Coming off a dual team state title last season, its second in three years, Coal City’s boys wrestling team has picked up right where it left off so far in the 2025-26 season.

The Coalers finished the first half of their season with a dominant performance at Abe’s Rumble in Springfield on Dec. 29 and 30, outscoring their opponents 572-46 across eight duals to improve to 32-0 on the year.

The title was the Coalers’ fourth at Abe’s Rumble and first since they beat Riverdale in the title match during the 2022-23 season. They finished second in the 2023-24 season with a 32-31 loss to Marian Catholic in the championship dual.

Last season, they fell to Vandalia in the semifinals before beating Tolono Unity to take third. The Coalers would go on to get revenge on that Vandalia team by beating the Vandals in the state championship dual.

Aidan Kenney was part of the last Coal City team to win the Abe’s Rumble as a freshman. Now a senior, he said it was nice to be able to reclaim that title.

“I won it my freshman year and senior year, so that was kind of cool to get the Abe’s trophy back to our high school,” Kenney said. “I feel like our team’s really strong this year. I feel like at the [Larry Gassen Invitational] and Abe’s, we really showed how dominant our team has been.”

Kenney was one of seven Coalers to go 8-0 at Abe’s Rumble this season, along with Jake Munsterman, Owen Petersen, Cooper Morris, Luke Munsterman, Max Christensen and Mason Garner.

Kenney is also one of seven active Coalers to have more than 100 career wins, joined by Garner, Morris, Petersen, Brock Finch, Cade Poyner and Brody Widlowski.

With Luke Munsterman knocking on the door of that milestone with 98 wins, coach Mark Masters’ team boasts a level of experience, team success and individual success that few programs ever achieve.

“It’s crazy,” Masters said. “It’s insane to have seven kids with 100 career wins all in one lineup. ... I don’t think there’s going to be too many high schools that ever had seven 100 career win wrestlers on one team at one time, let alone eight.”

Many of these Coalers have been wrestling together for most of their lives. Poyner, who reached the 100-win mark earlier this season, said that bond has helped them be as good as they’ve been throughout their careers.

“Our program starts from the bottom up,” Poyner said. “We all wrestled together since we were four in club wrestling, and I think that’s really the foundation of why our high school program has had so much success. Without that, I don’t think we’d be as great.”

It all starts with the Lil’ Coalers Wrestling Club, which is currently in its 12th season since its founding in 2013, coinciding with a resurgence at the varsity level.

The Coalers reached state as a team in 2015 for the first time since 1999. That was the first of eight state trips for the program in 11 years, and now that the wrestlers who were among the first groups of Lil’ Coalers are at the varsity level, they’re helping the program reach new heights.

Masters said the continuity of coaching these wrestlers has had under people like Joe Widlowski, a founder of the Lil’ Coalers who joined the high school staff in recent years, and longtime middle school coach Branden Petersen, has been instrumental in keeping them bought in to what the Coal City wrestling community is about.

“Consistency in coaching, I would probably say that’s really important,” Masters said. “Having quality men who are good coaches, that’s what these kids have had in their lives. They have the highest character, and with some wrestling background and experience, it helps out immensely.”

The Coalers seem primed for more team and individual success this postseason. Brody Widlowski, who has placed second individually at state the past two seasons and placed fourth as a freshman, says the team is gearing up to try and finish strong once again.

“We’re trying to get our practices good to get us to peak at that time,” he said. “We’re definitely looking forward to it, and thinking we should have more than a few guys in the finals. Hopefully we can pick up a championship as a team, and I hope myself to get on top of the podium. I believe a few other guys can do it as well.”