Robert E Lee, Rockbridge and Fort Defiance all met up in the gymnasium to face-off against us and each other in a quad meet. Wrestlers like Junior Gregorio Castillo were preparing for the event.

“The purpose is just to wrestle. This is our first meet, and it’s a chance to practice our strengths and weaknesses,” Castillo said, who sees meet as an opportunity to work on advancing his own skills.

In order to mentally prepare for his matches, he states he “listens to music and warms up with the guys to stay focused.”

When the meet began at 5:30p.m., it started off slow, with two rounds went on for at least four minutes each. The next matches took less time, however, and the number of spectators nearly doubled in the first thirty minutes.

ATreyl Wade is a senior wrestler who just won his first match in 45 seconds.

“[I felt] nervous, but when it comes down to it, you gotta do what you gotta do,” Wade said. However, he saw it as more than just a personal victory.

“It’s about the team,” Wade said, “not just the individual match.”

Tina Sorrel is a manager of the team and believes this first meet to be a good test as the team has only done scrimmage practices so far this season.

“This is the time where our wrestlers get to show off what they’ve learned,” Sorrel said.

After the first set of matches against Fort Defiance, there was a 10 minute break for the spectators. HHS ended up losing to Fort by just two points, but the first-year coach, Billy Bower, is still happy.

“Honestly [the meet] is going pretty well, we’d have won if it’d gone a bit better in the last match,” Bower said.

The second set of matches began against Robert E Lee, and the matches ended in 30 seconds, but there was one middle match where it seemed that the competitors were in the exact same pose for two minutes straight before the referee blew the whistle for out-of-bounds. This time around, instead of losing by two points, HHS beat Lee by two points.

After another 10 minute break, the final set of matches came against Rockbridge. Guillermo Torres scored 13 points against an opponent who didn’t get a single point on him. It was followed by a match with a two-point loss, but soon, more losses started to pile up

The score for the final match ended up with Rockbridge winning by 10 points putting it at the top of the meet.

Wrestlers still, like ATreyl Wade, still wish more spectators came, however.

“Come out and support us. We only have seven home games this year. [Support] is how we win.”