The wrestling team took three to the state competition on Feb. 24-25 in Houston and brought back a fifth place state medal.

Senior Nathan Sloey made it to day two of the tournament, wrestling a total of five matches and ending with the fifth place state title. Junior Chigozie Onyia won his regional match, but was defeated on day one of the tournament, as was junior Levi Russo-Bell. 

“I think our team did well considering none of our state competitors have nearly as much experience as some of the opponents we had to face,” Onyia said. “If there was a valuable lesson I learned from wrestling this year, it’s that hard work and confidence can get you a lot further in whatever you dedicate yourself to. When I joined wrestling freshman year, I never would have imagined that I would be a regional champion, let alone competing in the state tournament. Through effort our team was able to accomplish some pretty awesome things.”

In order to prepare for state, the team focused on tweaking the basic skills that they had learned during the season. To achieve this they had short and efficient practices and even had the opportunity to practice at Vandegrift with wrestlers and coaches of a higher caliber, according to Onyia

“We prepared with a good amount of conditioning and practice,” Sloey said. “The 6A teams gave us some variety and different experiences going into state.”

Due to a highly competitive tournament, some of the wrestlers weren’t fully satisfied with their performance and have ideas on what they plan to change.

“Individually, I let the pressure of the big tournament get to me,” Onyia said. “I ended up making silly mistakes. I plan on working on my weaknesses next season in order to do much better.”

In addition to the three state qualifiers they also took Austin Sartaine and Faith Eledge as alternates. Sloey shared a valuable lesson that he learned from his season.

“One thing I have learned is that getting to state takes a lot of hard work,” Sloey said. “It also takes dedication that you can’t fake.”