Wrestlers put skills to the test in different forms

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PENDLETON — Two Pendleton Heights athletes found success in the Indiana State Greco and Freestyle Wrestling championship at Avon High School on May 1-2.
Junior Ethan Childers placed seventh in Greco at 170 pounds, while freshman Jackson Todd brought home a state title in Greco and a fifth in Freestyle at 138 pounds.
With his win, Todd will be part of Team Indiana when it travels to Fargo, North Dakota, this summer for a national tournament.
“I just love wrestling. I love winning. I love challenging myself,” Todd said.
In the two-day tournament, Todd wrestled five matches in Freestyle on Saturday and three in Greco on Sunday.


High school wrestling in the United States is called Folk style wrestling, and is different from Freestyle and much more so different from Greco.
Freestyle and Greco are the forms in Olympic wrestling. The points awarded in each style are a little different, but the biggest difference is that in Greco no contact below the waist is allowed.
“They are definitely different,” Childers said. “Once you learn how to wrestle them, they are very exciting, and both styles help you improve for the high school season.”
Childers likes the variety each style offers.
Katie Kriebel, the Arabians’ assistant wrestling coach, heads up the wrestling club and offseason programs. She said Childers and Todd are setting examples for their peers and teammates to follow.
“Jackson is continuing to work and set goals for himself, and Ethan continues to be a leader both on the mat and in the classroom.”
Todd and Childers have participated before, but Childers had not competed in the Freestyle since middle school. Todd said he’s been influenced by uncles Mason and Matt, who had great successes as Arabians.
Matt Todd was state runnerup in 2009, and Mason was a state champion in 2011.
However, another wrestler, two-time state champion Silas Allred from Shenandoah, encouraged Todd to really push for what he wanted.
“I saw a tremendous increase in my skills,” Todd said.
Todd’s victory in Greco was made all the sweeter by the adversity he’d faced through the season.
An injury forced him out for two months. He was a last seed in the Madison County tournament this past season, but came out as the champion. However, his excitement was short-lived. He received word he was academically ineligible to wrestle. He said he’d let things slide by not turning in homework and hit his personal rock bottom.
Todd spoke with head football coach Jed Richman, who told him something that surprised him. He told him it wasn’t the end of the world, and that he’d hit his rock bottom as a freshman. Richman said Todd was in position to make the changes he needed.
With Richman’s words in his head, Todd didn’t spend time pondering “what if”s; he went to work.
“It fueled me,” Todd said. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve done.”
He’d lost just one match in middle school and now had lost most of his freshman season.
Todd’s new outlook is one of determination and not one of defeat. He’s setting his sights on the possibility of attending Rutgers or Michigan as a wrestler. Both his and Childers’ work on the mats is setting examples for their teammates.
“Wrestling is all about competition, and when our teammates see us working and getting better, they naturally want to get better,” Childers said.
Childers is playing flanker on the Pendleton rugby team currently but will still find opportunities to wrestle. He’s interested in engineering and continuing as a wrestler in college.
Evan Tolliver, Kolstun Ramsey and Grayson Caves of Pendleton also competed in the event. Ramsey took sixth in the 8 and under and under 56 pounds. Caves took fifth in the 6 and under and under 55 pounds.

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