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IAC WRESTLING: TIOGA'S HARRINGTON EXCITED ABOUT NUMBERS, EARLY EFFORTS IN 'THE ROOM' (12 PHOTOS) (2019-11-19)

Valley Sports Report
TIOGA CENTER "” Tioga wrestling coach Kris Harrington is use to having the majority of his team still playing football during the second week of practice, but this year - with bigger numbers on the roster - is different.

"We have 32 signs up right now - huge numbers for us. I'm really excited about that.

"We have 13 in the room now," said Harrington. "This is the best room we've had prior to having the football guys in here. I feel really good about it.

"This is nothing new, but this year is exciting," noted Harrington. "We're not treading water right now, we're making gains in the room right now, which is huge.

"The last few years, we've had a 120-pounder and a 160-pounder, and it was difficult to simulate any real semblance of a practice. Right now, we have five or six good groups and we're going pretty hard.

"Jacob Welch is leading the way for us, it's great to have him back," added Harrington. "And with Donovan Smith, Caden (Bellis), Gianni (Silvestri), and Emily (Sindoni), we have a good group of veteran wrestlers who are really pushing the pace."

Two years ago, Harrington had similar numbers, and split his teams in half on tournament weekends to get every wrestler more matches. He has similar plans this season.

"We're going to go with an "˜A' and a "˜B' team for a few weekends," he said. "Luckily, most of the tournaments we've entered, including ours, allow full rosters to wrestle, so everyone will wrestle at Tioga, Wellsville, Groton, Canandaigua, and our league tournament.

"The goal is to get every kid at least 20 to 25 matches," added Harrington. "They'll get at least five competitions, plus our duals, which I think it's important to grow a program."

Harrington said the success of the football team has already forced changes in the schedule.

"The SVEC match has been re-scheduled," he said. "The Dryden match will be as well if football team wins Friday."

There are other changes as well.

"We're not going to Webster this year because they switched it to a dual meet tournament, and we can't go with 12 kids," said Harrington, noting the Tigers will wrestle at the Wellsville Tournament instead on Dec. 6.

"(Wellsville) is an individual tournament, and we can enter everyone, which is really important to me because these kids don't come out to watch, they come out to wrestle," said Harrington. "I'm excited to see some of these young guys scrap."

"”"”"”"”"”"”

IN PHOTO 1: Tioga coach Kris Harrington. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.


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