BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
There’s plenty of energy in the Canton wrestling room as the Warriors work hard to bounce back this season under new coach Garrett Wesneski.
“I can’t say enough about this group,” Wesneski said. “We’re a small school and we’ve got 20 kids. Everyone’s working hard. We talk about our core values - sacrifice, gratitude, being grateful, and compete with effort - most of those things we can control, and this group has been so fun to be around. They’re smiling, they want to be here, they’ll run through a wall for me. Our talk at the beginning was we have a lot of great coaches willing to help them become better people, better wrestlers, and I told them right to their face, first night, you guys give me energy I can promise I’m going to give my best to you. I hope you would do the same for me, and they show that every night.”
Two of their biggest returnees are Carson Rockwell and Tommy Preston, both regional qualifiers last year.
“They’re great kids, and hard workers,” said Wesneski. “We’ve had a lot of conversations from when I got the job here. They put in the time in the fall, they know what it takes, and a little bit is on the mental side to beat some of those barriers. We’ve got to take it to a new level, and we’ve got to be willing to do things that they aren’t doing, but at the end of the day it’s just blocking out those nerves.”
Preston went 20-18 a year ago as he took third at sectionals, seventh at districts, and moved up to fifth at regionals - all at 139 pounds.
“I’m so excited,” Preston said. “We’ve got a full mat room, and it just brings the energy up a lot. I’m so excited to see what happens, and how we do this season.”
His performance in last year’s regional tournament gives him motivation going into this season.
“It definitely showed me how far I could go, and it made me realize how much more I could do,” he said. “It definitely gave me motivation to do better, and have standards.”
Preston has been experimenting with new techniques this off-season as he’s gone to several tournaments.
The senior Rockwell went 20-12 a year ago at 145 pounds. He was second at sectionals, fourth at districts, and finishing sixth at regionals.
“I want to make it further in my last year, and hopefully do better than I did last year,” Rockwell said.
He plans on bumping up to 152 or 160 this season, and has been working on his weaknesses during the off-season.
“I want to be better on my feet than I was last year,” he said. “Last year I stood up on the back of my feet a lot, this year I better fix that.”
Fellow senior Leland Pepper is another wrestler that Wesneski feels could break out. At 189 last year he was third at sectionals before ending his season 19-13 at districts.
Pepper is excited to see the new faces in the mat room this year.
“We have a lot more boys than last season,” he said. “We have a lot of boys with a lot more potential, a lot of younger boys. They’re in here grinding, we’re all in here grinding.”
He’s staying at 189 this year, but feels he’ll be able to compete better as he’ll be a fuller 189.
“I really worked on being in shape and kind of getting more to my size,” Pepper said. “Getting more into that style of a 189 wrestler, rather than a 172 wrestler. I just improved my style, improved my technique, and I’m ready for the season.”
In the lighter weights Wesneski is looking for Levi Vermilya to step up. He went 13-18 a year ago, taking fourth at sectionals to reach districts.
He things he might be down to 107 for the postseason, but its up in the air.
“As long as I do it healthy,” Vermilya said about keeping his weight light. “I don’t eat junk and then not eat to cut the weight. If I just eat the right things I think I’ll be alright.”
The lightweights are usually filled with freshmen and sophomores so Vermilya will be one of the elder statesmen in the bracket.
“I worked a lot on my feet,” he said. “I struggled with that last year, and just setting the pace of the match. I feel like I let some people kind of set the pace last year, and that cost me a lot of big matches.”
Wesneski also feels some of the freshmen will be in the line-up.
“I’m excited to see them compete,” he said. “We’ve talked about the same thing, that mentality. Being a freshman is not easy, but learning to focus on getting better. I’m excited for them.”
Looking across the league Canton feels like, if things hit right, they could make some noise. Defending champions Towanda graduated half their line-up, though they return four regional qualifiers, while Athens, Williamson, and Wyalusing all expect to be strong.
Beyond that they want to get back to Milton for the District IV Duals.
“We didn’t make it to districts last year,” Rockwell said. “We have a lot more kids, we’ll probably have a full roster this year compared to last year.”
As for now, Wesneski is focusing on one day at a time.
“We just want to fill the line-up, then our goal is to be in the mix down at Milton,” he said. “That was their goal. They’re excited that we have a lot of guys in the room, and we want to make a push to get back to Milton, and get to wrestle in front of the big crowd with all the fans down there to have some fun.”
ROSTER (Grade)
Gavin Sharp (9)
Owen Moore (9)
Grant Jennings (9)
Trapper Burr (9)
Link Vermilya (10)
Carson Castle (10)
Manuel Halbfoerster (10)
Henry Proseus (10)
Carson Tillotson (10)
Levi Vermilya (11)
Tommy Preston (11)
Carter Inman (11)
Uriah Taleda (11)
Blane Wesneski (11)
Leland Pepper (12)
Carson Rockwell (12)
SCHEDULE
Dec. 10 at Wellsboro, 7 p.m.
Dec. 16 at NPL, 7 p.m.
Dec. 17 vs Williamson, 7 p.m.
Dec. 20 at Panther Holiday Classic
Dec. 27 at Turner Holiday Classic
Jan. 3 at Line Mountain Duals
Jan. 6 at Athens, 7 p.m.
Jan. 8 vs Montoursville, 7 p.m.
Jan. 13 vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.
Jan. 14 at Sullivan County, 7 p.m.
Jan. 16 at NEB, 7 p.m.
Jan. 17 vs Towanda, 7 p.m.
Jan. 21 vs Troy, 7 p.m.
Jan. 23 at Ultimate Warrior
Jan. 24 at Ultimate Warrior
