The girls wrestling team won 7th place in the State Duals Competition Jan. 17 at Caprock, and the boys took 2nd place Jan. 18 at Randall.

State Duals is an event where the best teams come from all over and compete against each other to earn the winning title. In this type of match, the competitor must win the meet for themselves which will earn points for his/her team as opposed to State meets where the competitor is mostly focused on their own individual scores.

Overall the concept or main goal of wrestling is to get the opponents back pinned down against the mat with both shoulders touching for at least 2 seconds. Each technique is crucial for points and there are takedowns (2 points), escapes (1 point), reversals (2 points), near falls (2 or 3 points), and penalty points (1 or 2 points) used during a match.

“We had a good team competing in State Duals, and we really went hard because we wanted to earn the championship title,” senior Gregory Dean said. “As long as we put in the hard work, we will win anything we put our minds to the rest of the season. M Our coach has been getting us in shape, and together as a team. We’ve decided our motto for the year is to be national champions.”

Currently, the wrestling teams are in folkstyle wrestling which continues until the end of February, and then they will begin freestyle wrestling in March through August. Folkstyle is mainly focused on controlling the other opponent, and freestyle is focused on exposure points for a takedown.

“I wrestle because I love the adrenaline that comes with the wrestling match and the possibility,” senior Cadence Miller said. “This year my motto is  ‘leave no stone unturned,’ and my goal is to help my teammates as much as I can.”

So far the wrestling teams have played in Kansas City, The Lady Longhorn Classic, Lubbock High Invitational, Dumas Takedown, Turkey Tango, Geary Oklahoma, and the State Duals is one of the biggest events they’ll have to take on to win first in the state.

“Wrestling makes me feel powerful and strong, and I’m very excited to see how we compete as a team this year,” Miller said. “Our team wants to prove other teams wrong. As a team, we have had a lot of success and other teams root against us during tournaments, and we show up to every tournament to prove people wrong.”

After competing in the State Duals, the wrestling team will travel to Garden City in Kansas. Not shortly after, there will be big events coming up for districts, regionals and then state games.