Lincoln Boys Wrestling hosts a Meet the Railers night

[November 19, 2018] 

The Lincoln Railers Boys Wrestling Team hit the mats on Wednesday night last week at the team's Meet the Railers.

The wrestlers demonstrated a variety of techniques to the crowd that showed up in support of the team. The boys also competed in a Push-Up-A-Thon Fundraiser that was won by senior Colton Davis. Davis completed 182 pushups in three minutes.

Davis was also just named Railer of the Week for Lincoln Wresting. Freshman Griffen Turner was named the Railer of the Week for the first week of practice.
Lincoln Wrestling head coach Justin Dietrich, who is in his sixth year as the head of the program, is anticipating a great season ahead for the boys.

"We have good numbers this year and we have a really good mix of freshmen through seniors," said Dietrich. "We have some experienced guys and some new guys coming in that are going to help us out. We are also returning a lot of talent so that's the big thing where we are getting guys that really know how to work hard and they have a lot of big goals this year.

"We have big goals as a team, not just a couple individual goals. We have a team goal to win a regional this year. To try and advance as a team late into February is a real goal.

"We are two to three guys deep almost through the entire team. That's the first time we've been that way in a while, too. Everything is kind of feeding off of each other."

Railer wrestlers in action on the mats.

Railer wrestlers compete in the Push-Up-A-Thon Fundraiser.

The boys also do a wrestle-off to see who gets to wrestle at each weight class, explained Dietrich. "That's just how we do our wrestle-offs," he said. "They get to challenge each other for those spots. So if they beat the guy ahead of them, they get to be the varsity guy."

Lincoln returns two guys who reached State from last year's team, Austin O'Donoghue and Trevor Bree. O'Donoghue is a sophomore and Bree is a junior.

"They are going to have good years for us and we hope to have more guys go down to State," said Dietrich. "That is just what our goal is, to keep adding to that."

It was a great night on the mats at Meet the Railers as Kirby Rogers watches on.

Local wrestling referee Kirby Rogers also spoke to the crowd at Meet the Railers. Rogers gave an inspirational speech that highlighted the toughness of the athletes as well as noting, "Wrestling is the world's oldest sport."

It was also noted during the evening that there is a wrestling scholarship named in honor of Walt Landers.

All coaches, wrestlers and managers were introduced throughout the evening.

Railer Wrestling opens the season on Tuesday night at home versus Limestone and Porta. The matches are set to begin at 6 p.m. in Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium.

The Railer Wrestling Coaching Staff ~ Sam McShane, Jason Lawrence, Justin Dietrich and Noah Mayes.

Railer Wrestling Coaching Staff

Head Coach ~ Justin Dietrich
Assistant ~ Jason Lawrence
Assistant ~ Sam McShane
Assistant ~ John Mammen
Assistant ~ Noah Mayes

The 2018-19 Lincoln Railer senior wrestlers

The 2018-19 Lincoln Railer junior wrestlers

Varsity roster

Aaron Bahn ~ senior
Jacob Benninger ~ junior
Alex Bogdanic ~ junior
Trevor Bree ~ junior
Colton Davis ~ senior
Tony Gandolfi ~ freshman
Devin Gibbens ~ junior
Jayden Graham ~ junior
J.T. Guzzardo ~ junior
Justin Nguyen ~ senior
Austin O'Donoghue ~ sophomore
Tyson Opel ~ senior
Kade Schmidt ~ senior
Jalen Shaffer ~ junior
Brandon Sweitzer ~ junior
Isaiah Sweitzer ~ sophomore
Nolyn Wharton ~ senior

2018-19 Lincoln Railer sophomore wrestlers

2018-19 Lincoln Railer freshmen wrestlers

JV roster

Eldon Barger ~ sophomore
John Bius ~ junior
Austin Daniels ~ junior
Bryton Fuchs ~ freshman
Hayden Gellner ~ freshman
Lucas Hurt ~ freshman
Ryan Kennedy ~ sophomore
Dayhlon Kusnerick ~ freshman
Nathan Ladage ~ freshman
Hunter Naugle ~ freshman
Kadin Osland ~ freshman
Griffen Turner ~ freshman
Landon Vincent ~ sophomore
Steven Walters ~ sophomore

A fun and hard-working bunch ~ the managers and statisticians of Railer Wrestling!

Managers

Allie Belt
Jenna Brandt
Matthew Edwards
Jazlyn Franz
Olivia Gaston
Abbie Glenn
Zadie Laubenstein
Reagan McConnell
Michael O'Donoghue

[Teena Lowery]