The wrestling team had another successful meet as the varsity team went to their Winnetonka Invitational on Jan. 18th-19th. As a team, the varsity team got eighth. Individually, they had four people placed in the top. Four people ended up in finals. One person took first, two people took second, and one took third. Everyone else placed from sixth to 24th.

Varsity wrestler, senior Bryce Alberty, took 10th at the Invitational in his weight division; 126. After the Invitational, Alberty takes a step back to look at how the season has gone.

“This season I was [just] looking for commitment from my team, [and to] have a good, positive senior season,” Alberty explained, “It feels good to watch myself and my teammates grow, I like everyone’s attitude. I like everyone’s workout, thinking, commitment to the sport, and it just empowers me, as an individual, to do better and strive to win.”

“The past two seasons weren’t as [good] as this season, as a team and individually, the past two seasons before this [weren’t] as good as this season.” Alberty said.

Alberty would like to continue wrestling in the future, attending Fontbonne University next Fall, wrestling and pulling wall for them.

Alberty’s teammate, senior Austin Smith wants nothing more than to strive to get a state metal. This Invitational, he competed in the weight division 170, and wrestled to his best ability.

“This season is going by great,” Smith mentioned. “It’s fun looking at how we’ve grown, just to watch people scream at each other on the mats, encouraging them. I personally go back and watch all my matches, and I listen to what my teammates say to make [improvements].”

Smith’s goal for the next tournament is to make it to state and he’s not quite sure if he wants to continue into wrestling, but wrestling taught him a tip about life; nothing comes easy.

Winnetonka’s first place wrestler in the weight division 152 was senior Corey Wait. His goal at the beginning of the season was to win Winnetonka tournament and Lee’s Summit tournament, and he won both of them.

“This season I wanted my little group of wrestlers to get together, build up, and just try to do the best that we can, and grow, and just make each other better regardless of the team title or anything like that.” Wait said. “Before this, it was definitely a different mindset. Before, it was kind of do the best I can and let everybody else do [their own thing] too, but this year, it really felt like a team. It’s kind of a team effort to make each other get better.”

Wait’s plans are to go to college for wrestling, and his final goal for this season is to get an individual title and a team title.

“To the new coming wrestlers; people that view wrestling on the outside usually are scared of it because they don’t really understand it,” Wait explains. “But if you go to a meet, just watch it, it’s a lot different than people put it out to be, so just give it a try.”