRC championship, which can only be achieved by coming out on top at the Jan. 21 TRC Match at Northfield. “Rochester’s going to be tough, North Miami always has one or two kids we always have problems with,” Smith said. “Northfield, Southwood, they all have their three or four kids that either match up well with us or we don’t match up well. You never know until it’s over, conference-wise, what’s going to happen.” For now, it appears that the biggest threat to Valley may be the school’s rival in about every sport – Rochester. “There’s a lot of wrestling that has to be done between now and the TRC (Match),” Smith said. “Rochester’s going to be the tough one to beat. It all depends on how well we match up with them.” The Vikings travel to North Judson Thursday, while Manchester’s next action is Saturday’s Caston Super 6.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 58, MANCHESTER 21 106 – Aubert Clevenger (TV) won by forfeit; 113 – Jordan LaCroix (TV) won by forfeit; 120 – Bryce Zook (M) pin. Austin Nault, 1:48; 126 – Jared Gable (M) won by forfeit; 132 – Devin Childers (TV) pin. Trey Addair, 1:34; 138 – Clayton Moore (M) def. Wyatt Nelson, 7-5; 145 – Cody Runyon (TV) major dec. Quentin Moore, 11-2; 152 – Arron Heller (TV) pin. Ryan Kendall, 2:49; 160 – Gary Long (TV) won by forfeit; 170 – Chance Beltran (TV) won by forfeit; 182 – Garrett Bell (TV) won by forfeit; 195 – Keaton Bell (TV) pin. Landon Tharp, 1:13; 220 – Neil Snep (M) pin. Jaron Kidd, 5:02; 285 – A.J. Long (TV) won by forfeit. Records: Valley 10-3, Manchester 2-5
