(Harlan) Harlan earned a share of the Hawkeye Ten Conference dual wrestling title last year and figures to be in the mix again this season.
Cyclone head coach John Murtaugh is looking for the team to be strong once again. “We hope to be, you just never know. We have 14 lettermen and eight returning starters, but we lost five pretty good seniors. We have some big shoes to fill and hopefully we can do that.”
Coach Murtaugh identifies some of the top returners for his team. “Jesse Schwery is a returning state qualifier. He leads the way, he had 32 wins last year. Luke Musich was a sectional champ, got 2nd in the conference, and had 31 wins last year. It looks like he’s going to fall in at 126. Jesse Schwery, he’s going to drop down a weight class to 195, last year he wrestled 220 and weighed about 197. It’ll be nice to see him wrestle his true weight class. Zane Bendorf, he was a freshman last year and made the districts last year. Pretty good blood lines, 26 wins last year.”
The team is a little bit behind due to Harlan competing in the state football finals, but coach Murtaugh isn’t too concerned about that. After all, it’s not how you start…it’s how you finish, especially in wrestling. “We are a week behind, but when you’re in an activity and the kids are winning, that’s always a good thing you just can’t replace that. You have to remember that wrestling’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. As long as we are wrestling our best at the end I’ll feel good about that. I’ve always told the kids that all the meets leading up to Sectionals, Districts, and State are all practice meets. We like to win in practice, don’t get me wrong, but they are all practice meets.”
He adds Reece Schwery and Dalton McKinley both wrestled well up until suffering season ending injuries last year. Heavyweight Jeremiah Davis will shift from heavyweight to 220 and Murtaugh expects him to make a pretty big impact.
