Hampton wrestling has no seniors on its 17-man roster, but the Talbots are aging well.
During a season in which they moved up to Class 3A and lost nine seniors from a WPIAL playoff team, the youthful Talbots have witnessed a group of wrestlers take big strides this season.
“We just try to focus on the picture of being good competitors,” coach Nick Endres said. “Being a younger and inexperienced team, we can’t always control the team-score aspect. Well, let’s focus on what we can control and be excellent competitors and let the team score take care of itself.”
Hampton (3-5 overall, 0-3 in Section 5-3A as of Jan. 17) won’t be returning to the WPIAL playoffs this season, but the regular-season and postseason tournaments give the wrestlers a chance to prove themselves.
“I’m up for the challenge,” said Logan Glock, a 189-pound junior having by far his best season. “I want to fight and keep working and keep going as far as I possibly can.”
Following two forgettable seasons, Glock is 13-8 and reached the podium at tournaments at Chartiers-Houston (fifth place) and Indiana (fourth). Glock opened the season with 29- and 48-second pins, looking nothing like the overmatched wrestler who went 14-31 while being pinned 25 times in his first two years.
“I remember my freshman year, I got pinned and pinned and pinned until I finally didn’t want to get pinned anymore,” Glock said. “I kept fighting and fighting. It’s really been eye-opening to me to see how I can change as a wrestler in two years.”
Junior Brandon Johnston is also opening some eyes. The 160-pound second-year wrestler is 7-8 with a fourth-place finish at Indiana. He already has more victories than all of last season, when he went 6-14 in his program debut.
Another junior, Dustin Kerr (13-3 at 145), is once again the Talbots’ best wrestler. He was runner-up at Chartiers Houston and Indiana and looks for another strong postseason after placing fifth at the WPIALs and eighth at the Southwest Regionals in Class 2A during a 35-win sophomore season.
“He’s doing very well,” Endres said. “Last year, he showed a lot of progress from his freshman year. Now he’s not just competing well, but competing at a high level at some of our larger tournaments. He’s going out and wrestling very tough.”
The Talbots will get a boost when junior 215-pounder Jonovan McKelvey, a section runner-up last season, returns after missing the first five weeks following finger surgery. He was expected to start practicing in full in the second week of January.
“We’ll see how fast competition comes for him,” Endres said. “I know he’s excited and itching to get on the mat.”
Some newcomers are off to encouraging starts. Freshman Ben Lomb, who Endres said had “two or three wins total” as an eighth-grader on the middle school team, is 8-8 at 114 pounds and had a 57-second pin in a 42-27 victory over Mars on Dec. 14.
Sophomore heavyweight Evan Hunkele is 6-8 as a first-year varsity wrestler, including a first-period pin in a 42-28 win over Mt. Pleasant. Junior 215-pounder Matt Noll, who went 2-5 last season, is 6-9 with a 38-second pin in a 48-17 victory over Beaver.
Kerr, Glock and Johnston are team captains for the Talbots, who will travel to the Fred Bell Tournament at Grove City on Jan. 24-25 as their final tuneup before the Northern Sectionals Feb. 15 at Fox Chapel. The top six in each weight class at sections advance to the WPIAL Class 3A tournament Feb. 21-22 at Canon-McMillan.
The Talbots spent the past two seasons in Class 2A before returning to Class 3A, their longtime home, as part of the offseason realignment.
“It’s a challenge, for sure,” Endres said. “We’re not the same team as last year when we had nine seniors. But it’s a good challenge.”