After the first couple of tournaments, the Tecumseh wrestling squad has made some improvements according to coach Scott Herbert. They are a very young squad, with several freshman making their high school debuts with the Arrows in some of the bigger tournaments.
They opened the season with the Centerville Invitational, where the Arrows placed fourth as a team. Gage Whitt was first overall at 145, while Hunter Donovan was second at 132, Joey Campbell second at 106 and Blake Biteman third at 126.
“We wrestled with quite a few freshman in the lineup, and did pretty well,” said Tecumseh coach Scott Herbert. “I was pleased placing fourth overall.”
“Gage wrestled well for us. He and Blake are our returning district qualifiers. The young kids did well.”
While he is throwing the young kids into the fire of some tough tournaments, he knows they will improve as the season progresses.
“We have a lot of work to do, we are just real young,” he added. “It’s a building year for a lot of these kids. The young kids wrestled well for their first varsity tournament, we had seven freshman in the lineup.”
At Fairmont, the Arrows placed seventh in a tournament that saw tougher competition for his squad.
Biteman was the individual champion at 126, and was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament, selected by the coaches at the event.
Whitt was third, Caleb Young also third at 152, while placing fourth was Brandon Henn at 220 and Kyle Holt at heavyweight.
“Blake wrestled well,” Herbert said. “His award voted on by coaches and deserved it. He beat a kid from Fairmont by major decision who was a returning district qualifier. In the finals, he beat Hefner from Wapakoneta who is a returning state qualifier. He was a little down after Centerville, but he came back and progressed well.”
“The young kids did well also, they are learning a lot. We took a lot of the freshman to Carroll JV tourney on Saturday and they did well wrestling kids their own caliber. They are getting thrown into the fire and they are learning and getting better every day. It will be a growing year for us, and next couple of years it will pay off. “
Tecumseh battled Greenon and Urbana in a meet last week, dropping a tough 36-35 decision to Urbana, but bouncing back with a 51-18 win over Greenon.
Earning wins for the Arrows against Urbana were Campbell (106), Gavyn Sineff (120), Biteman (126), James Ridge (145), Whitt (145) and Young (152).
Against the Knights, the Arrow victories came from Hunter Elam, Brandon Henn, Tommy Rowe, Campbell, Sineff, Biteman, Whitt, Young and Ridge.
The Urbana match came down to Biteman’s match, and he was tech falling his opponent on his back. A pin was called which would have given the Arrows six points, but the assistant referee overturned the call which only gave Tecumseh five points, thus a one point loss to Urbana.
Herbert mentioned the early success of some of the young kids, Campbell, Tommy Rowe at 138 and Henn.
Tecumseh now competes in the GMVWA tournament next week at Wright State. They also will be at the Clark County Clash on January 2 at Southeastern High School, trying to defend their title. Their lone home match this season is in February as Tippecanoe comes to town.