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NTL WRESTLING: CANTON LOOKS TO KEEP STRING OF STRONG SEASONS GOING (2024-12-01)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Over the past several seasons Canton wrestling has been on a tear, and they hope to keep that momentum going into the 2024-2025 season.

While they slipped a little bit last year as a team - they came up just short of an NTL title - they still finished top six in the District IV Duals, and saw Hudson Ward stand on top of the state podium.

“We’re excited ready to go,” said coach Lyle Wesneski. “We’re doing a lot of teaching. We got a lot of kids that are really young and inexperienced. We only have two seniors, so we’re doing a lot of teaching, a lot of coaching, coaching on the run, teaching up, and we’re going see them grow as the year goes on.”

After having a veteran squad the last five years Wesneski is enjoying getting back to the basics.

“I told them the first day, I looked around the room, and I said, ‘I love this group,’” he remarked. “I love the group that we have. We had a couple that didn’t come out, and so be it - it is what it is - but we’re moving on. I like the group we have, they’re hard working, they listen, they’re like sponges right now, soaking up everything they can, and that’s all you can ask for.”

They return two state qualifiers in Lyle Vermilya (33-14) and Holden Ward (38-18), along with 20-match winner Carson Rockwell (26-13).

The senior Vermilya is excited to see how the season goes after getting to Hershey last season.

“It’s exciting to see where everybody’s starting at, and to see where we’re at the end of the year,” Vermilya said.

Vermilya did get a win down at states, and believes tweaking some little things can go a long ways.

“I’ve been working on a lot of different things,” he said. “A lot of work had to do on my feet, correcting some small stuff that I was doing wrong.”

He plans on sliding up to 121 this season to start, but isn’t sure where he’ll end up.

“Last year I just wrestled off of, ‘OK, I feel good here, if I go here, it might be harder to make it to states,’” Vermilya said. “But the same thing applies, if I feel really good wrestling at 121, and I think that’s a good fit, then I’ll go with that.”

Rockwell’s season ended at districts a year ago after winning a North Section title as a sophomore.

He looks to be jumping up to 139 or 145 this season from 133 a year ago.

“I’m excited to try and make it as far as I can,” Rockwell said. “I’ve been going to tournaments and some practices here over the summer.”

He has a strong sparring partner in Tommy Preston (13-12), who wasn’t able to wrestle in the postseason last year.

“It’s nice because you don’t have to wrestle up or wrestle down,” explained Rockwell. “It doesn’t make practice shots too easy.”

Preston is hoping to make a jump this season as he’ll be wrestling around the same weights as Rockwell.

“I’m very excited, a very different team this year,” Preston said. “It’s going to be fun to be good teammates to the newer guys, and I’m excited to see what it looks like against other teams this year.”

The sophomore has enjoyed going over the newer stuff with the novice teammates.

“It’s always good to go over that stuff again at the beginning of the year,” said Preston.

He has some sharp goals for year number two.

“I want to get a specific amount of wins, and I want to be a good teammate,” remarked Preston. “I want to motivate and teach the new kids that are here, and do good and get noticed this year.”

Wesneski is excited to see what his big returnees can do.

“You want to get them on the podium,” he said. “They got there last year, and got their feet wet, and go a little taste of it, and now they want to climb up on the podium and get some hardware.”

On the other end, he’s hoping they can get the new guys going to keep the program humming along.

“We got these young guys here that are ready to go,” he said. “Between now and February it’s all practice. The real season starts the second week of February when you roll into sectionals. Whatever we learn, and we can learn from it, and get better, we’ll be ready by the second week of February.”

ROSTER

Levi Vermilya (10)

Carson Castle (9)

Lyle Vermilya (12)

Henry Proseus (9)

Link Vermilya (9)

Carson Tillotson (9)

Ethan Brasington (11)

Lawrence Halbfoerster (11)

Carson Rockwell (11)

Tommy Preston (10)

Manuel Halbfoerster (9)