The Wrestling Club is heading into a promising season with sophomore Jalen Weaver weaving the way to club notoriety.
The Red Storm wrestlers competed on Nov. 10 in the Colorado Mesa Open Tournament. Weaver, a general education major from St. George, made it up the ladder to place No. 5 overall in the tournament.
On Weaver’s way to the top he managed to pin four wrestlers to win the matches.
“He wrestled a lot of Division I and Division II scholarshiped kids,” head coach Brian Pace said. “I think it’s pretty remarkable.”
Because of all the success during the tournament, he earned a spot in the “Open Mat News” website, which highlights Weaver’s matches.
“It was a good warm-up for the season,” Weaver said. “I wrestled a weight [class] up, but I still feel like I started to get back in that wrestling mode again.”
This was the first college-level tournament for all the team members except senior Aaron Camis and Weaver.
Early in the wrestling season, schools will go to open tournaments like the Colorado Mesa Open, where they are judged more on their individual effort rather than the team as a whole. These matches determine the wrestlers’ skills and how well they are doing.
The wrestling season is divided into semesters. The first is open tournaments to develop their skills in the fall, and the second is competition, which is held in the winter.
This year the practices have been made a little tougher with more intense conditioning.
Pace said they always keep their feet moving and wrestling all the time.
“We have more wrestlers in the room, (which) makes the difference and that helps,” Pace said. “We are always in need of more wrestlers.”
With that being said, the team has gained a few more athletes since the end of football season, and it is hoping to gain more with the incoming students next semester.
“The program we have is great, and we are all improving and going to be one of the top teams pretty soon,” Weaver said. “I love the team. We all have fun and help each other. We just need to work more on our basics of wrestling.”
Dixie is hoping for a dual meet on Dec. 7 in St. George where they will face the College of Southern Nevada.
“We are still working out a venue to do [the tournament],” Pace said. “Even if it ends up being in my backyard, we’ll do it.”
Students can go to www.RedStormWrestling.com, or like Red Storm Wrestling on Facebook for current updates on the club.
