Noxon wrestlers have more experience this season

NOXON – With some experience under their belts, the Red Devil wrestling team has grown in knowledge since last season.

This year the squad is short one wrestler of last year’s number, with eight in the ranks. Currently the team has six returning wrestlers and two freshman.

Two of the returning wrestlers are seniors. John Onofrey and Kory Neal lead the group in age. 

According to Head Coach Ben Ulrick, Neal wrestled when he was younger and a shoulder injury set him back for a few years.

“The shoulder injury kept him out of most athletics until he was a junior last year. And he actually came on real well,” said Coach Ulrick. 

Last year the team had three guys go to state, although none of them scored any points. But this year, Coach Ulrick is optimistic.

“I’d like to take about six of these guys (to state) and it’s actually realistic,” he said. 

As with the rest of the teams, currently the guys are focusing on conditioning. Coach Ulrick has yet to roll out the mats yet, although he planned to do so on Tuesday. 

With only two weeks until their first meet, the team is staying consistent with conditioning in one way or another. 

“Last year it helped. We were right up there with everyone else at our first tournament,” Coach Ulrick said. “We were actually out conditioning people.”

Coach Ulrick believes the changes to the weight class this year are beneficial. He explained the organization split the heavier weights to smaller categories – making it a positive thing for high school wrestling in general.

The guys will head to the Cascade Invite a week from Thanksgiving. The event will take place on the December 6th and 7th. 

The tournament is a big one and the kids should get a lot of time on the mat, an added bonus to the tournament. 

With approximately 25 teams in the mix, Coach Ulrick said the tournament is a high level of competition to start off with.

“The younger kids who aren’t still in the tournament will get a few more matches,” said Coach Ulrick. 

He explained the tournament gives the wrestlers pretty good breaks throughout the day, something that doesn’t always happen. In all, most of the wrestlers should get around four matches. 

Although its too early to tell how the Red Devils stack up against their competition, Coach Ulrick knows their experience will help them along. The more experience a team has, the better they typically are. And with more years under their belt, Noxon is a step ahead from last year. 

“We’re definitely more experienced than we were last year and we did very well at that tournament. We scored some points and had some placers so I’m hoping to see that again this year,” said Coach Ulrick.

Noxon will only have two home mixers this year with one landing on Thursday, December 19th and the other happening on Friday, January 10th.

The rest of the season will be on the road where the guys will have to learn to cope with some long travel times both to and from the matches.