Title Town: Lancaster wrestlers win ninth consecutive OCC championship
LANCASTER – When you are as successful and show the kind of consistency the Lancaster wrestling team has shown over the last decade, there is certainly pressure to succeed, especially when it comes to winning conference championships.
Lancaster never flinched heading into Friday’s Ohio Capital Conference-Buckeye Division showdown against rival Newark, which was tied for first with the Golden Gales with 4-0 records.
The Golden Gales started strong and steadily pulled away for a convincing 51-19 victory, and in the process, won their ninth consecutive OCC championship.
“It is special to win another league title,” said Lancaster senior Toby Hutsler, who picked up a pin in his 120-pound match against the Wildcats. “We all work hard in practice and in the weight room and we all push each other to be better. Whenever you are going for a league title, there is pressure, but we embrace it and use it as motivation to work even harder.”
The program sends wrestlers to the state tournament on a regular basis, with several of them qualifying as state placers. Each year, it seems like the Gales lose talented wrestlers to graduation, but the expectations never change, and that is certainly the case this year.
What sets the Lancaster program apart from others is their wrestlers embrace those lofty expectations.
“We have a great culture in the program, and it starts when we are really young,” said senior Kody Hoffman, who won his match, 2-0. “It gets everyone on the same page and working together. Winning this many titles in a row just comes down to hard work. A lot of our guys just build off all the work we put in, we don’t crack under pressure and always stay mentally focused.
“I remember coming in as a freshman nervous and I was a lot smaller, but the good thing about that year was I had seniors ahead of me to learn from and that helped a lot. Now, being a senior, I feel like I’m helping and teaching the younger guys. That’s what the program is all about and why it is so successful.”
The match of the night for the Gales came when Landon Huffer was trailing 14-7 and looked to be well on his way to a loss, but he was able to turn the tide, got his opponent on his back, and ended up picking a huge pin to keep the Gales’ momentum going.
Lancaster coach Dugan Bentley said it’s those kinds of matches that may not seem like much but make a huge difference.
“There is no doubt we were favored to win, but a lot of matches can shift, and certainly, I don’t come in thinking this is going to be easy,” Bentley said. “We feel like any of these other league teams have the ability to beat us. If you have a couple of things that don’t go our way or a couple of matches we are losing or we are winning and they turn the other way, it can make a difference. Just like the match we were losing big but were able to get a pin, that is a 12-point swing. You start having two or three of those go against you, and then all of a sudden you can lose.
“It does feel good to win another league title because some of these league teams are getting better and more competitive. It certainly never gets old, and it is exciting to win league championships, and we never take them for granted, that’s for sure.”
The scary thing is the Gales are a young team, which bodes well for the future and for them to continue to win league championships, but it all starts with consistency throughout the program, starting at the lower levels.
“We are not a senior-laden team and have several underclassmen in the lineup, and we have some really good eighth graders that are coming up,” Bentley said. “They have all wrestled through our youth program, which I’ve been coaching the youth program since I’ve been here in the last nine years. I’m the head youth coach. I have been coaching these kids since they were little, and I would imagine there are not too many head varsity coaches, that coach at every level.
“I have my thumbprint on every level of the program. It is a level of adhesiveness from K-12 where it is all sort of one program. It helps keep things consistent throughout the program and is a big reason why we have so much success.”
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Title Town: Lancaster wrestlers win ninth consecutive OCC championship
