Wrestling at Wright

The Saratoga wrestling team went to Wright for the New Year’s Dual that included the teams of Wright, Deadwood, Sturgis and Sundance on Jan. 4.

“We got four duals in that day,” Zach Schmidt, Panther head wrestling coach said. “We started off the day against Wright who is number six ranked in the state in 2A and we did well against them.”

Schmidt said four wrestlers had to stay home and that led to a hole in how much the Panthers could compete.

“We came off Wright 4-2, so if you go by that we had success,” Schmidt said. “There were some things we did really well.”

He said given it was the first dual since the break, Schmidt felt the wrestlers performed great against Wright.

“Still, it is hard to overcome four opens in your lineup and expect to win the dual,” Schmidt said. “You are giving a team 24 unanswered points, but in the head to head matchups, to go 4-2, I will take that.”

He said after Wright, the wrestlers went over what they did well and what needed to be improved on.

The Deadwood matches did not go as well as Wright, but not terrible. They went 3-5.

“We came out flat,” Schmidt said. “I wouldn’t say we wrestled bad but we didn’t wrestle as well as we did against Wright.”

Again, Schmidt saw good things about his grapplers.

He said against Sturgis the team stayed flat.

“It was the same as it had been against Deadwood,” Schmidt said. “Just flat and really not picking ourselves back up.”

Schmidt said the excitement level that started the day was ebbing. He didn’t know exactly what to attribute the flatness of the matches as the day progressed. He said rolling from one dual to the next didn’t allow for rest and that might explain why the Panther wrestlers’ last dual against Sundance was their worst.

“It was the flattest we have wrestled all year,” Schmidt said. “We lost some matches that we were ahead and lost in the last minute.”

He said Trez Martinez did wrestle well going 3-1.

“As under the weather as he has been all year, he looked sharp,” Schmidt said. “He wrestled up a weight class and this week he is expecting to come down to 126 which is where we expect him to be.”

“In the end, we find the positives and take them back and tell them this is what you are doing well,” Schmidt said. “But we also go over what needs to be improved because preseason is over.”

The next scheduled invite is the Don Runner Tournament on Jan, 11-12 in Wind River.