Tippecanoe Valley’s Jacob Eherenman takes control of Caston’s Lonnie Nice Thursday as part of a wrestling quad at Valley. (Photos by Mike Deak)

AKRON – A unique mid-week mini invite afforded four teams a chance to get in some extra work as conference tournaments appear on the horizon. Tippecanoe Valley hosted three others Thursday evening in a quad that had the Vikings fall to South Bend St. Joe and LaVille but edge Caston.

The undermanned Vikings, sending out only 10 competitors from the get-go, managed to get seven mat wins against Caston in the opening round, rallying to pull out a 39-36 final. Jon Humes at 152 and Issac Randall at 160 got Valley on the board with consecutive first period pins followed by an injury default at 170 in favor of Dylan Warner.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Tyler Manuszak works around the grip of LaVille’s Russell Gentner.

Jospeh Irons at 182 and Tyler Manuszak at 195 each closed out third period decisions, Irons at 9-7 on a reversal and three-point near fall and Manuszak using a reversal to hold on for a 6-5 win.

After LaVille took 12 points in heavyweight forfeits, Haley Hoover collected a forfeit at 106 and Jacob Eherenman came out with a 4-3 decision at 113 to pull Valley within three at 36-33. The final matchup had 120-pounders Devin Bandow of Valley and James Keil of Caston square off, to which Bandow didn’t waste much time in the second period, taking down Keil and covering for the pin at 2:41 for the six points and the team victory.

Eight of the 14 cards in the Valley-LaVille matchup were deemed forfeits, but Valley had Humes needing just 47 seconds to pin Trevor Wickizer. Manuszak earned his second win of the day, taking a 7-4 score into the third period and turning over Russell Gentner for a pin at 5:26.

LaVille used five pins of its own plus four forfeits to rack up a 48-36 win over Valley.

The most entertaining match of round three between Valley and St. Joe was at 152, where Humes and Drew Richards went the full six minutes, and the final six seconds became the most crucial. Humes, clinging to a four-point lead with under 15 seconds remaining, looked to have the three-point decision wrapped up. Richards, however, managed a reversal with six seconds on the clock, which he turned into a three-point near fall with a second left. The five-point swing left the match 11-10 in favor of Richards.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Chevy Teeter tries to regain leverage against South Bend St. Joseph’s Alex Lee.

The 45-33 final for St. Joe did have Valley score two pins and a decision on the Indians. Randall was very impressive, shooting once on Tyler Eggert and getting the roll-up and the pin at just 20 seconds. Bandow, using a little extra verbal encouragement from head coach Kyler Kearby 20 seconds into his dual with Will Faulkner, made the next 32 seconds count in pinning Faulkner. Chevy Teeter opened Valley’s scoring with a 10-6 decision over Alex Lee at 145.

“Chevy was very good today on his feet, and he attacked,” Kearby said, noting the performance of his lighter weights. “Haley is getting better, she is working very hard and keeps improving. Jacob Eherenman is one kid I’m not counting out of anything. If he’s down in a match, he’ll keep fighting. Bandow drives me nuts sometimes. I love the kid to death, though. He’s a fighter, he’s just got to refine his technique and work on winning with technique as we get closer to sectional. He won’t get by at Plymouth without that.”

Valley will have all sorts of mat time in the coming days. Saturday, Valley will take part in the Rochester Super 8, then host another quad much like Thursday in a week’s time, this time with Bremen, North White and West Noble. The following 36 hours will then be prep for the Three Rivers Conference Championships at North Miami on Jan. 21.

“This group won’t stop,” began Kearby about his club. “Some teams, when it comes to this time of the year facing the conference and the sectional, they kind of falter. These guys, it’s not easy coming to practice every day with just 10, but they keep coming back. I didn’t like giving up as many pins as we did, but at the same time, we did a lot of good things here. And we got some very valuable experience.

“These guys are ready are ready to finish this off. They have Rochester this Saturday and then another busy week heading into conference.”

In the other scores from the night, St. Joe beat LaVille 46-30 and Caston 39-30, and LaVille topped Caston 48-21.

Tippecanoe Valley coaches Kyler Kearby, left, and Scott Smith react while Devin Bandow tries to pin St. Joe’s Will Faulkner.