Lansing’s Georgia off to dominant start

On Dec. 11, the Lansing wrestling team took part in the Sgt. Justin Rogers Memorial Tournament in Tioga against six other schools. There were 12 weight classes active at the tournament, and just one Bobcat was able to come out on top with a flawless 5-0 record. Caelob Georgia had his hand raised at the end of the day after pinning every single one of his opponents in the 285-pound weight class.

After a 1-2 start to the season, something clicked for Georgia, and he won six matches last week that lasted under 10 minutes combined. Georgia wrestled at 182-195 pounds in his sophomore year and is now wrestling up several weight classes at 285 pounds. He’s made the necessary adjustments and is ready to dominate.

“I know at first, at the beginning of the year, I had some trouble trying to adjust to the weight difference that I hadn’t been really used to before,” Georgia said. “I had to learn how to readjust my style of wrestling. We had a tournament two weeks ago, and that was a learning experience for me. So, when I came to this tournament, I felt way more prepared.”

Georgia went into further detail about how he cleaned up his “sloppy” performance in his first three matches of the season.

“Over the week, my coaches were helping me with way more upper-body and learning my new shots and stuff, just slowing down too because I have a tendency to overestimate and overthink things,” Georgia said. “It really helped this week, and so, that’s why I think I did pretty well this tournament.”

The growth Georgia has experienced can not only be seen on the leaderboards — he placed third at the Sgt. Justin Rogers Memorial Tournament two years ago — but also in the wrestling room. The senior detailed how he’s become a better wrestler.

“When I wrestle on top, I’ve become so much stronger,” Georgia said. “Before, I would always choose bottom because my top game was not good at all. I always feel like it would just be like giving my opponent free points. But this year, I feel a lot stronger with it. With our new coach [Gene Nighman], he’s really been helping me learn how to stay strong and heavy on top of my opponents.”

While he’s been strong against the biggest opponents available, Georgia believes he can be even stronger if he is able to reach a lower weight class.

“Personally, I’m trying to move down to the 215 weight class by January,” he said. “I’ve been working with [my] coach really closely and trying to work extra hard after practice running and getting a good diet to try to get back down there. I just feel like I’d be a stronger wrestler at that weight.”

Lansing wrestling just returned from hiatus in 2019, making this the team’s second full season since then. Georgia hopes that he can do his part to build up the program before graduation.

“Our team overall, we don’t have too many huge goals,” Georgia said. “Obviously, we want to do well and be able to make it to states. But overall, we’ll just start trying to win as a team and get individual victories and progress. We have a couple new wrestlers this year, and we’re really starting to see them grow. It’s really nice to see them trying it and learning what they like and don’t like.”

Georgia is one of two seniors on the team this year, giving him a leadership role in what is a unique year for the program, now that it’s a co-ed team.

“This year’s special in two ways,” Georgia said. “I don’t know how long it’s been, but we have some female wrestlers this year. Trying to lead the group in a way and also be someone that they can go to has been nice. I’ve just been trying to look up to my coaches and see how they’ve done it. I’m also looking at the experiences of how the upperclassmen treated me. I’ve been trying to embrace what they felt like two years ago. It was Gabe Stevenson then. I’m trying to embody what he was as a leader.”

The Bobcats are off to the start they want this season, taking down Odessa-Montour in their first dual meet of the season by a narrow margin. They’ll be on the road against Moravia Dec. 16 before heading into winter break. From there, the push for postseason success begins.

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