Considering this is Mijo's first full season of wrestling, I think he did extremely well. He did participate last year, but the team was basically two guys, and we never even saw a meet where a whole team of different weight classes competed, like we did this year in the duals (2 schools), Tri (3 schools), and quads (4 schools). Baby A said that was by far the most fun, sitting with his friends and supporting each other in one gym, on one mat. Within the Austin schools in our district, Crockett dominated, the kids had an undefeated contest against Travis and McCallum, which was great for moral, even the freshman got in on some good matches. The same thing happened at the Tri meet with Navarro and LBJ, where our kids won about 80% of the matches. The shitty part is that the district is not the same as for football. Our district, for wrestling, includes Dripping Springs, Leander (3 schools), Cedar Park, and then the schools within Austin that are 5A, for a total of 15 schools.
Mijo ended up 5th place, technically, a podium finish, as the top 6 kids per weight class got a medal. The top 4 kids advance to Regionals, but a 5th is also invited, in case one of the others cannot compete, he then might be called. Normally, I would say the chance is almost 0, but with Covid taking kids out left and right (from competing, not out like dead), I would say he has a small shot of sneaking in next week.
His first match was going well, nothing happened for the first round and about half the 2nd round, they grappled each other by the neck, but neither was taking a chance. Mijo finally tried a move, lost his balance a bit, said his stance was not wide enough, and he tumbled over, and the other kid pounced on top of him. His second match was against the Rouse kid, he fought him in his first match of the season, beat him on points, then fought him again in the match he got Covid at where the Rouse kid won, then fought him again and beat him again on points. It was a really close match that could have gone either way. The following match was to get the chance to fight for 3rd or 4th place, but he lost again. His final match was for 5th or 6th place and won on a pin within the first minute.
We were thinking "well, the season is over, time to relax and heal", but he is still in it for another week, saying he has to stay ready, plus because of the freeze, JV has their final match on Wednesday, so he has to practice helping his teammates by sparring with them. The truth is he likes hanging out in the wrestling room, they are all friends and have a good time in there. Even the girls like getting in there and being silly with them, which has to add to the fun.
Overall, the season was good. He learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and competed with class, he never tried to win by hurting someone. Saying that, wrestling is a really tough sport and I think he has little nagging injuries that he is not admitting to. He has said multiple times his elbow hurts and locks up on him, his knees are something that he mentions more and more, he still mentions his shoulder injury from football, and even an ankle says hurts for no reason, from time to time. I think the boy needs to just enjoy and grow during the Spring, before starting football season again.
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