As senior wrestler Ty Harrison pins his last opponent, he can’t help but feel like this moment was worth all the time, sweat, and effort that he put into practice.

“When we wrestle you go out there and when you win or you pin somebody or beat someone and you get your hand raised it’s a really great feeling,” said Harrison.

He cannot fully put into words the feeling that he gets when he wins.

“Imagine working for years or a whole year and then going out and finally achieving what you wanted and what you’ve trained for, for so long,” said Harrison. “It’s just really hard to explain how good that feeling is.”

On Feb. 9 the varsity wrestlers competed at the Russellville tournament Battle at the Dock. Harrison, one of two seniors, went 6-0 and pinned all of his opponents. He thought that he did better than he expected.

“I didn’t expect to do that good, but I went out and wrestled my hardest and did better,” said Harrison.

Conference will be held Feb. 16 at Ft. Smith Northside. Afterwards, state is going to be at UALR Feb. 22-23. The wrestlers have been preparing all season and they have actually cut some things out of their practices in order to focus on things that they feel like they need to work on. They practice every week day for two hours and some of the wrestlers will also go to the gym after practice.

“We drill the same moves over and over,” said Wrestling Coach Nika West. “We walk them through situational drills. We try to get a lot of muscle memory. We want them to be able to move and perform on the mat just like tying their shoe. They don’t even think about it – they just perform it.”

Last year the wrestlers won State with a large point lead over second place. They were the first team to win in the school’s fairly young program.

“I think there was a 57 point difference between us and second place,” said Coach West. “It’s the largest deficit so far in our young history of the State tournament.”

The wrestlers hope to accomplish that again this year. One of junior Cristian Arredondo’s main goals this year was to get that State Champion ring.

“I think I can do it if I stick with it and just commit to wrestling,” said Arredondo.

One of the important factors that will decide their fate at State is the seeding. There is a meeting on Feb. 19 that will establish the seeding and who wrestles who.

“It depends on what side we’re on and where everybody else is,” said Coach West. “State tournament is one of those tournaments that’s going bring out the best in everybody. I’ve seen some seeded wrestlers get beat by unseeded wrestlers before so everybody’s always bringing their a-game during that tournament.”

The seeding can be decided head to head and by the wrestler’s record.

“If two wrestlers have beaten each other, who won last, they’ll always get seeded higher over the other,” said Coach West.

Coach West believes that their toughest opponent will be Bentonville and Catholic High.

“Both those teams have been extremely good all year,” said Coach West. “They both have talent. They have some guys move in and move around. Catholic is full of seniors, returners. Whereas we lost ten of our starters last year so we have to put new people in to compete this year.”

But Coach West believes in his team.

“I think we’re one of the top three teams in the state tournament,” said Coach West.

He thinks that one of their biggest challenges is speed.

“We need to pick up, as a team, altogether just on speed. Quickness. Footwork,” said West. If they can do that then they can repeat their state win.