The Hornets went 6-18 in dual meets this season with a 1-7 mark in the NTL, but achieved some newfound successes in the postseason that included senior Ryder Bowen winning a North Section title, the first for Wellsboro since 2017.

“We knew bringing the program back was going to be a very long process,” says Bitner, “and our kids really worked this year at continuing that effort. Ryder winning sectionals and qualifying for Regionals was big for our whole program and I’m proud of his effort and improvement.”

Bowen finished the season with a record of 32-8, including going 25-3 in the regular season and entering Sectionals on an 18 match winning streak. After snapping the Hornets’ 7-year Sectional title drought, Bowen moved on to the District 4 championships, where he was joined by four teammates who had each placed 4th at Sectionals .. senior Evan Ingerick (172 lbs.), senior Silas Mickey (160 lbs.), junior Mason Nowak (133 lbs.) and junior Hayden Stevens (285 lbs.).

While Stevens, Nowak and Ingerick each dropped their first two matches at Districts and Mickey went 1-2 to all be eliminated, Bowen snapped another Wellsboro drought, placing 4th and becoming the first Hornet to earn a trip to Regionals since 2013. He’d come up just shy of qualifying for States, placing 6th, to end his Hornet career with an 81-39 record.

Mickey finished the season 14-17 and 45-52 in his Hornet career while Ingerick was 14-11 and 32-54 overall.

Bitner points to some underclassmen who gained a valuable season of experience this year.

“Hayden Stevens (22-11) had a great year making improvements,” says Bitner, “while we also saw some other young guys like Mason Nowak (13-19) and Wyatt Kilburn (so., 9-21) start to really improve. Gavin Carson (fr., 3-7) also stepped in to wrestle a few times and wrestled tough.”

Bitner also saw good things within the Hornets’ first-year girls’ squad.

“We had Jordan Rumsey (jr., 13-12) make it to Regionals and two fall just short in Isla Twoey (fr., 12-11) and Megan Robbins (sr., 10-17),” says Bitner, “Our girls program is really growing and we’re excited to see where it goes.”

Bitner is confident that the leadership shown by his outgoing seniors will have a positive impact as the Wellsboro wrestling program rebuild continues. 

“Ryder, Evan, Silas and Megan have been with us since the beginning,” says Bitner, “and it’s heartbreaking to see them go. They joined right when we brought the program back and started the movement. They’ve meant so much to our program as a whole .. motivating our younger wrestlers. I have no doubts that these young men and women will go on to do great things with their lives and I can’t say enough of how proud I am to have coached them.”

Bitner is excited to see how a year of experience helps his underclassmen, as well as the program as a whole.

“We made a lot of improvements this year,” says Bitner, “Our elementary program is also growing .. along with our Junior High and Varsity, so I expect a lot of progress going forward.”

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