The St. Louis Sharks’ Wrestling team made waves this season through the usual domination its known for throughout the regular season. This trend continued through the post season and into the team state meet in Kalamazoo Friday Feb. 23-24, where the Sharks competed for a team state title in Division Four Wrestling.
The team had a momentum-making dual with Climax Scotts-Martin in the quarterfinal match Friday morning, which to no one’s surprise, the Sharks came out victorious by a final score of 39-26. The first victory against CSM allowed the Sharks to continue into the semifinals Saturday morning against Benzie Central. This is the third year in a row where the Sharks made a final four appearance, and after losing in the semifinals last year against Bronson, the Sharks showed up this year with something to prove.
It was a hard battle against Benzie, but the Sharks were able to pick up another win by a score of 37-22 to secure their spot in the finals match against Hudson later that day. The semifinal against Benzie was neck and neck until it was time for the upper weights to wrestle, and the win that sent the Sharks to the finals was earned by the teams- 215 pounder Ramon Anguiano, who shared just how much the win meant to him and the team with, “I felt great and all glory to God. I was the underdog in the match, but I had to go get the job done, so I went and dominated. It went a lot better than last year because I wasn’t in my head, and I worked my tail off for the success of the team. It also helps that we have the best coaching and support staff a program could ask for, as well as the best guys to work with!”
Wrestling head coach Kuhn added to Anguiano’s statement with, “After losing two consecutive years in semis, it was an overwhelming sense of relief. Because had we not won, it would have felt like we weren’t making any progress as a program. I feel like we went in Saturday morning with the confidence that we planned to win and that didn’t seem to be the case years prior. Obviously, that’s what it takes to get to the next level– you have to believe you’ll win every time you step on the mat.”
After the tough battle Saturday morning, the Sharks had to turn their attention to face the defending state champions in Hudson. Unfortunately, the Sharks were unable to come out with a victory, and the dual ended with a final score of 41-17. Even though they weren’t able to bring home the gold, the Sharks accomplished what hasn’t been done in the last 29 years by earning the runner-up spot for Division four wrestling. Coach Kuhn stated how he felt following the loss in the finals with, “It was very difficult to coach through the finals dual. There was a time when we realized it would be impossible to win, and it was agonizing having to watch that play out, but you reap what you sew. We didn’t have a full lineup of 14 wrestlers who worked as hard as Hudson’s full lineup.” Kuhn elaborated on the difficulty of the final dual by stating, “Looking to the future, if the team didn’t understand the need to work in the offseason before losing in the state championship, then they should undoubtedly have a clear understanding of that now. It was like apples to oranges out there.”
Although the wrestling season may be over for the team, 13 of the Sharks will be heading to Ford Field in Detroit to compete for an individual state title Friday and Saturday, March 1-2.
