Whitfield Wrestling: Chasing Down Another Title

With two state championships in the program’s past, and a second-place finish at last year’s state tournament, every member of the wrestling program came back this year with his eyes completely focused on bringing the big trophy home.

And most experts considered the Warriors the favorites to do just that, and ranked them the No. 1 team in the state in just about every preseason poll that came out back in early November.

Don’t count Whitfield wrestling coach Charlie Sheretz among those in awe of the Warriors team this season.

The coach, as most in his profession are, is concerned more about his team’s flaws than he is about how great this year’s squad could be.

“Man I tell you, we’re thin,” Sheretz said, after the Warriors took second place in a four-team meet against Alton, Kirkwood, and Fox High Schools at Whitfield last week. “Our problem is depth. We have some good guys at the top, but we’re thin once you get past the first three or four top guys.”

Statements like that make it clear that Sheretz is always focused on having a team good enough to win state.

Most programs around this area, or any other for that matter, would just be happy to have three or four “top” guys. But Sheretz wants a whole team of stars to compete with.

“I think we might be good enough to do it this year,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go, and a whole lot of work to do, but I’m really hoping some of our young guys can develop like we think they can.”

Whitfield’s roster this year is almost like a statewide all-star team, with at least nine wrestlers currently ranked among the top 10 in Missouri in their weight class, six of whom are ranked in the top four.

The leader of that group is phenom Rodney Hahn, an individual state champion last year for the Warriors, whose currently undefeated this season and ranked No. 1 in the 152-pound weight class.

His older brother, Will Hahn, is also undefeated this year, and is the No. 1 ranked wrestler in Missouri at 170 pounds.

“Both those guys, Rodney and Will, are some kind of tough,” Sheretz said. “Rodney’s got this unorthodox kind of style that just (overwhelms) people. And Will is just getting better and better all the time. Those guys are kind of like our leaders.”

Another undefeated and No. 1 ranked wrestler for Whitfield this year is senior Chris Wilkes, who tops the Class 1 rankings at 132 pounds.

“He’s another guy that’s having a great year, that we believe can really get it done for us this year,” Sheretz said.

On Wednesday night, the Hahn brothers and Wilkes went nine-for-nine in their matches against Fox, Alton, and Kirkwood.

Other top wrestlers for the Warriors this season are Jack Pantanella (No. 4 at 120); Austin Smith (No. 4 at 138); Jake Becker (No. 8 at 145); Andy McLaughlin (No. 5 at 182); Ethan Sheretz (No. 3 at 195); and Stephen Scobee (No. 6 at 220).

“I really do like this group we have,” Sheretz said. “We’ve got this great core group of kids that are keeping us afloat. We just don’t have a lot of depth and not many backups.

“We’re kind of hanging by a thread. I just hope we can stay healthy.”

The Warriors have one more meet schedule in 2011 – the Granite City (IL) Invitational on December 29-30 – before hitting the real meat of the schedule, when they’ll have 10 competitions in January and early February, to get ready for the district, sectional and state tournaments in mid-to-late February.

“I think we’re going to be right in there,” Sheretz said. “If we can keep everybody where they need to be, and with the personnel that we’ve got, we’re going to make it interesting.”