(WILMINGTON, Ohio) – The Wilmington College wrestling team begins their 2026-27 season tomorrow morning at the Adrian Invite in Michigan, hosted by Adrian College.
The Quakers finished their 2025-26 dual season with four wins overall.
Returners
Wilmington returns five wrestlers that competed in their NCAA Regional Tournament in February. These five are junior
Andre Lewis, junior
Gavyn Grim, sophomore
Zander Ward, junior
Thane McCoy, and junior
Hunter Randall. Unfortunately for Wilmington, McCoy, who became the first Quaker to qualify for the national tournament since the return of the program in 2018, will not be competing this season due to injury.
Other Quakers who return with experience last season are sophomore
Junior Creager, junior
Jason Louiso, and sophomore
Braylon Vaughn.
Ward is the returner with the most victories last season on the mat for Wilmington, finishing with 12 wins, which included two tech. falls and three falls. His two tech. falls tied for second on the team. He wrestled all his matches at 141 pounds and won one match in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) dual action against Otterbein University by way of decision. He also came away with two wins at regionals by decision and tech. fall.
Grim and Randall finished just under 10 wins last season, both winning nine for Wilmington. Grim had one win by tech. fall, while both he and Randall tied for third on the team with four falls.
Grim split time between 125 and 133 pounds, winning two matches in OAC dual action over competitors from Otterbein, by tech. fall, and Muskingum University by fall. He picked up one win at the regional tournament.
Randall wrestled matches at 174, 184, and 197 pounds for the Quakers last season. He won one OAC match by fall at the University of Mount Union.
Vaughn won six matches for Wilmington last year, splitting time between 149, 157, and 165 pounds. He finished the season second on the team with five wins by fall.
Creager won four matches for the Quakers with one tech. fall and two falls between 141, 149, and 165 pounds. Louiso won two matches with two falls between 133 and 141 pounds. Lewis won one match for Wilmington at 125 pounds.
After not competing last season,
James Rankin and
Darrick Perdue will both return to the mat this season for Wilmington.
Newcomers
Four Quakers will make their debuts this season in freshmen
Aiden Daniel,
Jacob King,
Donavon Perdue, and
Molly White-Shappie.
Coaching Staff
Brad Bruhn enters his second season as the head coach of the Quakers wrestling program. He helped
Thane McCoy become the first Quaker to qualify for nationals since the return of the program and saw three Quakers win double digit matches in year one.
Georgia Horosky returns for her second season as a member of the program. She was the first female in program history to compete for Wilmington last season and will serve as a Student Manager.
From Coach Bruhn
"We are excited here at Wilmington College for the beginning of the wrestling season. We still have a fairly young team, and we are working hard to continue to develop them. We will have a couple roster battles before it is all said and done.
Unfortunately, we will be without our NCAA Qualifier from last year,
Thane McCoy. He will be rehabbing an injury that will keep him out for the year.
We are also looking forward to the three football players that will be joining us in about a week. It will help us cover a couple of weight classes that we need.
The staff and I will do what we can to continue to work hard and get everyone to level up. We are very thankful for the opportunity to represent Wilmington College on the wrestling mats."
What to Watch For
Wilmington competes in six tournaments this season along with eight duals.
Two major tournaments were added to their schedule in 2026-27 in the Messiah Petrofes Invitational, hosted by Messiah University in Grantham, Pennsylvania on December 4th and December 5th. The other being the Battle in the Bluegrass, hosted by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky on December 17th.
Outside of OAC duals, the Quakers battle Adrian College and Mount St. Joseph University on January 19th, along with Wittenberg University on February 7th in non-conference dual action.
