The varsity wrestling team made school history at the Matt Tice Memorial Invitation in Leeds, Ala. on Sat, January 11.

“It’s been a long time coming. Four years ago we couldn’t buy a win so, like anything else, it took time. Good things don’t just happen overnight,” Wrestling Coach Zac Hightower said.

The team won first place overall and beat the second place team by 40 points. Every other school had an advantage due to the fact that the team was two boys short.

“It was challenging; anytime you can go out and outscore your competition by that much, I mean you’ve got to do things right. You’re not just gonna show up and it happen. Especially when you’re giving up two wrestlers to your closest competition,” Hightower said.

According to sophomore Stone Clark, it was one of the easier tournaments and the only worry the team had was defeating Leeds High School and Grissom High School.

“The thing I’m most proud of is just the grit and the determination and the heart the kids showed even when they knew we won. We were up by 20 points going into the final round which basically means out of 11 finals matches, we win two or three of them and we’ve got the tournament won. But instead of just coasting and getting through it they went out and they dominated the final round,” Hightower said.

According to Hightower, this victory is not the ultimate goal, it is just another step in the process to move onto sectionals and state.

“We work hard with each day that goes by. We’ve improved a lot in the last three years and we’ll improve more as a team with each win we get,” Clark said.