wrestling

Mitchell Swarr (left) and Charlie Creighton, both seniors, lead a “good mix of older and younger” Lampeter-Strasburg wrestlers into the ’25-’26 season. Both agree the strength of the team will be in the mid- to heavyweight classes.

For both Mitchell and Charlie, the Elizabethtown team is the Section 2 favorite, though Conestoga Valley or Donegal may
make a surprise showing, but “Do not county out L-S!” they say. Mitchell and Charlie agree L-S is evenly matched against E-town, and the two squads are very familiar with each other.

Tyra Bookman wrestles as a junior at McCaskey. She has accumulated 17 wins through her sophomore year. Tyra wrestles
any of these weight classes 136, 142 and 148 pounds. She hopes to start off strong in McCaskey’s first match, a tournament at Boiling Springs.

Last wrestling season Tyra ranked at 18th in the state meet. She plans to improve that ranking this year.

The McCaskey wrestling team recently graduated all the seniors who started the wrestling program at McCaskey in 2023. This year’s team is mostly juniors, sophomores and freshmen with four seniors.

Ben Patterson, a senior, has high expectations for this year’s Penn Manor wrestling team. Ben says we are “really solid” in the middle weights and at heavyweight. And individually he sees a competitive battle in his 160-172 weight class.

Last year Ben wrestled to 25 wins. His personal goals for this year are to lead his team by good example. He hopes to “stand on the podium” for Leagues and qualify for Districts.

Manheim Township and Hempfield are year in and year out tough team battles, but this year Ben sees Conestoga Valley as an
exceptionally tough team.

As a junior on Lampeter-Strasburg’s girls wrestling team, Avery Planck exudes excitement for the season to begin with a tournament at Dallastown High School. She says she and her teammates individually should be very successful, but with only 7 wrestlers on the team, it might be difficult to win a team match.

This year is Avery’s fourth year of wrestling -- three at LS high school and one in middle school. Her weight class is 136, though she may go to a lower weight class. She has 27 wins in her ongoing career.

Garrett Aukamp, sophomore wrestler at Solanco, says his team’s quote is “How you do anything is how you do everything!”

This quote encourages his teammates to “push each other” to be better and to develop a good team chemistry.

Garrett sees his Solanco team as “young in age, but not in experience.” Several wrestlers return from last year's team as  letter winners.

Kolton Kemp begins his second year as Manheim Township’s heavyweight wrestler. His record as a freshman was an impressive 25-11.

According to Kemp, Township will field a young, talented wrestling squad this year. Hempfield is a rival in wrestling, if not all sports.

Kemp looks toward a rematch with the Penn Manor heavyweight after last year’s match was tough battle.

Kemp has goals to do well, if not win, at Sections and Districts, along with qualifying for States.

Lancaster-Lebanon League has honored its individual wrestling champions, and league coaches have selected the following all-stars for the 2024-2025 season. (Pictured are McCaskey's Jurelys Peguero del Rosario, girls wrestler of the year, and Kevin Franklin, girls coach of the year.)

Boys

League Champion:  Conestoga Valley

Section 1:  Ephrata & Manheim Township

Section 2:  Conestoga Valley

Section 3:  ELCO

Lancaster-Lebanon League has honored its individual wrestling champions, and league coaches have selected the following all-stars for the 2023-2024 season. (Kaedyn Williams, pictured, of Manheim Township, won the 114-pound championship, Kenneth W. Ober Outstanding Wrestler Award and shared the 3A Wrestler of the Year honor.)

Boys Champions

107 — Sam Wolford, Northern Lebanon

114 — Kaedyn Williams, Manheim Township

121 — Aaron Seidel, Northern Lebanon

Lancaster-Lebanon League has honored its individual wrestling champions and league coaches have selected the following all-stars for the 2022-2023 season. (Pictured are McCaskey champions and all-stars Kevin Olavarria and Jose Garcia and Conestoga Valley all-stars Nick Horton, Luke Needham and Abdoul Akala.)

League Champions

107 Aaron Seidel, Northern Lebanon

114 Kaedyn Williams, Manheim Township

121 Marco Tocci, Warwick

127 Seamus Mack, Hempfield

Here are the 2021-22 Lancaster-Lebanon League wrestling individual champions, section all-stars and additional honorees.

Individual Wrestling Champions

106 Aaron Seidel, Northern Lebanon

113 Kaeyden Williams, Manheim Township

120 Eric Howe, Lancaster Catholic

126 Josh Hillard, Manheim Township

132 Jared Fulton, Solanco

138 Aliazer Alicea, Manheim Township

145 Reagan LeFevre, Hempfield