As the 2021-2022 wrestling season comes to an end, many OHS wrestlers are pleased with their performance. With several placers at different tournaments throughout the year, and several matches for each of the wrestlers, many would say that the team has performed phenomenally. The wrestlers did everything they could to prepare for the season with intense conditioning and diligent practices, and in the end it paid off.

“We’ve had a lot of champions at tournaments, a lot of placers at tournaments. Overall we’ve done really well as a team,” said Jackson Morgan, junior.

This year, the OHS wrestling team brought eleven people to sectionals, but out of those eleven, only seven qualified and made it to state. With three people placing at state and seven people qualifying, the OHS wrestling team took 15th overall in the competition.

“Overall we got three state placers, counting myself. We took six or seven people to state and 11 people to sectionals. We could have done better and gotten some more people, but we still got some people and ended up placing 15th in the state,” said Matthew Mouritsen, senior.

Even though the wrestling team performed exceptionally well, one issue they still faced was the lack of wrestlers. The entire year they had a rather full lineup but some weight classes were still empty.

“We’re still struggling with COVID from last year so we have way less freshman than we normally do, less sophomores this year then we normally do, and a lot of first year juniors,” Mouritsen said.

With COVID-19 impacting wrestling in negative ways, causing a shortage of wrestlers for the last two years, some wrestlers feel they did not get the matches they needed. Due to last year’s restrictions and athletes frequently getting exposed and sick, matches were often canceled. 

“Some guys have not gotten the experience they needed, especially last year,” Mouritsen said. “The season didn’t have as many matches as we needed last year, so our guys didn’t have as much experience.”

With OHS wrestling not getting the experience needed last year, some of the athletes  struggled throughout the season more than others, but everyone worked together and came out on top.

“Overall the season [has] been going well for the team, some kids aren’t having the season they wanted and some kids are having [an] amazing season,” Morgan said. 

With the 2021-2022 season at an end, many would say that the OHS wrestling team performed above and beyond all expectations.