On Thursday, Dec. 19, wrestlers stand by the sides of the black mat in the gymnasium, stretching as they warm up for the oncoming match against Prairie Ridge.
With flexibility playing a major role in this match, the crowd was left shocked many times that a bone was not snapped from the difficult positions the players had to hold when trying to gain points. Each round finished with the players intertwined like a pretzel.
In an impressive round, first year varsity player, junior Jestoni Losbanes was able to pin his opponent and further help enhance the lead for Huntley. Losbanes and freshman Christian Benitez were the main leaders with the amount of points gained for the night, both pinning their components. Huntley went on to ensure the win with a score of 63-12.
“I was sort of nervous because it was my first time in a match on varsity, and I have been sick all week,” said Losbanes. “Since last year, I have improved greatly, and was able to move up to a heavier weight level and am now on varsity.”
Another player who had an important role in the match tonight was Benitez, who was able to win quickly by using the reversal move in order to pin his component and come out on top as the victor.
“It was an interesting match because there were many non-varsity wins since we were able to bring up a bunch of kids from the JV level to get varsity time tonight,” said coach B.J. Bertelsman. “I wish we could have done better, but it was nice to let players have varsity experience.”
With Prairie Ridge being a smaller team, most of the points tonight were gained from forfeits from Prairie Ridge. Huntley was able to gain six points to increase the lead from each forfeit.
The team hopes to continue to keep getting better throughout the rest of the season. With a final record of 19-3 last year, they hope to bring it up to at least 20 wins this season. Also, they hope to have two or more state qualifiers this year.
Wrestling has an upcoming tournament starting Friday, Dec. 20 in Harvard that will last through Saturday, and their next home match will be against Jacobs on Thursday, Jan. 9.