By NICHOLAS KIMBALL

Staff writer

Hillsboro will be joined by Canton-Galva in fielding a joint wrestling team this year.

Hillsboro has five returning starters and one Canton-Galva starter: Emery Dalke, Aidan Simmons, Anthony Fickles, Isaiah Patton, David Schafer, and Lane Rogers.

Top newcomers ready to compete are Kole Willis-Dirks, Aaron Hein, Kayden Trimble, and Sutton Redger.

Coach Scott O’ Hare returns for his 20th year with career duel record of 112-104.

“We have a solid core of wrestlers coming back this season, including three seniors and two state qualifiers with significant varsity experience,” O’Hare said.

He expects to have nice depth and hopefully be close to filling most weight classes.

“This should help us be very competitive in duals,” he said. “I am anticipating that this team will be very coachable and willing to work hard to improve.”

“We need to get great leadership from our seniors, see marked improvement from our other returners, and hopefully a few of our experience freshman can show that they are ready for the jump to high school competition.”

“Overall, we are pretty excited to see how this team progresses throughout the year.”

Hillsboro will open its season Thursday on the road in Halstead.