Warrior Wrestling Concludes Pioneer League With Numerous Medals

   For most students at West High, finals week was hard. 

   The disciplined few doubled down, locked their doors, and methodically reviewed every subject. The rest stress-binged YouTube videos and preemptively drafted emails begging for a grade round. A few scored project finals, others had cumulative exams with soul-crushingly high weight. Many got a PowerSchool notification in the fallout, though it might not have been welcome. No matter what, everyone fought through the week — especially the West High Wrestling Team.

   Beyond testing, finals week was also one of the most critical of their season — between a dual meet, senior night, and the Pioneer League finals looming large on Feb. 4, practice (five times a week) had never been more important. 

   According to Ethan Rogers (11), a recently-injured Varsity wrestler who joined as a sophomore, this year’s team has potential — despite losing some of its best seniors from last season. Though he’ll be watching from the sidelines, he’s had his eye on team members Justin Lumbao (11) and Jack Killian (12), wagering that “they’ll make it far” this year.
  Brandon Walter-Strauss (10), another Varsity wrestler, knows what it’s like to taste victory. He competed at the CIF playoffs last year with Rogers, qualifying when he placed first in his weight class at league. He had high hopes for the Varsity team, predicting that ”everyone could qualify” this year. Of the five competing schools, he alleged that South High was the team’s biggest competitor. 

   In wrestling, league competitions are “tournament style.” In any given weight class, two opponents wrestle for points; an escape nets you one, a takedown earns you two. The winner — whoever walks off the mat with the most points — gets to move on to the next bracket. Win enough matches and you’ll find yourself at the CIF playoffs (or even the state competition, if you’re having a particularly good year).

   The vast majority of the time, that “good year” isn’t just coincidence — it’s deliberately crafted through thousands of hours of preparation. Sit in on a wrestling practice and you’ll see team members taking on bout after bout, lined up in a grid on a single massive mat. In one corner, two crouched opponents search for a crack in the other’s defense; in another, a boy slams his teammate down on the floor with a cringe-inducing thud. The wrestlers manage to offer their opponent absolute concentration, tuning out the flurry of motion so they can keep up with the rhythm. It’s beautiful — and exhausting — to watch.

   That being said, preparation doesn’t necessarily guarantee gold. Because of the nature of the sport, sometimes wrestlers will have to shave off (or gain) a few pounds to hit their target weight for a competition: as Walter-Strauss quipped, it’s “horrible.” The process entails overeating or willful starvation, depending on how much you need to move the scale. In extreme cases, it means temporary dehydration — Walter-Strauss once shaved off 10 pounds in a single day.

However, all the challenges endured by the wrestling team were not laid to waste. Boys’ and Girls’ Wrestling finished the Pioneer League finals on Feb. 4 with four bronze medals, three silver and a whopping six gold!