With wrestling season coming to an end, the Panther boys had many goals they wanted to achieve going into state, both individually and as a team. Even with a younger team, the Panthers still had 12 state qualifiers. =

“My goal for state was to become a state champion,” senior Tyler Wenzel said. “The team goal was just to see how far the younger generation could go and how much they needed to work on.”

As the only senior for the Panthers going into state, Wenzel shared his feelings about his season. Wenzel finished 4th at state.

“I could’ve put in a lot more work,” Wenzel said. “Sometimes I felt as though I wasn’t giving it my all, and I think that’s what screwed me in the end.”

For freshman Russell Goolsbey, though in his first year for the team, he had high expectations for himself heading into the state tournament.

“The goal for myself was to be Fulton’s first four timer,” Goolsbey said. “But I fell short of that in the finals.”

Goolsbey also faced many obstacles this season, leading up to the state tournament. 

“One of the main challenges I had was that I have traveled to the farther tournaments and wrestled since I was a little kid, and a bunch of these kids that were coming in were second year, first year kids,” Goolsbey said. “ They weren’t as experienced as I was and it was hard to get a good practice in without kids that push me really well.”

Head coach for the Panthers, Nick Fulton, couldn’t be prouder of how the boys performed and what it means for the younger team members.

“Our guys went hard, you know,”  Coach Fulton said. “In their matches, they showed some maturity in that tournament, so pretty good.”

Fulton faced the challenges of a lower-classmen-filled lineup and overcame them.

“You know, up to 10 freshmen in the varsity lineup… there’s a big jump between wrestling middle school kids to wrestling juniors and seniors in high school,” Fulton said. “Those are riddled with more seasoned guys. But I thought they grew throughout the year and rose to the challenge a little bit.”

When looking at the future for the Panther Wrestling team, there’s a bright future ahead. The young talent of the Panthers at state gave high hopes for next season.

“Well, you know we definitely showed some growth. The bulk of our lineup is returning,” Coach Fulton said. “We’re going to work. We have practice tonight, and we’ll work all spring and summer to get those guys ready to go, and we should be competing at a high level again.”