The girls’ wrestling team beat Grand Prairie 33-21 and won over Kimball by forfeit on Jan. 9. The Grand Prairie Quad was canceled.

Senior Selphia Galloway, who placed second in the match overall and later lost in the championship round against Coppell, said that the team did well.

“We placed first and a lot of us got second in our own weight classes,” Galloway said.

In addition to working on strengthening her stamina, Galloway said that the team can improve in later matches, such as the Coyote Classic that is coming up this Saturday at Frisco Heritage H.S at 9 a.m.

“We need to be more aggressive, attack more, and believe in ourselves that we can do a lot better,” Galloway said.

After a hard fight last week, junior Brittany Marshall said that the team is preparing for district with conditioning while focusing on their strengths.

“We’re a technical team, so that’s what we’re doing,” Marshall said. “We’re trying to perfect our technique and get our conditioning.”

Galloway starts match days off mentally preparing for the competition that night. Nerves have been following her into her fourth year on the team, but she tries not to overthink it during the match to avoid distractions.

“Once I’m in the match, my mind clears and I’m ready to go,” Galloway said.

As the boys season also winds down, the team has only one thing on their mind for the following matches: to win.

“I think we’re going to do pretty good as long as everyone comes in with their mind ready to go and head straight” senior Joe Head said. “We can definitely take a win.”

Coach Noel Peterson has instilled this mindset very well into his wrestlers. In order to be successful in following matches, including district, the team has stepped it up immensely.

“Practices have become more intense, [and] the kids are working hard,” Peterson said. “I’m pleased where we are going. It’s almost to the point where it’s individual [so] we’ll see how well do.”

The team headed down to San Antonio last night in order to participate in the Reagan Duals which take place today and Saturday. They will compete in a total of 8 matches, averaging to four duals a day. Part of the entry fee the teams are required to pay in order to participate will be donated to St. Jude’s Hospital. Both Peterson and the team are optimistic for this duel.

“I think we’ll do really well as a team,” Peterson said.

Last week at the Grand Prairie/Kimball tri, the boys won both duals. They beat Grand Prairie 52-24 and automatically defeated Kimball which did not show up for unknown reasons.

“It was a good victory,” sophomore Chris Hamill said. “We all wrestled better than we usually have. [We’re] all stepping it up because state’s in four weeks now. We’re making any final adjustments before going into state.”

The boys also participated at the Cougar Classic last Saturday and took home 7th out of 24 teams. Seniors Armando Gonzales, Cameron Alaniz, Joe Head and junior Xavier Franklin took third place, while freshman Jason Edmonds took fourth.

 “We probably did the best we could,” Peterson said. “It was a good test for us there was some quality teams and we did well.”