The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Preview: Van Wert Cougars wrestling

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Van Wert’s 2019-2020 wrestling season begins tonight against Western Buckeye League foe and while the Cougars aren’t large in numbers, the team is big in heart.

Just 11 wrestlers are on the roster, which means several matches will be forfeited in different weight classes.

However, the Cougars have a seasoned team leader in senior Gabe Steyer, a two-time state qualifier. After wrestling at 132 his sophomore year (38-6) and 138 last season (41-4), he’ll wrestle in the 152-pound weight class tonight.

Ben Collins

“Gabe brings a lot of experience and love for the sport to the mat,” head coach Ben Collins said. “His successful career has helped our program grow.”

“The biggest thing that he has brought so far this year are his leadership skills,” Collins continued. “Up until this year we hadn’t really seen that out of him verbally. This year he has done a great job of not only being a leader by setting an example of how to work in practice, but has also brought a verbal leadership that is helping our team.”

Also taking the mat tonight will be 120-pound junior Killian Sudduth, a Division II district qualifier last season; 160-pound junior Macein Bigham; 195-pound junior Spencer Blue; 220-pound senior Cody Gamble, and 285-pound sophomore Eli Kline.

“The strength in our team still lies within our upperclassmen, juniors and seniors,” Collins explained. “Each of these kids have had a ton of experience coming into this season, and they have been through our program and understand what it means to be a Van Wert wrestler. Their ability to lead our younger guys will help us to be successful throughout the season.”

The roster also includes 170-pound senior Malachi Battle; 285-pound senior Clay Ellerbrock; 220-pound sophomore Tanner Stinnett; 126-pound sophomore Arnez Riley, and 152-pound freshman Jacob Geething.

“Our kids have been working very hard so far this season,” Collins said. “They have done everything that we have asked of them to the best of their abilities. We have really focused on our ‘Attitude and Effort’ through all aspects of our practices and our school days.”

“Up to this point they have been very receptive to our thoughts about what it should look like. They all have an understanding of what it is going to take for our team to be successful with only our limited numbers.”

Along with dual matches against WBL opponents, the Cougars will compete in several tournaments, including the Jim McCracken Invitational this Saturday and the seven team Jimmy Mac Duals at Bellefontaine the following Saturday.

“Sidney is a great opener for us,” Collins said of this weekend’s tournament. “The mix of teams that are there have always been good for us to judge where we are at early in the season.”

“The Bellefontaine tournament is a dual meet tournament,” the coach added. “We obviously will have to be on top of our game for this tournament due to our numbers. However, we picked up this tournament to wrestle some different schools that we hardly see.”

Other tournaments on the schedule include the 49th annual Harding Wrestling Classic in Marion December 27 and 28; the Bellbrook Wrestling Invitational January 4; the 13-team Wapakoneta Invitational January 25, plus the WBL tournament February 15. The Cougars also have New Haven (IN) on the schedule on January 11.

“Marion Harding is a huge holiday tournament where we can gage where we stand at the mid-point of the season,” Collins noted. “We follow that up wrestling at Bellbrook which is also a new tournament for us. We really focused on finding new teams to wrestle and also increasing the strength of our schedule.”

“We then go to New Haven which has been a good tournament for us because we see a little bit of different style out of the Indiana schools. We finish up our tournaments by going to Wapak which is a good end of season tournament with the different teams that are represented there.”

“As for the WBL, Wapak, St. Marys and Celina seem to be at the top of the league.”

POSTED: 12/05/19 at 5:49 am. FILED UNDER: Sports