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LAUREL - For the first time in a few years Laurel-Concord-Coleridge will have wrestling.
For the past six years LCC was in a sports cooperative agreement with Randolph then Wayne but decided to split off into its own team t his season and 10 boys and five girls will make up this year’ s team.
“Many of our wrestlers are new to the sport,” said head coach Chad Koch. “Though we are inexperienced, we have a lot of wrestlers who have the potential to be successful.”
Koch has been the junior high wrestling coach for Laurel-ConcordColeridge the past few years and wrestled back in his days at Cedar Catholic where he placed fifth at State as a senior for the Troj ans. Until recently, Koch still held quite a few wrestling records at Cedar.
Weston Patefield is the only Bear with experience after wrestling in the Wayne cooperative last season and Lady Bear Darly Garcia-Perez returns to the mat after taking a couple of years off due to injury afte r wrestling in the Randolph cooperative.
Five freshmen, three sophomores, a junior and senior make up this year’s Bear hopefuls while three sophomores, a junior and a senior will make up the Lady Bear squad.
Freshmen Owen Johnson (106), Eric Langford (157), Alex Allison (175), James Recob (215) and Devyn Staples (HWT); and sophomores Weston Patefield (144), Jayson Wayman (165) and Jake Lipp (190); junior Paul Allison (165) and senior Aiden Hayden (150) will be wrestling for the Bears.
For the Lady Bears, sophomores Tae Settje, Ava Christansen and Grace Galvin; junior Justice Olson and senior Garcia-Perez will hit the mats.
The Bears and Lady Bears open the 2025-26 season at the Creighton Invitational on Dec. 6, the first of 10 invites for the Bears and seven for the Lady Bears.
The Greater Northeast Activities Conference meet is scheduled for Jan. 22 for both teams at Plainview while the Bears will travel to Madison for districts on Feb. 14 and the Lady Bears will wrestle back in Plainview for their district meet, Feb. 6-7.
