Our guys competed in true Tiger form, attacking with all the vigor and precision they could muster. With some mediocre in-conference records many of our guys were seeded low or not at all which pit them against some pretty tough competition right up front. Only a few of our guys were knocked out in their first two matches, and even then they held tough to the end forcing a decision win rather than first period pins.
We ended up with three state placers: Cadet Jesse Alston taking 5th, Cadet Layton Decker taking 6th and Cadet Blake Sibley taking 7th. All three had some real nail-biter matches including an overtime “sudden death” round for Alston.
Another honorable mention was a match between Cadet Cutter Billeaudeaux and his opponent. Cutter was getting dominated 11-2 by end of the third period and getting rather fatigued. I kept yelling “How bad do you want it?!” (meaning a win) and Cutter pulled a Herculean feat by catching his opponent in a sloppy move and taking him to his back for the pin. Cutter has been wrestling up a weight class, barely making the minimum for his current weight class and going up against larger and older opponents. Truly David vs Goliath in some cases.
Even while giving up team points by not having three weight classes covered we still managed to earn a spot at 20th in the state. The numbers may not be impressive to most, but I could not be more proud of our HMA wrestlers. Feel free to congratulate any of the list below for their efforts this past season.
Michael Miller, 1st year wrestler
Kevin Pedersen, 4th year?
Justin Covino, 2nd year
Layton Decker, 2nd year
Cutter Billeaudeaux, 1st year non-club wrestling
P.T. Joseph, 1st year
Isaac Burton, 1st year
Robert Englander, 1st year
Vitto Bianchi, 1st year
Sam Urszinyi, 1st year
Chandler O’Connor, 1st year
Nick Rice, 1st year
Blake Sibley, 4th year?
Sam Tyler, 1st year
Tom Whitlow, 1st year
Jesse Alston, 2nd year
