Wrestling Preview | Bulldogs, Langley will lean on senior leadership

When five Harrisburg senior wrestlers take their final bow this year, they certainly hope it's at the State Farm Center in Champaign, the site of the IHSA wrestling state tournament.

Harrisburg head coach Greg Langley hopes the same and his seniors Kyle and Kody Cavender, Landon and Jimmy Hicks and Tucker Bryant provide the kind of leadership to his youngsters that the longtime coach needs, as well as, fulfilling some individual goals.

"I know all five of those guys want to get to the state tournament," Langley said. "As a team, you always want to win more matches than you lose, but we would like to win a conference title and win a regional championship. Realistically, I don't know if that is something we can do being as young as we are."

Langley has a lineup of about 30 wrestlers, half of them on that roster are freshmen, which is encouraging.

"It'll be baptism by fire for a lot of them as they will be inserted into the lineup," Langley said. "We have to start somewhere and eventually add that experience. We have 30 that are out for wrestling as long as you can get them in different weight classes, everything is good."

With 14 weight classes to fill, Langley is already confident with his senior five, Kyle Cavender (138), Kody Cavender (145), Landon Hicks (120), Jimmy Hicks (152) and Bryant (220). The others are up for grabs, which Langley said makes practices more competitive and more interesting.

"There are still going to be a weight or two that we might not be able to fill," Langley added. "Maybe eventually we will, but I think we'll be able to fill 12 or 13 of our weight classes."

Kody Cavender and graduating senior Chandler Bowling were alternates in last year's state tournament. Kody and Kyle Cavender have both been to the state tournament prior to last year and Kody Cavender, along with Jimmy and Landon Hicks, were sectional qualifiers a year ago.

"All of those guys know this is their last go-round," Langley said. "We work hard in practice to reach individual and team goals. I think those guys know as seniors it's their last time getting to do this and they want to reach the state tournament."

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.