Libby--2 Time District Champion! Sarah 7th Place!

It was a fun weekend at districts.  Ok.  So it was really stressful more than fun.  Libby had a tough finals match--but came out on top with a last second victory.  Sarah had the opposite with a last second loss in one her matches.  So hard and frustrating after the great season she's had. But she's going to state!  So that's exciting.

Here's the write up from the Shoreline Area News: https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2025/02/shorewood-girls-take-4th-at-3a-district.html

And some of the pics I took (some I posted on FB).  I have been getting into the photography more since the guy who took our photos last year hasn't been there this year.

This is Libby giving me the stink eye because it was me in her corner and not Derek (who came up later) or Brady. 

But she won anyway. 

The team huddle--which got quite teary.  Libby's last districts.  

Big sister hugs.  I may have been crying too. 

The seniors! 

Libby's 2nd win. 

Sarah's toughest loss.  Her first loss was tough too--as she had the girl on her back but couldn't quite finish. 

In this match, Sarah got up by 2--but then gave up a reversal rather than letting the girl get away. 

Derek was very upset with her--then I got to be "good cop" and talk with her in the locker room.  I am so dang proud of how much she's improved.  There will be hard matches.  But wrestling teaches you to come back and give it your all! 

So Sarah did!  She came back and won her next match to take 7th.  Boom. 

Libby's championship match was the hardest she's had to wrestle since her injury.  It was BRUTALLY tough.  But she came out on top.  Literally.  And they've used practice since then to work on some of the scenarios that made this girl tough to beat--since Libby may well have to wrestle her again at state. 

Exhausted?  Yep! 

Norton Crew! 

Sarah on the "podium"

SNOW WEEK & Boys Districts

 It was a week we've been gearing up for!  The girls had districts!  I had some fun cooking planned with my class to kickoff our food science unit.  And we got SNOW instead.  An annoyingly small amount of snow for such a big response.  School cancelled on Monday, Wed, and Thursday with full days on Tuesday and Friday (Friday arguably having the worst icy conditions--but yeah--who can tell?)

Ben was the only one to get out in the snow (except for my Buddy walks.) I got lots of future school work planned (math lessons) and compiled all our tax stuff, made shirts for the girls district team (which I had given up on doing this year but now had time for).  We also got to have practice every day this week.  That was a fun surprise (as conditions were much better by the afternoon every day.)  We practiced from 1-4:30, getting done nice and early.  What a novel idea--to be home at such an early time!  (That's not happening this week--as we're hosting Rhinos two evenings and then Einstein practices start--so we'll have 2 practices.). 

And yes, now this weekend we'll have the girls' district tournament.  (Everyone else went ahead and ran with their tournaments this weekend, but not 3A girls!) 

Yesterday Shorewood boys had a pretty good showing at their district tournament.  If you don't look at the team scores.  If you do you'll see that we took dead last.  But if you just look at the sheer number of wrestlers we took (23 out of a possible 28, not bad), and the fact that 17 won at least one match--that's great for the team we had this year.  We had 2 district champs!  (One freshman and one sophomore).  And we are taking 6 to state!  That's seriously a win in my book.  

It was a fun day.  I took lots of pictures of the wrestling. Most of them bad.  But a few were good.  The boys are super into the "pin chain" (see around Emi's neck?) that was invented this year by Coach St. Louis.

Exciting Matches!

 I've also been writing some articles for the Shoreline Area News again.  We beat Shorecrest!  (So exciting.) And about the girl's team Senior Night victory. 

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2025/01/on-senior-night-shorewood-girls.html

Shorewood Shorecrest match (seriously one of the most exciting matches I've ever watched.) 

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2025/01/spartan-cup-2025-shorewood.html

This weekend the boys won against Mountlake Terrace.  https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2025/02/shorewood-boys-wrestling-takes-down.html

The girls won against Meadowdale, but then fell to Edmonds-Woodway to take 2nd in the league. 

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2025/02/shorewood-girls-wrestling-falls-short.html

Can Libby Wrestle Again? YES! And got her 100 WINS!

 We were so worried that Libby might not be able to wrestle again this season.  But she's doing it! 

She won two matches at the scramble on the 23rd and then decided she'd also wrestle at the tournament on the 25th.  Great decisions.  She handily took 1st (at this granted small tournament).  But it was what she needed to feel confident about competing in the post season.

Sarah also had a great week.  She made it to her first tournament final--taking 2nd to a girl who will for sure be a state champ.

I didn't have anything ready to celebrate Libby's 100 wins.  (She was not  happy.)  But I didn't know until Friday that she was going to wrestle for sure on Saturday and get the chance.  I DID NOT want to jinx it.

