TJ wrestlers are defeated during regionals and sit out for state.
Photo by Hanna Kazlouskaya
When the TJ guys wrestled last Friday onto Saturday, they came out with a huge disappointment when only one of the wrestlers placed out of 12 participants. TJ faced some of the strongest competitors in state and just could not pull through.
“This was a really disappointing year for regionals,” said Head Coach Mike Laurita. “Our goal is to always have kids qualify for state. The team is young and I hope that they will learn from this experience, and take what they saw for the future.” The team has a lot of learning to do after this year, and they now know what to expect next time they go into regionals.
The only person that was able to place was Garmaa Shinebayer, who wrestled a total of five guys and placed overall 6th, still not being able to qualify for state. “I had a lot of pressure because this was my second year wrestling and my first time at regionals,” said Shinebayer. “I was thinking about winning and nothing else. I just wanted to fight and did better than I expected initially.”
Sheik Kamara was one of the wrestlers who was wrestling for the first time at regionals and was taken by surprise from the difficulty of the competition. “This was one of the toughest matches I had. You could tell how much different the wrestlers are in regionals than in normal matches,” said Kamara. “It was great to experience this type of competition and use it in the future.”
The guys finished their season with disappointed that they could not do as well as they wanted, but the spirits for next season are high. TJ wrestlers are expecting big things next year; keep a watch for them next year Spartans!
