An 11-1 season dual meet record. (The only team they lost to took 2nd as a team at State--and they are mostly Rhinos--so I helped make their team great...)
A 2nd Place at Sub-Regionals, with 11 qualifying for Regionals
4 Qualifying for State, with 3 alternates
A VERY tense week after the Regional tournament while we waited to see what would happen after Derek received a controversial Flagrant Misconduct Penalty that resulted in his ejection from the Regional Tournament. Because he was given the penalty when the ref approached him in the stands after the match, we appealed the ruling. Rather than having to miss the whole State tournament, he had to miss just Friday. This meant that all of his wrestlers had to make it through until Saturday or he wouldn't be able to coach them at State.
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| The State Crew |
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| My view for warmups on Thursday Night. Maren watched the kiddos so I could go down early. |
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| Derek decided that we should go to the zoo on Friday since weigh-ins weren't until 2. It was a great idea. Super fun. The boys were adorable. |
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| Lunch on Friday before the wrestling started. |
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| Recreating the picture below. Sort of. With my phone case in the way. Urg. |
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| They've grown up a bit! |
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| View from section 224. It was hard to see all 8 mats. And of course we had a bunch of our matches on the hardest to see. |
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| Saturday morning Derek found out he won Coach of the Year. He was pretty happy. |
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| His wrestlers were delighted. They loved doing the Flagrant Penatly hand signals. All weekend. |
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| Brandon (one of Derek's assistants) and his brother both placed 5th at State. |
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| The two SW 1st Place Champs. Tim won like 11? years ago and Matthew 6 years ago. |
And 3 out of 4 made it to Saturday. The one who didn't was a scrappy freshman. I'm sure we will be in Tacoma with him next year.
We finished in 21st place out of 52 teams. I am so proud of the SW team this year.
Derek also won the 3A Wrestling Coach of the Year for the whole State of WA. I'm so proud. And relieved that it is over.
Also, notes to self for next year in Tacoma.
1. Do go down as the female chaperone (we had a female alternate). It was fun to be there on Thursday night with Derek.
2. Don't do 4 sets of the 8 flights of stairs for my workout on Friday morning. Then go walk around UW Tacoma (lots of stairs) and go to the zoo (lots of stairs) before our 2:00 pm start time. Then walk to the dome. And back. I am SO SORE.
3. Figure out how to get the kids to bed and go to dinner with Derek, Clark and Maren after Friday. So fun. But the kids were still up when we got back at almost 11. Yikes.
4. Figure out the Saturday lunch plan before we just head out into the greater Tacoma area to find food. 45 minute waits with hungry wrestlers isn't fun.
5. Do stay for the finals. Espeically when we don't have any wrestlers left to compete. We can just enjoy the amazing wrestling and drama involved. But next year, maybe we will have someone in that round. We have some amazing kids coming back next year.
And now, I'll settle into becoming a wrestling mom myself, as Libby has her first match in a few weeks!
