The wrestling team competed at State recently, with senior Riley Jacops placing 4th and senior Adam Wachnin placing 2nd. Wachnin credits their success to the overall skill of the team.

“This year we have leaders, we have freshmen that are tough, we have sophomores and juniors that are tough, and together we won regionals and we won districts two years in a row,” Wachnin said. “We just really have a solid team head to toe this year and it has obviously been proven.”

This is the team’s first year competing at the 6A level, meaning that the competition became that much harder, but wrestling coach Paul Muck said he was impressed with how his team handled the pressure.

“There’s good 5A wrestlers but not quite as many of them,” Muck said. “There’s about double the schools in 6A as opposed to 5A, so just the quality and the depth of the competition that we faced all year, especially at the state meet, it was much more challenging. But the kids did a really good job adjusting to it and not making excuses.”

Sophomore James Clarkson also competed at the state meet and said that the wrestling team had strong feelings of respect for one another.

“The dynamics of the wrestling team work really well because it doesn’t really matter what grade you’re in, kids will look up to you on your work ethic, on your skill,” Clarkson said. “A lot of us look up to the seniors because, quite frankly, they’re good.”

Jacops has placed in the top three at state the past three years and this is Wachnin’s third year placing.

“[The] biggest thing is just growing up and getting bigger and stronger each year,” Wachnin said. “I’ve always had obstacles, like the last two years I tore my meniscus and my junior year I had it repaired right before [state] and this year right before my finals match it tore again in my right leg. So I’ve always had obstacles and I think just getting over those my senior year, just knowing I had been through it before and I can deal with it again.”

Muck said that it will be hard to lose the seven seniors on the team, but their win this year will be a challenge for the teams to come.

“Obviously we set the bar high this year, being the first year as 6A, and we’ll be losing those seven seniors but hopefully the kids will step up,” Muck said. “We’ve got a real good freshman class coming in this year. The thing about wrestling is that it goes by weight class so you can have freshman step in at some of those lighter weights and help right away. So we’ll be losing our seniors but I think that what they did this year will make it easy and a challenge for those kids to follow.”