8th Grade Wrestling Off To Strong Start

The middle school wrestling team's first practice started February 5th at the 8/9 school in Fruita. The coaches are Mr. Hall who is a teacher at the 8/9 school as well as Mario Balestina who has coached the team for a long time. The team has 7th graders from middle school wrestling on the team as well. We interviewed 8th graders from the middle school team to see how their first practice was and how they felt their season would go.

Every wrestler on the team has a weight class that they wrestle at. For example if you wrestle 100 pounds then you will wrestle other kids that also wrestle 100 pounds. Gunner Peterson, an 8th grader wrestler whose weight class is 100 pounds for the middle school team said “The first practice of the year was super fun. I'm excited for the season and ready to go wrestle and feel as if I am going to do really well this season.” Gunner as you can tell is very excited to wrestle and from what I can tell is ready for the season. He also went undefeated last season.

The Fruita middle school team is very used to success as they have won the district tournament the past 10 year with the help of Alex Martineze, an 8th grader wrestler whose weight class is 165 pounds said, “The first practice of the season is always fun but kind of boring as you have to go over all of the rules but I am super excited to see how everyone does and how I will do." Alex is a great wrestler for Fruita as he had lots of success last season only losing 4 matches.

Both Gunner Peterson and Alex Martineze seem as if they are excited for their season as it is a very short middle school season. Only 5 weeks of wrestling. Their final tournament of the middle school season will be the district tournament which will decide who is the best in the valley. Both wrestlers have a great shot at winning it as Gunner won the tournament last year and Alex came in second.