NORTH MANCHESTER – The Tippecanoe Valley wrestling team kept its perfect Three Rivers Conference record intact Monday at Manchester. With a 39-24 win over the Manchester Squires (1-5, 0-1 TRC), the Vikings are now 8-5 overall and 3-0 in the TRC. Coach Scott Smith, however, wasn’t overly joyous about his team’s latest victory. “It was a lot closer than 15 points,” he said. “Manchester came out ready to wrestle and we did not. We were lethargic, we were slow. I don’t know if it was because it’s Monday. I don’t like wrestling on Monday. They just had a match on Saturday and we haven’t had one since Tuesday. It was not a very good performance by us.” Through six matches, from 195 pounds to 126, Manchester led 24-6, but the Vikings won the last seven, getting pins by junior Arron Heller (160), freshman Garrett Bell (170) and junior Keaton Bell (182). Making it even tougher for Manchester was the six points it surrendered by having to forfeit at 152 pounds while Jordan Wells recovers from an injury. “It was a really close match,” Manchester coach Chris Kimmel said. “Especially with us missing a couple guys in the lineup. Once we have our 106-pounder (freshman Bryce Zook) and 152-pounder back, it will be a little different. Right now, we have kids coming from different weights. We haven’t locked down our actual lineup yet.” In the loss, Kimmel did see some positives, such as sophomore Ryan Kendall’s 9-7 overtime loss to sophomore Wyatt Nelson and junior Neil Snep’s 14-11 win over sophomore Wes Beck in the first match of the night at 195 pounds. “Neil Snep came to wrestle,” Kimmel said about Snep, who posted the decisive three points with just four seconds remaining in the match. “He had a tough loss this past weekend against a semistate qualifier (Northfield’s Joseph Ross at the Wabash County Tournament), then he came out and put it on Wes Beck. The score was close, but on their feet, he just outwrestled him.” Another Squire that came out strong was sophomore Jacob Casper at 182 pounds, who built a 5-0 lead on defending 170-pound Plymouth Sectional champion Keaton Bell. “Jake is a tough, physical kid,” Kimmel said. “He didn’t wrestle last season, so that hurts him, because he’s down a little technique-wise. But he’s fully capable, he just has to believe it. Once he believes it, he’ll be tough to beat.” Casper was able to overpower Bell early in the last match of the night, but the experienced Viking gained control and got the pin with 1:07 left in the second period. “He’s extremely strong and Keaton struggled with him there early,” Smith said. “But once Keaton got on top and got control, he knows what he’s doing and that’s when his experience came through.” Of his team’s seven wins on the mat, none impressed Smith more than Heller’s pin of Manchester senior Dylan Hoffmeyer with 47 seconds remaining in the second period at 160 pounds. “Arron wrestled an exceptional match,” Smith said. “I don’t want to take too much from the guys that won, but Arron was probably our best match tonight.” Valley hosts North Judson Thursday, and Smith is hoping for a better showing in that match. “I think they came out thinking this was going to be the Manchester team we wrestled last year, which we handled fairly easily,” Smith said. “Looking past them? I don’t know. We’ve got to wrestle every match like it’s the state championship. You have to want it like that and we didn’t do that tonight.” Up next for Manchester is Saturday’s Caston Super Duals. “The boys are wrestling well for as young as they are,” Kimmel said. “They’re getting it pieced together, but we’re still outwrestling ourselves more than our opponents are outwrestling us. Once we put together a good effort as a team, instead of just a few good individual matches, we’ll be fine.”
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 39, MANCHESTER 24 106 – Double Forfeit; 113 – Tristin Burnette (M) dec. Austin Nault, 9-7; 120 – Trey Addair (M) won by ff; 126 – Jared Gable (M) pin. Thomas Rensberger, 0:28; 132 – Devin Childers (TV) dec. Clayton Moore, 9-2; 138 – Wyatt Nelson (TV) dec. Ryan Kendall, 9-7 OT; 145 – Landin Madsen (TV) dec. Clay Sellers, 9-4; 152 – Cody Runyon (TV) won by ff; 160 – Arron Heller (TV) pin. Dylan Hoffmeyer, 3:13; 170 – Garrett Bell (TV) pin. Landon Tharp, 1:38; 182 – Keaton Bell (TV) pin. Jacob Casper, 2:53; 195 – Neil Snep (M) dec. Wes Beck, 14-11; 220 – Jaron Kid (TV) pin. Thad Miller, 5:54; HWT – A.J. Long (TV) pin. Cole Sellers, 2:53. Records: Valley 8-5 (3-0 TRC), Manchester 1-5 (0-1 TRC)
