NTL WRESTLING: NEB CONTINUES UPWARD TRAJECTORY IN 2025-2026 (2025-03-13)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
NEB continued to improve during the 2024-2025 wrestling season, both as a team and individually.

“Overall I believe our coaching staff is happy with how our season ended,” said NEB coach Curt Cole. “We had wins over a couple district dual qualifying teams (NPL, Sullivan County). We ended with smaller numbers due to various factors but the ones that finished the season with us really battled until the end.”

They went 4-12 during the dual meet season, starting strong with back to back wins over Montrose (41-24), and NP-Liberty (42-34).

After dropping a hard fought match to Wyalusing (45-24), they went 2-4 at the Spartan Duals.

They didn’t win after that but had close matches against Canton (40-24), Central Columbia (30-26), and Wellsboro (25-24).

Individually they hit postseason marks they hadn’t touched in over 10 years in some cases.

“Three wrestlers with 20 plus wins, Mason Alexander (35), Alex Gomez (21), and Kale Howland (22),” Cole said. “A couple right there close to 20 wins. We had three district qualifiers (Mason Alexander, Russell Martin, Kale Howland), two regional qualifiers (Mason Alexander, and Kale Howland) and one that placed sixth (Mason) at regionals and was one match shy of a state birth. We have a couple all academic kids (Mason Alexander, Kale Howland, which is always a good goal to achieve). This is the first year since 2019 (Noah Forbes, Dawson Brown) that we had two section finalist with Mason and Kale. It's the first year since 2011 (Zack Green, Jake Balchikonis) that we have qualified two for regionals with Mason and Kale.”

Along with the postseason runs Alexander, Howland, and Martin made, Hunter Comstock, Connor Eastabrook, Alex Gomez, and Ben Ellis all came up one win shy of making it to districts.

Things are looking up for next season as they had no seasons on the roster, giving them a higher ceiling for 2025-2026.

“We had a few boys really commit in the off season and I believe that showed this season,” said Cole. “We do not graduate anyone and we have a good group of Junior High moving up next season. I'm happy in the direction the program is heading. We will continue to try and promote and grow the sport at NEB.”

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