Senior Spotlight: WC Wrestling, CHS Bowling and Swimming

This time of year most sports headlines revolve around what’s happening on the basketball court, but plenty of exciting action is also taking place on the wrestling mat, in the swimming pool and at the bowling lanes.

This week, we meet the senior athletes from the Whitley County wrestling team and the Corbin swimming and bowling teams, and we get an update on how each of those seasons are currently going.

The Colonel wrestling team, coached by Ralph Carte, is being led this year by four seniors – Matt Copeland, Ana Lindsey, John Cusson-Walker and Daniel Wohlfarth. With their veteran presence, Whitley wrestling has enjoyed a good amount of success on the mat so far this season. The team recently held a home meet against Madison Southern and McCreary Central that saw several wrestlers pick up victories, and they followed that up with another strong showing at Johnson Central over the weekend.

The Whitley County wrestling team, now 12-3 overall, is scheduled to host two more home meets on the evenings of January 18 and 19 before taking part in region competition in February. The News Journal will provide more updates on the Colonel wrestlers as their season progresses.

When Corbin’s Forest Lanes Bowling Alley closed down earlier this year, there was a lot of concern about how it would affect local high school bowling programs. Against all odds, Corbin’s bowling teams have found a way to survive, giving four players – Jeff Tinsely, Tori Ellison, Allison Bricker and Madison Sutton – the chance to compete in their senior seasons.

Coaches Kenny Kysar, Patty Venable and Mike Petrey have led their teams to another year of great success, with the boys team coming into this week with a perfect 8-0 record, and the girls team currently standing at 7-1. Most meets that the Rollin’ Redhounds have participated in this season have taken place at Galaxy Bowling in Richmond. It has been a bit of a sacrifice for the teams to have to travel so far in order to bowl, but it is a sacrifice that has been well worth it when considering the alternative option.

The Corbin bowling teams were scheduled to compete again on Tuesday, and they will appear in five more meets before attempting to qualify for the 2017 KHSAA state championships later this winter. The News Journal will provide more updates as they become available.

Finally, the Corbin Redhound swimming team is also hopeful of sending competitors back to state in 2017. They have done so each year of the program’s existence, and this season they are looking strong once again, especially on the boys’ side.

Six male swimmers – Cole Moore, Jackson Zoellers, Sam Gilbert, Michael Laun, Chirs Patterson and Noah Watson – are leading the way in the pool for Corbin this year as seniors. Before this past Saturday’s meet at the Stivers Aquatic Center in Barbourville, Head Coach Kim Moore said of her team, “Right now we have more swimmers than we’ve ever had. We have 40 swimmers, including more boys than we’ve ever had, so we look to be strong all the way through. We should be right up there with everybody else at the region meet.”

The region swim meet is scheduled to take place in Barbourville on February 10 and 11. The News Journal will provide full coverage of the event when that time comes.