Wrestling Overcoming Illness
Dan Ward- Guy Yelling Things From The Corner

Get up, come on get down with the sickness

The thing about winter sports is that they happen during cold and flu season. Wrestling, being a contact sport, gives germs an added advantage of skin to skin contact. Add that to trying to maintain weight, and you are going to end up with sick kids. Every season, about Christmas time, it seems like teams are all battling some bug. Wrestlers also tend to have injuries that are different from other sports. When was the last (or first) time you heard of a basketball player having cauliflower ear? St. Johns is also battling through some of that, and the Christmas Break is always a welcome relief from some of the grind. The start of the new year brings another thing unique to wrestling: the two-pound weight allowance. It goes like this: once you have made the initial weight, say 120 lbs, for example, after the first of the year, you are given a two-pound growth allowance, so you can now weigh 122 lbs.

The wrestling team has been busy over the Christmas break. On the 27th, they traveled to the Lansing Center to help NUWAY Combat set up for the Christmas Sparty, a three-day nationwide tournament. They will also be helping manage the tournament, providing table help, on Sunday the 29th. After setting up and taping enough mats to allow for 24 rings, the team was able to hold a practice in the Lansing Center. It was a great way for the wrestling team to help the wrestling community.

The Varsity boys and girls were also in action over the break. The girls wrestled tough at The Mt. Morris Invitational on December 23rd all of the girls won at least one match.
Haly Prohaska went 1-2
Lori Morris went 2-2
Addyson Ney went 1-2
Olivia Pettigrew placed 3rd, going 5-1 (with five pins)

The Varsity boys wrestled at the Mike Adamson Invitational
Donovan Quin placed 1st, going 4-0
Reagan Ward placed 2nd, going 4-1
Tyler Riedel placed 2nd, going 4-1
Doug Thurston placed 3rd, going 4-1
Fletcher Whitford placed 4th, going 3-2
Jackson Densmore placed 3rd, going 4-1
Brady Heibeck placed 2nd, going 4-1
Will Wharton placed 3rd, going 3-2
Brody Abendroth placed 2nd, going 4-1
Gavin Moreno placed 3rd, going 4-1
Abram Matice placed 4th, going 3-1 (Inj. default)
Jackson Armstrong placed 2nd, going 4-1

The JV travels to Lowell on January 6th, and the Varsity boys and girls travel to Portland for a tough dual against Mason and Portland on January 8th. The JV and the girls will also wrestle at New Lothrop on January 10th, and the Varsity will be at New Lothrop on January 11th.

Photos by Glenn Armstrong:

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