The blood, sweat and tears put in are allowing the wrestling team to shine nearing the end of the season.

Saturday, Feb. 8, the team competed in the region three regionals tournament and came out successful. 

The team had multiple top finishers and are sending them to state. Freshman Mariah Gardner recapped a successful season at state. The team is excited and determined to see how they perform at state. 

Every varsity wrestler competed Feb. 8 in regionals and seven wrestlers advanced to compete in state. Junior Matthew Hendricks and freshman Logan Wells won regional championships in their weight class and had several runner-up and third place finishers in regionals.  Hendricks said, “We don’t have as many guys going to state this year, but we sure do have talent. We’ve never had a regional champion and this year we had two, myself and Logan Wells.” This team has done things that teams in the past had not done before and they don’t expect to look back now. 

With many younger wrestlers going to state, Hendricks and other upperclassmen have taken leadership roles to guide them through it all. “I definitely want our younger guys to know that it’s not just about winning and losing, there is more to it. Wrestling just shapes guys different from other sports mentally, emotionally and physically. I just want to make sure guys are seeing that and not just the fancy trophies and medals,” said Hendricks. Gardner is among one of the younger wrestlers on the team and with this advice, she was able to bring home a second place medal in the girls state championship meet. 

The team has been preparing hard for state and feels they are in a much stronger spot this year as they were in last year. They have more age, leadership and maturity and they believe it will take them far in state. “A big change has been made in the mat room. Now it’s always drills and going live, whereas last year we didn’t have such a good foundation to build on, since we had so many younger guys,” said Hendricks. With more experience, the team feels much stronger this year.

The team will compete in state Friday, Feb. 14 and Saturday, Feb. 15 in Lexington at Kentucky Horse Park.