By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
ELWOOD — In dominant fashion, Pendleton Heights won its 10th straight Madison County team title.
On Saturday, at Elwood, the Arabians advanced 10 wrestlers into the championship round and took home four individual titles to come out on top as a team. The team win was Pendleton’s 14th county win since 2008 and its 11th in the past 12 years.
The Arabians winning score of 278 outpaced runner-up Frankton (204) and Alexandria (196). Anderson (170), Madison-Grant (156), Elwood (95.5) and Lapel (32) rounded out the team scores.
Leading the way for the Arabians was state-ranked senior Jack Todd, who took less than two minutes to defeat each of his opponents to claim the 144-pound title.
After a forfeit by his opponent in Round 1, he pinned Lapel’s Braden Dawson in 1:54 before pinning Alexandria’s Carter Blackmon in 1:55 in the championship match.
The two wins moved him to 11-0 on the season.
Teammate Jay Covington remained undefeated as well with a trio of wins to claim the 138-pound championship.
He won by technical fall 19-2 in Round 1 against Elwood’s Ayden Mort, before pinning Madison-Grant’s Grant Howard in the semifinals and Frankton’s Thaiden Alexander in the title match.
At 126 pounds the Arabians claimed another individual title. Max Bowers won his first match by fall before besting Alexandria’s Clayton Martin by fall 13-0 in the championship.
Pendleton’s final champion came at 165 pounds. With wins by fall in 44 seconds, 1:17 and 1:15, Garrett Pederson coasted to the fourth individual title for the Arabians.
Along with the four winners, Pendleton had six wrestlers finish runner-up. Brooks Bond (113), Alex Heineman (132), Turner Seale (157), Nate Walls (175), Chris Crank (190), and Tyrese Covington (285) all advanced to the championship round before being defeated.
Gage Warrum (106) and Eli Libler (215) each won their third-place match to help add to the Arabians team point total.
Lapel had two wrestlers compete in the event, and each placed third place on the day.
After losing to Todd, Lapel’s Braden Dawson went on to defeat Frankton’s Riley Molnar and Elwood’s Kaci McCray for the third-place finish at 144 pounds. Cole Miller won two matches by fall and defeated Elwood’s Brylen Mort by decision 6-3 in the 165-pound third-place match.