As a sport that is fairly unknown and not so much loved by students at Elder High School, the current wrestling team is making waves within the record books. Wrestling as a sport is not shown very much love within Elder and that needs to change. Wrestlers make sacrifices daily like maintaining or cutting weight just to have that chance to go out and compete on the mat. This year they are putting their talents and abilities on full display, while putting on show for all to see.
Top Performers
As the wrestling season comes to an end a select few guys have really made a name and left that name cemented in the record books for years to come. Four guys that come to mind are Konner Lambers, Joey Ditullio, Collin Broxterman, and Seb Hignite.
As most people know Elder’s top dog in the wrestling scene is Senior Konner Lambers. Konner has been a consistent and dominant four-year starter for Elder and has continued that dominance throughout his senior season. Konner has amassed a career average of 40 wins a season for the Panthers. This year he reached the pinnacle of Elder wrestling, securing his 156th win putting him first all time in wins, surpassing Austin Murphy who set the record in 2018.
Close behind Konner is Joey D. Joey doesn’t have as many wins as but still making just as big of an impact on the mats with a nearly undefeated record. He has lost only a few matches early in the season. Many of the guys look up to Joey as a positive role model and leader. DiTullio has the ability to go all the way this year and win state. In previous years, Joey has placed and qualified and now he wants it all.
A small but lethal junior is Collin Broxterman who also etched his name into Elder wrestling history with his 100th win coming in the CIT Invitational this year. Collin has always been the smaller guy, but this kid is scrapy he leaves it all out there. He even got a double bloody nose fighting for his 100th win. Elder looks to have an indefinite leader and tenacious winner in Broxterman.
Lastely, we have Seb Hignite. Seb wrestles at the 285 lb. weight class at a measly 235 lbs. Despite this size disadvantage, he has been able to dominate this year putting on a outstanding junior campaign. Seb has become the 13th ranked wrestler in Ohio for his weight class and is out for blood going into the qualifying matches for state.
Predictions for State
I recently was given the privilege to sit down with Hignite to get some of his takes on this year’s team and their push for state. We talked for a while, but a recurring theme in our conversations was the idea of “togetherness” and ” winning”.
Describing the countless hours spent in the weight room and on the mats he says, ” It’s all about being together when one of us falls, there’s another ready to go get the next guy. If you can have a team of guys that’s willing to do that you win its plain and simple.”
On the topic of state runs, Seb gave me some insight on how he thought his fellow teammates were going to perform as well as himself. He told me, ” I think Konner and Joey are going to go out and do their thing and bring home that state championship they’ve been chasing, as far as myself and Collin, I think we are going to place high but we both have very hard matches ahead.”
In the final couple minutes of my interview with Seb he expressed how much support from the community and students means to them during their duals and matches and the vital role it plays in their performance.
Go support the Panthers and their run to State!
