Congratulations Matt!
This weekend Matt is in Yokosuka, Japan, for the "Beast of the East" Wrestling Tournament. The team left Thursday after school, they spent Friday practicing, and today (Saturday) was the Tournament. They will arrive back to Naha Airport at 7:00 tomorrow night.
Matt just called a few hours ago to give us an update. Of course, he couldn't just come right out and say how he did- he spent 15 minutes giving us a minute by minute account of the day. FINALLY he broke the news- he had placed 3rd in his weight division!! We were SO excited!! (and I bet Matt was grinning ear to ear since he drug out the story for so long before telling us the final result- brat that he is!!)
We weren't sure how Matt would do there at the Beast, especially since he was "wrestling up" . What is "Wrestling up"? you ask? The boys are allowed to wrestle one weight class above their actual weight. Since the Kubasaki team has more than one kid in some of the weight classes, they "wrestle off" to see who is going to wrestle at that weight (at the Varsity level). For this big tournament they did the wrestled off before Christmas. Matt was out wrestled for his actual weight class, but could "Wrestle up" and try for the next weight class. He wrestled the boy in the next weight class and beat him, so he was allowed to go to the Beast and wrestle in the 181-215 pound class. (for the trip to Beast of the East, only one student per weight class was allowed to go- there are no JV/Varsity matches).
One thing Matt didn't realize- he had to weigh at least 181 since he was wrestling up...and he had dropped a few pounds this last week and was down to 179 pounds. He had lots to drink before the weigh in to make weight! (only my kid is trying to ADD weight to wrestle...aren't most wrestlers doing any thing possible to LOSE weight??)
A brief summary of Matt's matches (I will update this once Matt is home and can give me the full story again- so check back!!):
For the first match he received a "bye", meaning he didn't wrestle- it is an automatic advancement to the next round (a lucky draw and the first time he has ever had a bye).
He had to wait 3 hours until he actually wrestled. It was against someone weighing in at exactly 215 pounds (so he outweighed Matt by over 33 pounds). Guess he got Matt in a headlock, bloodied his nose and his lip and took the first round by points. Second round he again bloodied Matt's nose and took him by points. Since it is the best 2 out of 3, Matt took that match as a lose.
Next match was against a 197 pound guy. First round went to the other guy by one point. In the second round Matt pinned him about half way through. A Win for Matt!
Matt's final match was against another giant- full 215 pounds. This kid was from Kinnick, so he had hometown advantage. Matt took the first round by points. Second round went to the local boy by points. This put them into a third round- Matt said both of them were completely sucking wind. The guy shot at Matt's legs, but he was able to sprawl out and then get behind him to score. He was pushed right up against the line (if you are pushed out of the circle, your opponent scores a point), but was able to get away and score. The Win goes to Matt!
Not only did Matt take third for his weight class, his placing 3rd put Kubasaki High School into the third place position. Woohoo!!
Wish we could have been there to see it... Extremely proud that he did so very well, especiall wrestling boys so much heavier then him. Guess wrestling those Marines really paid off!
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Awesome job, Matt!
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