By Corey Lancaster ’18, Contributor
As the winter wraps up, it’s important to look back on Country Day’s successful 2016-2017 wrestling season. Our goal was to live up to our motto: “We don’t wrestle to simply win, we wrestle to earn our Rudis, for freedom from doubt, freedom from fear, freedom from confusion, and freedom from surprise.” The Rudis was a wooden sword that former slaves would be given in ancient Rome; symbolizing that that person had earned his or her freedom through hard work. Similarly, we hold the belief that through hard work, we can earn freedom from our limitations. The team this year was comprised of seven talented wrestlers: freshmen Jack Flynn, Will Sommer, Joshua Nixon, and Noah Wise (all of which have wrestling experience), two juniors Tyler Weingartner and me, and senior captain, Jon Miller.
At our first meet, The George Williams Invitational, two of our freshmen, Flynn and Sommer, got their first taste of varsity wrestling. As a team, we placed 6th out of 14 teams and four out of five wrestlers placed in the top four of the invitational in their respective weight classes. This was an outstanding accomplishment for the wrestling program and a wonderful way to start out our season. It showed that Country Day can compete with other, bigger schools that have wrestlers for each weight class.
Later on in the season, the wrestling team faced tougher competition by competing in the Valley View Invitational. Despite the Valley View Invitational being a Division I meet, featuring some of the toughest teams in Ohio such as Graham High School and National Trail, Wise secured his first varsity win. For the upperclassmen, Miller placed 6th and I placed 5th during the Invitational. During the Panther Invite at Tri-County North, Sommer got his first varsity win with a pin in the second round, allowing him to place 4th in the 132lb weight class. While at a meet at Sycamore High School, captain Miller placed 4th in the 220lbs weight class. During the league meet, three of our five wrestlers–Wise, Sommer, and I–were MVC first place medalists, while Flynn and Nixon took home second place medals. As a team, we defeated rival Summit Country Day, placing 2nd within the MVC.
To the outside eye, a wrestling program that only has 7 wrestlers and that has its practices inside of the Lower School’s Auditorium doesn’t seem like the best program with the brightest possibilities, but as our season winds down to its final days, it’s great to know that we have had a very successful season, even with such challenges. I can say for sure that this year shaped up to be one of the best wresting seasons I’ve taken part of while at Country Day, and I personally believe that every single one of our wrestlers was successfully able to earn their Rudis.
