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- Val T.
- Oct 24
- 2 min read
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester senior Laine Peppler signed with Manchester University Friday to continue her wrestling and academic careers.
Peppler becomes the second state placer from Rochester to sign with Manchester. Lilly Gerald signed with Manchester last month.
Peppler said both location and cost went into her decision.
“It’s close to home, the cost is probably about the best I can get right now, and it’s one of the few that have a wrestling team in Indiana,” Peppler said.
Peppler started wrestling when she was a freshman, which was also when Rochester started its own separate girls team. The state tournament spent its first season under the auspices of the IHSAA last year, and Peppler finished sixth at 170 pounds.
She also finished fifth at 145 pounds at the 2024 state finals as a sophomore when Indiana High School Girls Wrestling ran the state tournament.
Peppler said she was first interested in wrestling when she was a seventh-grader, but her parents Adam and Carmen wanted her to wait until there was an official girls program at the high school. She immediately began winning.
Asked what she likes most about wrestling, and one might get a window into where Peppler has set her goals for her senior season.
“Honestly, the excitement for the wins and the excitement hopefully for a state championship,” Peppler said.
Peppler said she has been working all summer and traveled to national competitions.
“I have been working all summer, and I have earned four All-Americans since I ended last season,” Peppler said. “I just continually practiced and continually lifted weights and competed probably seven or eight times nationally over the summer.”
Peppler said she wants to major in biology at Manchester, but she has greater academic goals.
“After that, I want to launch off and hopefully study marine biology at Maine,” Peppler said. “I want to study cold water oceans and mammals.”
