Eads scores title at Old Capitol Classic

Corydon Central freshman Brett Eads trimmed Temkai Clark of Columbus North to win the 103-lb. championship Saturday at the 21st annual Old Capitol Classic.
It was the Panthers’ lone title in the elite event.
Eads, who pushed his record to 18-5, won by a 5-0 decision in the championship round.
To get there, he knocked off Sammy Rayes of Princeton in the opener, and defeated Jon Elder of Evansville Reitz in the semifinal.
While Eads was the only individual title holder for the Panthers, several other grapplers took their turn on the podium as well.
‘I’m pretty happy to see that,’ Corydon coach Richard Clipp said. ‘The Eads family has worked pretty hard at wrestling. Mom, dad, older brother are all involved. I thought his toughest match of the day was the first match he wrestled.’
At the 135-lb. division, senior Chris Paulley led Jeremy Kempf of Evansville Reitz in the opening period of the final, 4-2, before Kempf came back to tie it at 6-6.
With just a couple of ticks left in the second frame, Kempf (24-3) put Paulley (17-4) on his back and scored the pin.
Jason Ward, a junior in the 152-lb. weight class, showed plenty of spunk in the championship bout. Unfortunately for the Panther, who sports a record of 17-3) Phillip Knepper (22-1) of Heritage Hills was able to keep the match under the control had rolled to a 10-2 victory.
Ward lost to Knepper at Mooresville earlier this season, 5-2.
Sophomore Jared Applegate wound up fourth in the 112-lb. weight class after being defeated by James Wallace of Princeton in the consolation final. Wallace had an escape with just 15 seconds left in the match to pull off the win.
Kyle White finished fourth at 160, falling by a slim, 3-1 margin to Trevor Griffin of Floyd Central in the third-place match.
At 215, David Camp was bested by Floyd Central’s Majeid Ali in the consolation round.
‘I didn’t think we wrestled badly,’ Clipp said. ‘There at the end, we came up against Floyd Central in a couple of important sectional seeding matches. It wasn’t like we rolled over and let them win. We were in it. I’m happy that they wrestled and just didn’t fold the tent or get too conservative.’
Columbus North repeated as team champion, and Brandon Pinkston of Princeton was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.
This Saturday, the Panthers head to Southwestern (Hanover) to compete in the Southern Indiana Wrestling Conference Tournament.
Clipp said his group will need to wrestle its best to repeat as champs.
‘We’re not as good as we could be or are going to be yet,’ Clipp said. ‘Our better wrestlers seem to be beating the better wrestlers from the other teams, but some of the lesser experienced guys aren’t quite able to beat other teams’ lesser experienced guys.
‘When you get into conference and sectional where it’s important to be third and fourth or third, fourth, fifth and sixth at sectional, those lower finishes are just as important as the wins.’