BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
Canton battled through an injury plagued season, and saw the fruits of their labor with a .500 duals record, and a state qualifier in Lyle Vermilya.
“It was a roller coaster of a season when you think about it,” said Canton coach Lyle Wesneski. “We had everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, but I always preach, adversity makes you tougher, and you’ve got to find a way.”
Carson Rockwell was out for a month-and-a-half with an illness, and Blaine Wesneski broke his wrist before the postseason to name two big ones.
“We set a goal to get in district duals, and we scrapped, and clawed, and we came up with some big wins when we had to, and ended up 5-5,” Wesneski said. “We were proud of them. We were a little beat up, but I said, ‘we’re going, regardless.’ We’re a young team, and we went to Hughesville, and they returned the favor from us last year, but they ended up turning out to be a pretty good team finishing second.”
The Warriors opened with a 47-26 win over Wellsboro, then eked out a 38-30 win over NPL. Before Christmas break they fell 46-24 to Williamson to drop to 2-1.
Back to back losses to Montoursville (62-10), and Athens (39-33) pushed them under .500, but they rebounded with two straight close wins against Wyalusing (39-34), and NEB (40-24).
Losses to Towanda (48-13), and Sullivan County (46-29) put them on the brink, but they wrapped it up with a 40-31 win over Troy to punch their ticket to district duals.
They had five wrestlers make it out of the North Section Tournament, and from there three - Vermilya, Tommy Preston, and Rockwell - made the regional tournament.
Vermilya snuck into states with a fourth place finish, while Preston, and Rockwell came up one win short.
“We wrestled a tough schedule,” said Wesneski. “Tommy went into the postseason 11-14, and ended up one match from Hershey, and was 20 seconds from being in Hershey. I’m proud of how much he matured. He got down to the weight where he should have been, his natural weight, his more competitive weight, and he wrestled really, really tough. Hopefully that springboards him to do things over the summer. Carson got cleared the second week of February, and we had to get him ready in a week in a half, so he got in better shape each week. He lost a heartbreaker in the quarterfinals at regionals, he was winning 8-2 with two minutes to go, and gave up 13 points in two minutes. He kind of beat himself up a little bit mentally over that, but you’ve got to respond. He came back the next day, won two, and he had a tough draw with the Savage kid from Line Mountain.”
As for Vermilya, he went 1-2 at states, running through one of the toughest weight classes - 114 - in the postseason to get there.
“There were four hammers in our section,” Wesneski said. “And then you do other districts, and you add in two or three more, and then you come to regionals, and you add in two or three more. He had to just fight through adversity, and he had to fight, and come back and beat kids that had beat him the week before. He just worked so hard, and he controlled his weight like you wouldn’t believe. He was o disciplined, he was doing double practices just so he could keep his weight down, and be eating three meals a day, and feeling good. Obviously, his weight in Hershey was stacked. I’m proud of the career he’s had. I look back and he weighed 91 pounds when he started, and he was just getting mopped around by everybody, and he worked, and worked, and worked, and put the time in, and he ended up with 100-plus wins, and 2-time state qualifier, and he did it all with hard work.”
