Injury sidelines King, flu affects rest of team at home meet
Jaxon King talks with Tom Stockwell before a match.
Jaxon King grapples with his opponent moments before he was injured.
Jaxon King is attended to quickly at the Saratoga meet after it was apparent the wrestler was hurt during his match. He was taken away by ambulance.
Saratoga High School wrestlers hosted two Colorado teams, Sorrocco and West End from Kremmling and Rawlins. It was the last time for the home crowd to see seniors Preston Dew, Torin Hedley and Jaxon King wrestle at the school.
Saratoga High School was not only showcasing the seniors, but also had military appreciation day.
The crowd enjoyed watching Jerry Everett pin his first opponent from Sorrocco. Joey Gonzales lost an extremely close match. Caleb Bangs pinned his first opponent in less than two minutes. The next two Saratoga wrestlers got pinned.
Zach Schmidt, head coach of the wrestling team, said many of his wrestlers were starting to feel effects of the flu that was going to ruin his meet.
Schmidt said by the time the second matches started, he had only one wrestler that was not battling symptoms. That was Bangs.
The heartbreak of the wrestling match was Jaxon King against a Sorrocco wrestler. The first match was in favor of King at 9-2. The second match, the Sorrocco wrestler had caught up to King with the score being 9-9. In the third match, the crowd saw King struggling and, in a moment, King was on his back not moving.
Schmidt and EMTs were immediately at King's side. The crowd was completely silent as they watched the medical people assess King's condition. After about ten minutes, King was taken from the gym on a stretcher. He was given a standing ovation as the EMTs took him away.
The school acknowledged military veterans by having them come out onto the mat after the first half was over. All the school's wrestlers shook hands with the vets.
Next, the seniors were acknowledged. Kennison Spiering, Hedley and Dew were recognized with their families. King was remembered, but his family had gone to the hospital, so the mat was empty as the announcer read King's accomplishments.
Schmidt said the rest of the meet was tough because of the flu taking it's toll on his wrestlers.
It was with a heavy heart, Schmidt canceled going to Rawlins the next day.
"I only had one wrestler and that was Caleb," Schmidt said. "I felt bad for this hard working guy."
Schmidt said Bangs is on a 12-win streak and he sees good things in the wrestler's future.
"Caleb is very coachable and not afraid to try new things," Schmidt said. "He is an impressive young man."
Schmidt said at this point, King has not been cleared to wrestle. That could change in the next few days. Still, he said that they will be carefully monitoring King's progress and it will be week by week before any decisions will be made on how soon King can return to the mat.
The next scheduled meet is the Carbon County Invite Feb 9-10 at HEM.
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