Over the weekend, five of the top wrestlers from the school took part in the Class four state championships. The team returned home bearing two medals, as junior John Wood and senior Cole Anderson placed third and sixth, respectively.

While only two wrestlers walked away with medals, the three others, freshman Jacob Gajewski and juniors Chris Stagl and Michael Taylor, did not disappoint.

“When you take people down to the state tournament you want them to medal,” Coach Steve Cross said. “But overall, I think we performed to the best of our abilities.”

One of the medalists, Wood, achieved a feat only few Spartan wrestlers have accomplished; win a medal at three consecutive state tournaments. Wood has yet to place third, but being a junior, Wood still has one more year to win it all.

“Wood’s goal was to win and obviously he did not do that,” Coach Cross said. “[He] joined an elite group of Central wrestlers to win three state medals and has one more year to win state.”

For Anderson, however, this would ultimately be his final opportunity to place in the top tier at state. Anderson, a three time state qualifier, had not won a medal until this year. While Anderson did receive a medal, he feels he strayed away from his game plan, which in turn, ruined his chances to move farther into the tournament.

“I could have stuck to my game plan and used my outside shots instead of my strength,” Anderson said. “I am much quicker than the other 220 pound wrestlers.”

Despite the sour ending to a brilliant high school career, Anderson believes the best thing is to keep pushing himself as he approaches college.

“Overall, it is nice to place but I feel I could have done better,” Anderson said. “All I need to do is move forward and use this as a learning experience.”