The Edgewood Wrestling Team finished third at the SWOC Wrestling Meet on February 6. The team trailed behind Ross, who placed first, and Harrison, who placed second. 

Going into the tournament, team co-captain Radical Rothermel “felt great” about how he would perform, but the team as a whole “felt really off, and didn’t feel like the team [they] usually are.” Like Rothermel, Assistant Coach Charlie Payne thought “[they] had a great chance to come out on top” but he says that “sometimes things happen that you cannot control and it changes the outcome.” 

Compared to past seasons, this year’s tournament had some changes. Previous tournaments were done with brackets. This year, Payne explained that “league placing went by head-to-head competition and records for the individual athletes.” Jake Lange, Nolan Boyle, and Olathe Siegla all went undefeated at the tournament. Rothermel shares that the tournament’s team winners were “decided by the team’s overall record at the tournament.”

Even though the team didn’t get the results they hoped for, Coach Payne is “very excited about post-season because [they] have a lot of good wrestlers that hopefully can go very far in the post-season tournaments.” Rothermel also feels hopeful going into post-season and confident in his chances of going to state as he’s “coming out of a decent season.” In the coming weeks, the team will have a chance to achieve their goals. Next step…sectionals.