Lancers return seven varsity wrestlers

Brookfield Central kicked off the 2012-13 season with a new look, as coach Chris Demos lost 12 wrestlers with some varsity experience to graduation.

"We have a young squad but many of the freshmen came through the club and/or middle school program," Demos said. "Our team will be led by captains Mike Egan and Josh Peltier."

Egan is one of four seniors; the others are Kody Harenda and Elliot Yanasak, both returning varsity players, and Joe O'Brien.

Juniors Peltier, Tommy Consolazione and Brandon Fong, returning varsity players, are joined by Alex Garchitorena, Nick Kiese, Jerome Piekarski and James Wartman.

Jacob Benning, the only returning varsity sophomore, is joined by Elliot Currie, George Panos, Matt Patterson, Dan Rodriguez and Julien Selby.

"We have a large freshman group and several upperclassmen that are first coming out for wrestling," Demos said. "I am optimistic about the season, although I am going to focus on developing the younger wrestlers instead of filling an open spot on varsity the first part of the season."

Central scored 31 points and finished 10th out of 12 teams at the Campbellsport Cougar Invitational in Saturday's opener.

Highlights included Egan taking second place at 138 pounds, scoring 16 team points. He went 2-1, with a decision (6-1) in the quarterfinal and a pin (3:30) in the semifinal. He got pinned in the finals (4:38).

Peltier placed third at 132 and scored 13 team points. He was 2-1 with a pin and a 6-0 decision in the third-place match.

Currie at 195 scored the Lancers' other two points. He went 1-2, winning on a pin (1:23), before being pinned twice (3:04, 1:53).

"As a team we did not did not place very high," Demos said. "However, that doesn't mean we wrestled poorly. As a whole the team wrestled aggressively and kept mistakes at a minimum. Both Egan and Peltier wrestled tough and picked up one loss each to a state qualifier."

- Tom "Sky" Skibosh