COVID-19 has affected everyone in some way, shape or form. One example would be the wrestling team, as they fell victim to COVID. Twelve wrestlers have been forced to quarantine due to being exposed to COVID, while three have actually contracted the disease. 

Despite all this, Coach Bob Sullivan has remained optimistic about the whole thing.

 “It has been a challenging season for both me and the team, but I think this year so far has challenged us to become better, smarter athletes,” he said.

The wrestlers, too, understand the challenge of a close-contact sport in the time of COVID. 

Carter Cline ‘22, a varsity wrestler, contracted coronavirus over Christmas break, preventing him from attending any practices or meets for three weeks. At first, he just had to quarantine because his mother, Kelly Cline, contracted Covid. However, he had to quarantine even longer after contracting the disease himself. 

“It cut out a critical part of my season, usually around this time we are preparing for districts and getting ready for the state meet,” Cline said. 

Like all of the wrestlers, Cline had set goals for himself to meet by the end of the season.

“Before I got COVID, my goal was to win 25 matches, but now since I missed so much time, my goal is to win 15 matches,” he said. 

Varsity wrestler Cameron Detweiler ‘21 did not have Covid but had to be quarantined due to exposure. 

“Coming back from quarantine, I could tell the whole team was behind in terms of conditioning from this time last year,” Detweiler said. 

Last year, Detweiler had twelve matches before the first major wrestling meet at Johnson County. This year due to being quarantined, he only had one, putting him far behind wrestlers from other schools in terms of conditioning. Despite having to be quarantined, no goals have changed for Detweiler.

 “Most of my goals are focused on later in the season like making state and things like that,” Detweiler said. 

Marc Fayad ‘22, a member of the junior varsity team, had to be quarantined after everyone in his family tested positive as well as himself.

“During quarantine, I was unable to exercise much, so obviously that put me behind other wrestlers since I was so out of shape coming back,” Fayad said. 

In fact, Fayad was moved from varsity to JV due to the lack of conditioning from quarantine.

“My original goals for the season was to stay on varsity and win over half of my matches,” he said. “Since then my goals have changed; I now just want to make it through the season with no more interruptions and get into prime shape for next season.”

Despite all of these setbacks to the season, the team still has only one goal in mind: make it to state and perform well.

“State is coming up fast. We are in scramble mode preparing for it, but I feel confident in the team’s ability to come together and make a push for a spot at the state meet,” Sullivan said.

The hard work in a tough season paid off on Jan. 21 when the team made school history winning the RCC conference meet with Cameron Detwiler ‘21, Sam Gustafson ‘21, and John Balch ‘23 placing first.