The 2021-22 St. Louis Wrestling season came to a close Saturday, March 5, at Ford Field in Detroit.

The Sharks took eight guys to the Michigan Highschool Athletic Association State Tournament and five wrestlers came home with all-state honors. Head coach Kevin Kuhn also received the division four coach of the year award. Kuhn was very proud of the amount of success they had and commented, “As far as the time I’ve been coaching this is the most state medalists that we’ve had. I believe it also ties Coach Threloff’s high.”

Medalists on the day were: Colin Kuhn, Dylan Marr, Justice Onstott, Ben Dousuah, and Martine Wiggins; the remaining qualifiers: Nate March, Robert Long-Terwilliger, and Braden Ball, were unfortunately eliminated before the medal rounds. Marr was particularly proud of their performances on the day and said, “Everyone wrestled great the first day even though some guys lost a couple tight matches. Everyone who went battled their hearts out. Some came home with medals and some didn’t.”

This was a long and hard meet for the Sharks and was a very emotional time for the senior wrestlers. It became even more so emotional after the complete hosing of March in his third match. After four hard minutes of wrestling, the third period began and March scored a point. This left March leading his opponent 1-0 for the entirety of the period. After time expired, March’s opponent began to gain control and the referee awarded the opponent two points for a reversal, seconds after the match was over. Despite objection from Coach Kuhn, the referee’s decision held and March’s season came to an end.

This wasn’t the only exciting event on the day freshman Colin Kuhn broke the medial epicondyle off of his elbow joint in his quarterfinal match. Kuhn’s injury will require surgery and the recovery process will be long and trying. Fortunately, if history repeats itself, Kuhn will be able to recover quickly like his fellow teammate Aaron Bowerman who also suffered an elbow injury earlier in the year. 

This has been a long and harsh journey for the wrestling team, and now the largest training block begins, preparation for next season.