The Edmond Memorial High School (EMHS) wrestling team attended their first state tournament on Feb. 24. The team placed in the top 15 out of 24 schools that attended the tournament. The four EMHS wrestlers who competed at the tournament, were seniors Carsten Mover and Michael McCracken, junior Liam Daniels and sophomore Wes Madden. 

 McCracken came in fourth place in the 165 weight class, only narrowly losing in the fourth round. 

“Winning is the most rewarding part of being a wrestler,” McCracken said. 

The other three wrestlers at the tournament all saw improvement throughout the season. With this being his first season as the head wrestling coach, Tyler Shaw was focused on reinforcing his students technique throughout the season.

“The season doesn’t always end up how they want or hope as long as in the end they can see how far they’ve come and the improvement they’ve made. That’s the most important thing,” Shaw said.

 Shaw has found that aspects of wrestling outside of the mat that wrestling also affects their everyday lives. The improvement Shaw has seen during practice and matches can also be seen in their life outside of wrestling.

“Working with the athletes to improve themselves [is my favorite part about coaching],” Shaw said, “The relationships and the joy they found in the progress, no matter where they started and no matter what they accomplish, seeing them grow, it helps them in other ways.” 

In order to see the improvement that Shaw is looking for, the wrestlers work hard during must practice. 

“The hardest thing would have to be the practice,” Daniels said. “Practices can last more than two hours and have constant conditioning and hard work in general.”

Another aspect of wrestling that is necessary is physical and mental health. Wrestlers need very high levels fitness to succeed in matches on the mats. 

Practicing for months over the year can cause many injuries, and it can heavily affect one’s performance in a tournament.

“Due to an injury two days before the tournament, I feel I didn’t perform the best I could have, but I still made it to the quarterfinals and wrestled as good as I could’ve with the circumstances,” Daniels said.

This year’s team exceeded expectations while wrestling their way into a spot in the state tournament and earning their place in the city of Edmond.

Contact Lathan Pearce and Ryder Richardson at [email protected]