4A district championship? Check.
Third place at state? Yep.
A freshman earning a state championship title? You bet.
The Hawks had an outstanding season and also have excellent hope for next season.
“We deserved the championship title at districts,” head coach William Edelbute said. “I think we had the better team throughout the season. Going forward, it should be the same, next year and the next, and going home with a third was the goal, and we made it happen.”
Cole Cooper lost to Ashlei Hawkins from Sandpoint throughout the season, but at state, he overcame the losing streak and pinned him in the third period.
They had their biggest girls’ team with five girls. They placed first in the silver bracket at River City Duals and took fourth at the Rumble.
Caleb Adams and Zach Teal have been wrestling back and forth throughout the season, and they have improved tremendously.
Carson Leonard took first at state and hopes to continue taking the number one spot at state for the next three years and be Lakeland High School’s first four-time state champion.
They have had ups and downs throughout their season. Along with all the tournament wins, they had to learn from some losses. They struggled at the bigger tournaments, Rollie Lane, Tri-State, and Reno, where they were not able to place for three weeks in a row.
They also were not able to beat Post Falls. With all the losses come opportunities, and in the next year, the team is coming back even more robust and will hopefully come out with a win next year.
“After tri-state, I felt like I needed to do better with neutral, and after Rollie, I just wish I had not given up at the end of my matches,” Zach Teal said. “Overall, I feel like I have had a good season. I have improved a lot and I am a different wrestler from the beginning of the season. As a team, I feel like we could have gone above and beyond and gone to more morning practices, but overall, we are good at helping each other out and putting in effort.”
LHS’ 2024-2025 season is one to look forward to. Six of the Lakeland Hawks were placers at state, and five out of the six will be returning next year.
Of the seventeen wrestlers that made it, fifteen will be returning in the 2024-2025 season.
“I feel like I did really good up until my last match and I feel like I could have wrestled harder,” Dylan Scott said.
Scott felt like he did not wrestle at his best potential and will be coming back looking for the win his senior season after taking second at state his junior year.
The Hawks are also looking to take a full lineup and hopefully two deep at multiple weights for state and return with the first-place trophy.
