Railers Wrestling ready to take the mat tonight

[November 26, 2019]  The 2019-20 Lincoln Railers were introduced last week to fans and tonight the boys hit the mat in Petersburg for the first meet of the season versus PORTA and Limestone.

Head Coach Justin Dietrich gave a great inspirational speech at Meet the Railers last Wednesday night and he emphasized the importance of the athletes being able to look back on their wrestling careers and realize the lessons learned not just on the mat but off. “We want to see these kids reach their potential,” said Dietrich. “We want to see these kids go out and become good workers, good college students or if they go into the military. Whatever they choose in life, we hope that they can look back at their time in the mat room with us and they can say that that was an influential time in my life that helped me get through these things.”

Dietrich told the crowd we all face challenges in life, and he’s trying to better prepare the wrestlers for life ahead. “We try to push these kids to not give up on themselves, to not quit, as they face challenges in life. We are all going to get into life and have those moments, but at a young age if you’ve learned how to overcome those moments, you’re more likely to persevere. Those things are important to me as a head coach and they are important to our coaches.”

Dan Fulscher, a 45-year veteran of wrestling officiating, also explained some of the new rule changes and allowed Austin O’Donoghue and Jayden Graham to demonstrate some of wrestling moves.

Then there was the Push-Up A-Thon. It came down to the wire with J.T. Guzzardo and O’Donoghue. One had a count of 125 and one had a count of 126. Since it was too close to call the two had a challenge to see who could stay up in the push-up position the longest and while both stayed up in the air a very long time, arms beginning to shake and legs about to give out, it was O’Donoghue winning this battle and the gift card to Chances R in Lincoln.

With that let’s roll right into the season and the fact that chances are this is going to be a good one for Railer Wrestling.

Here are your seniors:

Austin Daniels, Jalen Shaffer, Brandon Sweitzer, J.T. Guzzardo, Trevor Bree, Jayden Graham and Jake Benninger

Juniors:

Austin O’Donoghue, Steven Walters, Kayden Aragon, Jared Merriman and Ryan Kennedy
 

Sophomores:

Kadin Osland, Hayden Gellner, Andrew Cline, Lucas Hurt and Nathan Ladage.

Freshman:

Ashton Koontz, Braydon Denney, James Beck, Nicolas Sundeen, Ryan O’Donoghue, Jaden Leadley and Noah Johnson.

Managers:

Orion Decker, Abbie Glenn, Allie Belt and Beth Walters

Coaching Staff:

Head Coach Justin Dietrich

Assistants:

Jason Lawrence
Sam McShane
John Mammen
Noah Mayes

[Teena Lowery]