New faces to lead Tiger wrestling team

With 21 freshmen and only four sophomores on its roster, the Cowley College wrestling team will need its new faces to do well in order for the team to have success.

Interim head coach Justice Circle, who wrestled at Cowley and now begins his second year coaching with the program, is optimistic about the freshmen on the roster.

"Recruiting went well. We were able to bring in quite a few local kids," Circle said. "We have a lot of freshmen that have big shoes to fill."

Among the talented freshman are three-time state finalist, Aidan O'Dell, from Blackwell, OK, who will wrestle at 125 pounds, and Melton Powe, a three-time state champion out of Alabama, that will wrestle at 157 pounds.

Wellington High School wrestlers Kanden Young and Chase Koehler join fellow Kansas high school wrestlers Owen Ward, Sebastian Rodriguez, Garrett Peery, Cole Manrose, and Brock Furguson on the roster.

Other freshmen on the roster are Landry Beeching, Myles Brown, Lewis Caples, Stefaan Fearon, Aiden Godbehere, Nate Hutchinson, Ayden Montez, Christian Mora, Tony Nguyen, Andrew Powell, Ethan Vorwaller, and Teaguen Wilson.

Trenton Grant, at 141 pounds, and heavyweight Dean Setticase, have each won matches at the national tournament and highlight the returning sophomores. Joshua Kime and Daniel Camilo are the other sophomores on the squad.

"We have those sophomores on the right track in leading the freshmen," Circle said. "We expect big things from the sophomores."

Cowley will open the season on November 5 at the Friends University Invite in Wichita, KS, and will face challenging duals at the Grandview Open in Iowa and Kearney Open in Nebraska.

"We will jump in head first. The biggest thing with these freshmen is getting them mat time," Circle said. "We need to win bonus points and have some freshmen step up and beat some people they were maybe not supposed to beat."

After finishing just outside the top-10 last season, Cowley hopes to crack the top-10 in the upcoming season.

"We are getting better each and every day," Circle said. "The end goal is far away, so we just need to work hard and let everything else play out the way it is supposed to. We just need to focus on wrestling and do our job; if we do that, we should be successful."