The high school wrestling team opened the season with the Newkirk Dual Tournament on Saturday. The tournament provided a great opportunity for the team to develop experience, camaraderie and competition. The Bulldog's 4th place finish came by suffering two close losses of 3 and 8 points. Although these losses were disappointing, they will certainly prove to be valuable learning experiences for the season to come. In the short history of our wrestling program the majority of our bouts could be described as "pin or be pinned", however this team is looking to change that narrative. The Senior captains of the team Zane Thrasher, Noah Severtson and Cedric Levell are looking to lead the wrestling program into a new chapter of competition. 

The top performances of the day came from four wrestlers. Freshman Ty Thrasher (138lbs) led the team by finishing the day at 4-0. Sophomore Ayden Wade (132lbs), Cedric Levell (144lbs), and Zane Thrasher (190lbs) all finished the day at 3-1.

There were also solid performances by our promising freshmen class with wins coming from Trent Jenkins (106lbs), Hudson Farris (120lbs), Gabe Huntsinger (126lbs) and Joey Martin (165lbs). The team also recorded wins from Juniors James Lea (150lbs) and Reece Jones (175lbs). The spark of the weekend came by way of another Junior wrestler, heavyweight David Smithwick wrestled his first two matches ever and split 1-1, after having only 2 weeks of practice. 

The Bulldog wrestling team will be looking to build on the foundation laid this weekend by traveling to Morris on Tuesday afternoon for the first District dual of the season.