Hagerstown Invitational (12-2-23) – Submitted by Hagerstown coach Anton Payne.
Today, the young scrappy Tigers had their opening meet of the year at the Hagerstown Invite, which featured Tri High, Lutheran, George Washington, Pendleton Heights, and Anderson. The Tigers were in a three-way tie until the last dual, but Lutheran ended up winning the invite.
I was very proud of our wrestlers. They came out and battled. We won a lot of matches today, but learned even more! We had three undefeated wrestlers on the day. Robert Sullivan (120), Zach Golliher (150) and Roy Thornbury (190). We had a lot of our wrestlers go 4-1.
I loved all of the wins for sure, but I was just so impressed by how my team went out and battled. Seventy-five percent of my wrestlers today had never even seen a wrestling mat less than a month ago and today they showed they are wrestlers!
On top of our wrestling, we had a packed gym full of fans and that gym was loud and electric for all the teams. A very special shout to our fans and family for showing up and showing out!! Even the HHS swim team came and worked tables for us and showed us all kinds of love and support!
This sport teaches all that are involved so much and those are trophies you get to carry for life! My team is winning by committing to this amazing grind of a sport we call wrestling! One of our mottos in the room is “you don’t have to, you get to”. Our warriors got the opportunity to go to battle today and they answered that call!! We didn’t have to we got to!!!
Lastly, I’d to thank my coaching staff and managers. Managers never get enough credit in my mind, but ours are so unbelievably amazing. They go above and beyond for all of us on this team and I’m forever grateful to you two! I also am blessed to have the best assistant coaches in the game for sure!! Our team had coaches coaching them on the mat, and off the mat! You are very special and I appreciate it!!