The tournament was over early enough that I went to school to catch up on work.  I used the diecut machines to make her 100 "w"s to represent her 100 wins.  Sarah and Ben helped me surprise her. Then we surprised her with the poster (that she actually designed) on Monday at practice (many thanks to Grammy for picking it up and framing it.) 

Sarah has over 20 wins this season--super impressive!  She's on her way to 100 wins! 

Sarah with the new pin chain! 

Happy Birthday To ME!

 I spend so much time prepping emails and articles about wrestling on Sundays now that I don't always take the time to post.  But I did have such a great birthday!  I'm 48.  That seems like 50 is getting awfully close.

But I'm here for it.  I'm rocking my grays and making more grunting noises when I get out of chairs.  It's all good.  I have so much to be thankful for.  Derek took me out to dinner on Friday.  I went to the temple and to the spa on Saturday--with the girls!  I was so happy they said they wanted to go to the spa.  They were a little nervous about the naked part, but it really is so normal once everyone puts on the shower cap and we all look a little alien.  The best part of it was hanging out with no phones to distract!  I really enjoy just hanging out and chatting with my girls.  They are so fun. 

Then on Sunday I made amazing carnitas in the instant pot (and you broil it a little to crisp it up!)  So good!  We had the Murdock family over and watched Unstoppable (a wrestling movie about Anthony Robles--a one legged NCAA champ!)  I made a yummy fruit tray for my birthday dessert.  

Having a weekend with no wrestling was so restorative.  I'm ready to go again!  

Kelso 2025 & Scramble 3

 Well, Kelso was less stressful for me since Libby wasn't wrestling.  We didn't have a great tournament overall as a team, in some ways.  But we had some girls back on the mat who haven't been, and Sarah had a great tournament! 

Our Kelso crew!  (including the injured) 

Our Day 2 group--YES!  Sarah made it to day 2!

Dad & Libby & Ben (Sarah was off getting ready to wrestle)

Super proud of Sarah for her wins.  She's really getting it! Both of her losses were close, and she could have pulled it out with a little more experience and match savvy.  

This week she wrestled 3 times in a scramble at MTHS (my old stomping grounds as a teacher) and WON ALL 3! (As a reminder, this was the week last year that she won her first match...this year she has over 20 wins already!)  Smiling when she saw me pulling out my camera to take a pic of her pin.  

Another dad took these ones, love seeing mom and dad in her corner.  (Twinning)

Libby got a nasty cold this week that had her down.  But she'll be back wrestling this week--with a brace.  Starting out light--we'll see how it goes. 

A Week of Matches! Boys v. Edway, Senior Night, and A Scramble

Okay.  I can't get pics in order these days.  And I'm not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good because yeah.  I'm maxed.  Last weekend was Gut Check and Libby's injury.  This week was a match on Tuesday, a match on Wednesday, and a scramble on Thursday.  And oh yeah, we hosted all 3 of them.  

The Ed-Way boys handed it to us on Tuesday.  But we wanted to give everyone a match, so we basically wrestled 3 back to back duals.  So we were there LATE.  

Wednesday was Senior Night for our girls, and the only official dual we were wrestling.  It didn't look good for us.  They have some talented wrestlers, and we had no Libby or Finley in our lineup.  Also, without our freshman heavyweight (broken collarbone) and another senior who's out for injury, our lineup is not full.  Not even close.  But we managed a big win (they kept out two of their best wretlers thinking they wouldn't need them to beat us.)  But we did it! It was so exciting.  Two of our new wrestlers pulled out pins and that started us off right.  It was awesome.  Perfect Senior Night--well it would have been even more perfect if Libby could have wrestled, but it was actually more miraculous without Libby wrestling.  Sarah took a forfeit, so no Nortons wrestled and still it was amazing.  (Libby sang the National Anthem and it was beautiful.  Not perfect.  But awesome.) 

Then Thursday we hosted a scramble.  It was our first time hosting a scramble, and we wanted to use trackwrestling.  It was a bit of an adventure figuring out how to make it all work (we ended up having to get tech support on the phone) but we did it!  The ref showed up super late (and only one showed up--so we recruited Derek Norton for Mat 2.)  It was great for our girls to get in some more matches. 

Sarah won both her matches! 

I did some coaching

Derek didn't have official ref stuff, so ribbons and a mint tin for the toss.  Haha. 

The Seniors! 

So cute, right? 

The arm...it's healing.  

Our Senior!  Can't believe it. 

And then on Friday we left for Kelso!  I'm waiting to get Jeremy's pictures from Kelso before I post about it.  But spoiler--Sarah wrestled tough!