by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Mitch McComb embarks on his second year as head wrestling coach of the Wellington Crusaders with numbers and depth. He also has a returning state placer.

Not to mention new WHS uniforms. No those are not the new uniforms in the picture.

McComb has 27 wrestlers out this season. That’s a good number especially for a sport that has been seeing dwindling numbers throughout the nation for years.

Taylon Lamkin

He also has a returning state wrestling placer. Taylon Lamkin, a senior, finished sixth last season at 195 pounds and is ranked second in Class 4A’s 190-pound division (see rankings here) http://www.kansaswrestling.org/images/docs/Rankings/4a.pdf

“I can’t remember the last time we had a returning state placer in Wellington,” McComb said. “It might have been 15 years ago. I honestly can’t remember.”

Lamkin is Wellington’s 195 pounder. He is currently ranked second in the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association poll in that weight class. 

Wellington has a strong group in the upper weight class, including four seniors. The thing is, of those seniors, only Lamkin and Tyson Hodson at heavyweight have had a lot of recent varsity experience.

Chance Hain at 170 pounds has been injured since his sophomore year when he blew out his knee.

Dalton Holt at 220 pounds hasn’t wrestled in four years.

Injuries have plagued the WHS program. Last year the wrestling program lost five wrestlers due to football injuries. This year isn’t as bad, but there is still some bumps and bruises and breaks and tears already. Andrew Pelkey, a junior, who wrestles at 145 and accumulated a 20-10 record in 2012-13, may be out for a little while with a broken wrist.

Overall, Wellington has significant experience. McComb said there are 12 out of 14 returning starters.

The program has six seniors and three juniors. Last year it was just the opposite with two seniors and five juniors.

Wellington also is coming back from a year when it nearly won an Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Div. IV title, losing only to Augusta. In 2012-13, Wellington took down Andale, Clearwater and Circle. Collegiate doesn’t have a wrestling program. The league championship came down to a monster dual in Augusta in February. Augusta’s depth on that day was just too much.

This season with the depth, returning experience, and senior leadership, Wellington appears to be in the hunt again for a league title. McComb isn’t so sure.

“So many things can happen,” he said. “For example I had 41 kids out at the beginning of the season. I am down to 33. And of those 33, nine or 10 of them have missed practice for one thing or the other this week.”

Wellington opens its season on Saturday in a dual wrestling tournament in El Dorado. Here is how things look at the moment starting wise for the Crusaders.

106 – Open.

113 – Sage Ferguson is currently starting as a sophomore who went 2-9 last season. He could dip to 106 before January.

120 – Wellington is open this weekend but Chevy Nuss a freshman, is expected to take over that spot. He is currently wrestling in JV.

126 – Brad Wiens, a sophomore, will start this weekend. He was 10-15 in 2012-13. Eventually Graysen DeJarnett, a sophomore, is expected to wrestle at that weight. He is currently wrestling at 132. Last season he went 11-12 as a starter.

132 – Andrew Horn, who went 23-12, will be a Wellington wrestler to watch in 2013-14. He went 23-12 last season and has a ton of varsity experience. He will wrestle 138 pounds on Saturday.

138 – After Horn moves down, this weight class could be a battle between Ian King , a junior who went 1-2 in varsity starts; and Skyler Struble, did not wrestle and was injured sophomore, 145 JV.

145 – Zach Botkin, a junior, is a move in from Winfield and will wrestle here until Pelkey returns. McComb said Pelkey could be wrestling as soon as the Wellington Tournament to be held next week.

152 – Ben DeJarnett, a senior, is another wrestler to watch out for. He was 15-22 as a varsity starter as a junior.

160 – Joey Haydon, a junior, will be the starter. He was 4-7 as a varsity starter and 16-9 overall including junior varsity matches.

170 – Chance Hain, a senior, last wrestled as a freshman and was partially through his sophomore year before sustaining the injury.

182 – Aaron Fair, a junior, will start. He was 5-9 a year ago.

195 – Lamkin, who caught fire in the state tournament and ended up placing, was 24-19 as far as his overall record. He is behind an Andale wrestlers named Anthony Capul, a freshman, who is considered all-world of everything in the wrestling world.

220 – Holt, a senior, has not wrestled in high school but was a standout athlete in football.

Hwt – Tyson Hodson, a senior, was 20-16 a year ago.

League race: Andale is the league favorite, as it is in about every sport. Capul, mentioned above, was ranked in the top 50 nationally in KIDS wrestling. McComb said he could move to any weight position.

“Andale was missing a couple of key wrestlers the night they wrestled us,” McComb said. “They will bring a very tough group.”

Augusta, which won the AV-CTL DIV lost eight seniors, but have some state qualifiers returning. Clearwater is a bit of a mystery.

The schedule: