King places first at Runner invite

“We wrestled a lot better at this tournament,” Zach Schmidt, Saratoga High School head wrestling coach said. “The boys were more focused.”

Schmidt was happy to see Jaxon King place first in his weight class of 120 over Quenton Hecker from Lovell. King scored 28 team points.

Justin Shotwell is another wrestler that placed at the invite. Shotwell wrestling at 106 weight scored 19 team points from his matches and placed 5th.

“The team was better looking as a whole,” Schmidt said. “All wrestled well and did good things.”

He said what flaws he saw in his wrestlers were all correctable. Schmidt felt the team did better because the squad went back to basics and addressed diet of some of the wrestlers.

“Getting back from the holidays, some of the wrestlers felt they had fallen out of shape,” Schmidt said. “That is something we can adjust and we did.”

He said the practices of last week focused on takedowns and he saw positive results in several of the matches. Schmidt was also impressed how well many of his wrestlers jumped out aggressively in matches.

“There were eight matches we were well ahead and then we just took the pedal off the gas,” Schmidt said. “That just means we have to concentrate on being able to finish matches.”

He said any problem he saw at the invite could be rectified.

“I am encouraged by what happened at Don Runner,” Schmidt said. “I saw a lot to be proud of and we were aggressive, so I am looking forward to season as it unfolds.”

The next scheduled meet is Jan. 20 in Lingle for the Dogger Invite.

 

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