Last year's 2A Southeast Regional wrestling tournament seemed incomplete. The usual sight of a Northern Lehigh wrestler grappling on the mat in a fight for a trip to Hershey was missing for the first time in many years.

Despite the absence, the season was far from a failure for Coach Steve Hluschak's Bulldogs.In his first season at the helm of his alma mater, the team won 15 dual meets and qualified for the Team District tournament only to fall in the semi-finals. In placing 10th in the Individual tournament, five wrestlers came up one short of advancing to regions.All but one wrestler returns from last year's squad leaving the Bulldogs with a wealth of experience returning to the mat."We have 7 or eight quality kids in the lineup that can win 20 matches," Coach Hluschak said of his teams experienceAmong those will be four seniors in Nate Farber (152), Austin Arnold (160), Ryan Rubio (138), and Stephen Scheib (195). All four were a part of the football team that captured the Eastern Conference Championship. Farber, carried the offense on his back down the stretch, and Arnold, anchoring the defense in earning all-league honors at linebacker, look to carry on as leaders in their winter sport."We are expecting great things from Ryan Farber and Austin Arnold on the mat and within the wrestling room in terms of leadership," Hluschak said of his two seniors that came up one win short last year.The potential to advance wrestlers to the Regional tournament has an added incentive. The state tournament has expanded from 16 to 20 wrestlers giving the Southeast Regional a total of six wrestlers advancing to Hershey. The Bulldogs feel that if they can get wrestlers out to the Southeast Regional tournament, they will have a legitimate shot of earning a trip to Hershey.The end of season goal, though, is not in the immediate plans for the Hluschak."We work hard and the goal is to get better every day. We don't want to waste time and go through the motions, we want to have a purpose. There is a method to the madness in terms of what we do the practice room and it is paying dividends on the mat. We want to take care of the things we can control and the end of season goals will fall into place."The lineup starts with junior Colton Rex (22-11, D11 5th) who hopes to be down to 106 by the end of the year. Sophomore's Ezra Neff (120) and Jacob Kistler (126) will follow to set up a solid run of experience.Rubio (10-11) will be mashed in between junior stalwart at Matt Schmall (28-8, D11 5th) at 132 and sophomore Ryan Farber (26-12, D11 5th) at 145. Farber, the team's most valuable wrestler as a freshman, and Schmall are two that have high aspirations for advancement in the post-season tournaments.C.J. Young (20-12) at 152 will quietly join Arnold (20-14) and Farber (26-9) to form a core of solid, experienced wrestling in the middle weights.At 180, Junior Chad Cederberg will fill in for the Theo Young, the lone graduate. Jason Schaeffer (11-13) and Cameron Kates (21-14) round out the upper weights."We can fill the lineup and we won't have too many holes. We didn't give up a lot of bonus points and that helped us get a few more wins (last year)." Hluschak said.This will help with the always highly competitive Colonial League circuit that will have stalwarts in Saucon Valley and Bangor primed for a run at the title. Palisades, who did not lose a single wrestler from last year's team, and Northwestern are teams that look to be improved."The Colonial League is a great wrestling league. You have a tough fight in every league match every night we face tough competition."The second year head coach has his plan in place and his expectations set for a talented team that can only build upon last year's success."The kids have bought and we're hoping to take it to another level this year," he said.