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NTL WRESTLING: TOWANDA LOOKING TO BUILD OFF LAST YEAR'S MOMENTUM (2022-12-02)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It’s year two of Towanda wrestling’s rebuild, and they have their sites set high as they look to get the Knights back on top of the league and district, again.

The core of this group is their sophomore class - 14 out of the 23 on the roster - and they led Towanda’s resurgence last season. In fact, the Knights have just one senior and three total wrestlers in the top two grades.


“It’s different,” Towanda coach Bill Sexton said about the make-up of the team. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a team this young before, but it’s a fairly accomplished group. If we can get everybody in the right weight classes going into the season it should be a fairly good year for us.”


They return nine letter winners including regional qualifier Mason Higley (15-9), and sectional champions Riley Vanderpool (31-6) and Rylee Sluyter (19-11). In fact, the wrestlers that they’re bringing back combined to go 136-65 last season.


Despite all that success returning Sexton isn’t taking anything for granted.


“We’re not going to sneak up on anybody this year,” he said. “I don’t know if we snuck up on anybody last year, I think people pretty much knew what we had. And then we just started to prove what we could do with it. Nobody’s going to look by us this year. That was my message at the start of the year with our kids is, ‘be prepared, because people are going to know who you are, and nobody’s going to cut you any slack this year. You’re going to have to earn it again.’”


Higley had quite the year last season. He came into the season late due to an injury, and won his first ever varsity match in a close bout with Troy. Then his family had a house fire before their rivalry match with Wyalusing, another bout where he performed well.


“I can use wrestling as a way to just take my mind off it,” explained Higley. “I talk to family, I talk to the coaches, just to my friends. They were always there for me, and got me through it. I just use it as a motivator.”


And after earning a regional berth last year he’s ecstatic to get a full season under his belt this season.


“I just want to improve more,” he said. “I want to have a better year this year.”


His biggest goal is looking to do better in neutral.


“Just moving my feet, and making sure that I’m in good position at all times,” he remarked. “Getting my strength, speed, and stamina up. I practiced with some really good guys over the summer just to get better, more experience, more mat time.”


He’s also jumping up in weight, planning on being a true 172-pounder.


“It feels good because I gained more muscle over the summer,” said Higley. “So I’m getting bigger.”


Vanderpool proved to be an anchor in the middle of the line-up all season last year. He won a tough North Section weight last season, but came up short of his goal of making regionals.


“I’m going to change my goal from last year,” he said. “I’m going to take it, and say I’m going to try placing at regionals instead of districts this year.”


The athletic Vanderpool plans on fine tuning, and adding, to his offense.


“I want to be better using more technique, and just find my way to get places,” he said. 


Vanderpool liked to cradle up opponents, so they’ll be looking for that now.


“I’ll probably use more setups and different shots to get them into position,” he remarked.


Sluyter also won a North Section title, his at 126 pounds.


“I want to be a sectional champion again, and, hopefully, qualify for regionals,” Sluyter said. 


Despite being a sophomore Sluyter picked up a lot of experience last season, which has given him quite a bit of confidence coming into this year.


“We’re trying to be a lot better as a team, and go further,” he said.


It’s also not lost on him how rare it is for a team with that much youth to have that much success, even though they’ve been having success on the mat since they were in elementary school.


“It’s amazing, because we’re very good,” he said, noting that it’s ‘more fun, more entertaining’ doing this on the varsity level.


Despite all the returnees they do have some holes to fill, particularly the loss of state medalist Bryant Green to graduation. Like all teams right now they’re trying to find the right kids in the right spots, but, ultimately, they trust the wrestlers will sort themselves out.


“I think in the long run most of them are going to do what’s best for the team,” said Sexton. “They did last year. I think Bryant Green was a really good example for that. For us, he wrestled 172 most of the year then wrestles 160 when it came time for him to be wrestling at his optimal weight, but he wrestled as high as 89 for us last year. Some of these guys bumped up two, or in some cases, three weight classes last year to fill the line-up for us, and they’re pretty much all willing to do that.”


They’ll have a tough time with defending NTL champs Canton in the dual meet season, but should match up well with everybody else in the league.


“It’s a difficult thing,” Vanderpool said. “We’re just going to have to work through it, and try our best.”


Other key returnees are Wyatt Stranger (23-8 last season), Hayden Space (11-8), Sawyer Robinson (12-12), Jace Gunther (17-11), and Aiden Miller (8-12).


Individually, Sexton is hoping to see his team improve upon last year’s showing in the post season.


“Our goal this year, like every year, is to get kids through to the state tournament,” he said. “The more the better. So, hopefully we can get quite a few to place for us at sectionals, move on through districts, regionals, and, hopefully, get to states.”


ROSTER (Grade)

Zayne McPeak (11)

Mason Higley (10)

Riley Vanderpool (10)

Rylee Sluyter (10)

Jace Gunther (10)

Wyatt Stranger (10)

Hayden Space (10)

Sawyer Robinson (10)

Aiden Miller (10)

Audy Vanderpool (12)

Zachery McKean-Moore (11)

Tristant Conklin (10)

Chase Geurin (10)

Zach Lantz (10)

Mateo Perez (10)

Tahshon Gardner (10)

Caden Delamater (10)

Mason Harbst (10)

Matt Harbst (10)

Anthony Rifenbark (9)

Tanner Vanderpool (9)

Hunter Wheeler (9)

Bryghton Yale (9)


SCHEDULE

Dec. 12 - vs Tunkhannock, 7 p.m.

Dec. 17 - host Dandy Duals, 11 a.m.

Dec. 20 - at Troy, 7 p.m.

Dec. 23 - at Central Columbia, 5 p.m.

Dec. 28 - at Windsor Tournament

Dec. 29 - at Windsor Tournament

Jan. 5 - at Sayre with Waverly, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 - host Flynn Propane Duals, 11 a.m.

Jan. 10 - at NEB, 7 p.m.

Jan. 12 - at Warrior Run, 7 p.m.

Jan. 17 - vs Canton, 7 p.m.

Jan. 19 - vs Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Jan. 21 - vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 - vs Athens, 7 p.m.

Jan. 27 - at West Branch Tournament

Jan. 28 - at West Branch Tournament




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