by Taylor Black, Staff Writer

Since the beginning of the summer, the wrestling team has been training hard and getting in shape for one moment—the state championship.

“We had a great year this season, but we fell just short of our goal,” junior Dylan Arnall said. “Next year it will be a wrap though.”

After the first day of wrestling, the Tigers set themselves up beautifully for the championship matches. All of the previous all-state wrestlers were in position to repeat again.

The only set-back for the Tigers on the first day was an when senior Glen Becker, who is a previous state champion and state runner-up, failed to get a top seed in the tournament, which would have made the tournament a lot easier for him.

Since he didn’t get a top seed, he wrestled one of the top wrestlers in the state in his first round and lost. But after that loss, he made a decision to wrestle for team points and finished with third place.

“It was hard coming back after what happened in the first round,” Glen said. “But I had to get in the mindset to do it for the team, because we have worked so hard all year.”

The next morning the Tigers set the tone quickly with wins by freshman Justin Arnall and junior Tanner Mann. This set them up for the state championship match in the finals, which they won.

“Me and Justin definitely set the tone on that second day,” Tanner said. “We really just wanted to get things rolling.”

The team kept up the momentum with another state champ, senior Ben Cline. Junior Taylor Guise and senior Brad Burnside were runners-up in their weight classes, and junior Dillon Kimes earned a fifth place finish.

At first, the Tigers lost to Rogers Heritage by 10 points, the smallest margin of victory in Arkansas State Championship wrestling history. Then the Tigers received some surprising news a few days later.

“At first they miscounted the points, so we were actually a lot closer than we thought,” Ben said.

The Tigers only lost by 3 points. Knowing that they were that close makes them eager for next year, and they say they have a chance.

“I think that next year we definitely have a good shot at coming back and going for the win,” Tanner said. “With two returning state champions, six returning all state wrestlers and an eighth-grade national champion coming next year, it would be a disappointment if we didn’t.”

While wrestling is on the rise in Arkansas, the Tigers seem to be the team to beat next year, despite losing a lot of seniors.

“Even though we have half of the team coming back, we need dedicated underclassmen to come out for wrestling,” Justin said. “You never know, if you wrestle, you might have a ring on your finger by the end of next year.”