Since mid-December, the boys and girls wrestling teams have had several matches, all which served as preparation for the district matches. With some wins and some losses, both teams hope for the best once district starts.

On Dec. 19, the boys competed against Paschal and Coppell. With a win against Paschal 49-18 and a loss to Coppell 19-50, head coach Noel Peterson commented on this bittersweet tri.

“[With] Paschal, we did all right,” Peterson said. “We ended up winning… we had some nice matches and we did all right. That was a good dual for us. Then we had Coppell and they beat us up pretty good. We lost 19-50 for our second loss and they’re just strong; they’re a strong program.”

Junior Alex Atchison said team did not put their best moves forward during the tri.

“I feel like we could have done much better against them,” Atchison said. “A couple of guys, including myself, didn’t do our best and I think we were capable of beating them.”

At the PESH Invitational, the team came in ninth with senior Cameron Alaniz taking first and sophomore Chris Hamill placing second.

“They came in ninth, lower than I wanted to, but I had a couple kids who got injured and weren’t in the lineup,” Peterson said.

Peterson and the team agree that they did not give it their best and that they could have done more to place higher.

“I think we could have done better, first of all, if we just didn’t seem very well prepared for it,” Peterson said. “We didn’t wrestle with the intensity. There were some good teams [at the match]. We just didn’t raise up to it.”

At the Creekview quad, the boys beat J.J. Pearce 44-30, lost to Creekview 30-43, and lost to Wakeland 30-40, despite having beaten them earlier that year.

Junior Xavier Franklin believes that the only way the team will be able to prosper is by doing one thing: listening to their coach.

“Cut down on the little mistakes, like don’t [make up moves],” Franklin said. “Listen to coach, don’t do things you’re not supposed to do. Listen to what the coach tells you to do.”

The boys are wrestling it out here tonight against Grand Prairie and Kimball at 6 p.m.  Peterson said he believes, as always, that they will do great.

“I always say we’re going to win,” Peterson said. “Win the duals and just go into the tournament saying, ‘We’re going to win the tournament.’ That’s what you have to think if you want to be competitive.”

The girls wrestling team won the Paschal/Coppell meet on the Dec. 19. They beat Paschal 54-6 and Coppell 30-24. Head coach Joe Daniel said although the team did well, they must work on “[their] quickness and finishing off their moves better.”

The team also participated in the Mrs. Claus Slam Tournament on Dec. 20.

“We took first place at Mrs. Claus. We had three second place finishers, two third place finishers, and two fourth place finishers,” Daniel said.

Daniel said the team did good in “staying aggressive” throughout that tournament. Sophomores Jordan Lee and Na-Woon Kim thought that this tournament was a good one, although they know that they can’t stop there.

“It’s cool cause we got ten new knockout singlets, so it’s our uniform now…because we got first place,” Lee said. “[But] I feel like there is always room to improve. I could improve. I feel like all of my teammates could improve. We just have to wrestle hard.”

Kim agreed with her teammate’s response.

“I feel like we did better in that tournament than we [have] all year,” Kim said. “But, yeah, we can all improve.”

For their upcoming home match tonight against Grand Prairie/Kimball at 6 p.m., Daniel said the girls have been “getting healthy and wrestling hard.”