The Manhattan High School Varsity Girls Wrestling Team has had a busy return from Winter break after many tournaments, including large competitions like the Tournament of Champions in Newton most recently. However, they finished off the first semester with their annual tournament in Grand Island, Nebraska.
“I think our girls work really well together and they definitely help one another with moves and such when we get stuff wrong, we are really good at correcting each other on things,” junior Ava Gary-Hernandez said.
The team placed in the top five at the Grand Island tournament, with three of their team members going undefeated, including juniors Eva Lucious, Alayna Slifer and Evelyn Thornburg.
“Overall, it was a very good tournament,” Thornburg said. “It was a good way to go into break.”
The squad came back strong in Dodge City after a Winter Break hiatus, placing third out of 14 teams, before battling it out in Newton at the annual Tournament of Champions.
“Coach is having us work hard and get our drills down,” Gary-Hernandez said. “We are fixing different areas.”
This past weekend, the girls went to Council Grove for their first smaller tournament in a while, once again bringing home the gold.
The squad is now preparing for their tournament at Washburn-Rural this weekend, their last tournament before Centennial League.
“This is our last, big regular season tournament,” Thornburg said. “We’ll get to see a lot of the 6A competition and teams and girls that we’ll see at Regionals and State.”
As the team finishes up their final regular season tournaments, the finish line comes up quickly.
“We call it the final stretch, so we have League, a week later we’ll have Regionals, and then two weeks later we’ll have State,” Gary-Hernandez said.
A great season wrapping up for the team is bittersweet for some team members.
“It has really given me a sense of community and a big sense of family too. You go through a lot within that team,” Thornburg said. “I’ve played sports all my life, but the team definitely does give me a big sense of family and just some really good girls to hang around.”
