Casey is aiming at a return trip to State
RANDOLPH — When it came to putting together kids from Laurel and Randolph (or Quad County Northeast) to combine forces for wrestling, that might have been a good thing.
Head coach Mark Lech enters his 15th season as a head wrestling coach in southern Cedar County and comes off a year where the squad performed well at the Lewis and Clark conference tournament and qualified Kolby Casey to the state tournament.
Casey returns once again for another shot on the mat.
Returning veterans for the boys include seniors Casey, Ajay Gubbels and Carter Olson, junior Aiden Gubbels and sophomores Kage Peterson, Justin Backer, Gage Jensen and Gavin Wortman. The girls bring back sophomore Emilee Olson.
Junior boys Tanner Stanley and Bryson Eledge, sophomore Preston Rose and freshman Brayden Worlein, Lance Stange and Ethan Gregory are all newcomers expected to make some noise while girls that could do the same are sophomore Bailey Rickard and freshman Daly Garcia-Perez.
“We will have good numbers and will be able to fill a lot of weight classes,” Lech said. “This will give us an advantage when we wrestle in duals or in dual tournaments. We have a returning state qualifier in Kolby and a strong senior class with Ajay and Carter both being experienced wrestlers. Our seniors should be the strength of our team and have a lot of experience and will assist the younger wrestlers in meets and in practice.
“We will have three girls out this year and I believe they will push each other to get better and be competitive at meets.”
Lech said the team is top heavy in the weight classes and the idea is to have the athletes figure out their places on the mat and fill as many classes as possible.
“We have a large number of first- or second-year wrestlers who don’t have a lot of tournament experience,” Lech said. “These wrestlers will have to adapt to a varsity schedule and compete in order to help the team.
“I have set some high goals for some individuals on the team and expect our team overall to be competitive. I would like to see our seniors qualify for the state tournament and to have our younger wrestlers be very competitive. I think Emilee can take the next step in the girls’ division and set herself up to possibly qualify for the state tournament. I believe we can be a solid dual team this year.”
Casey is definitely feeling good about where he and the team are headed. Casey’s best performance at state was winning one match and he hopes to surpass that milestone in his final year.
His first three years he went as a 195-pounder, but this campaign he will likely compete at the end of the year at 220.
“I have gotten to state because I have been able to push through to get to state,” Casey said. “I place a goal to get there and get a medal. One thing I need to really work on is my shooting ability, but there are also some really good wrestlers I have faced the past couple of years and some tough competition.
“Now I just need to raise my game. We’ll need to see how this year turns out. I hit the weight room a lot more than I did the last couple of years and I have focused on strength.”
Casey also said the team should be solid. “Randolph has some really good coaches over there and I really enjoy working with the Randolph kids too,” Casey said.
