Wrestling Team Competes in All Suburban Wrestling Tournament
On Sat. Jan. 7 the wrestling team participated individually at the All Suburban Wrestling Tournament. Each wrestler got the chance to go up against another wrestler from different schools. Parkway North came in 15th with the record of a 29-5 record and David Evans was named Most Outstanding Wrestler and added a win to his 32-1 record which ranks him first in the 135 lbs division.
As the year started off, the team looked to rebuild with new wrestlers and returning competitors after a solid season last year with Austin Adderly and David Evans going to state. Practicing every day, the team trains to get better mentally, individually, and physically.
“We’re a young team with lots of freshman talent, but they’re committed and they’re willing to learn,” said junior David Evans.
With such a big team working together and growing together, it has made the season flow better than other seasons.
“This year we have a lot of new freshman wrestlers. Because of all the new freshman, we seem to have a much bigger junior varsity and varsity team, but most of our varsity is the same as last season. They seem to be pretty used to how things work and things are going more smoothly than our previous season,” said senior, team manager, Sam Treiber.
Even though wrestling is widely recognized as an individual sport because of the head to head competition, it’s also a team sport and uses a team scoring system to decide the winning team in a match. Each wrestler has a chance to go out and participate in matches against other wrestlers in the same weight class as them. In the match, there are five main ways to score against the opponent: takedown which equal two points, reversals which are two points, escapes which is one point, near falls which are two to three points and rule infractions which are minus one to two points. At the end of the match, the wrestler with the most points or doesn’t get pinned down is declared the winner.
“In wrestling, you try to do your best individually, but you also try to do your best for the benefit of the team,” said freshman Timmy Brinckwirth.
Evans trained hard over the off period of wrestling and took time to really get focused for this year. Evans wants to be the best he can be and represent North every time he wrestles.
“Mentally a lot has changed since last season. I used to be nervous before matches but now I’m more relaxed and focused,” said Evans.
By Joe Shaughnessy