200+ athletes. 56 spots. 15 schools. All with one common end goal: earning their ticket to the state wrestling meet in Columbia, Missouri.

On Saturday, Feb. 9, the varsity wrestling team headed up to Holt high school to compete in the final tournament as a team, the district tournament. At this meet, each wrestler faced off against other wrestlers in their district and weight class. Of all the wrestlers, only the top four in each weight class are able to move on to the state wrestling meet that next weekend. For the knights, three wrestlers will be representing FHN at state. Those wrestlers are freshman Mason Apple, senior Thadeus Meneses and senior Josh Simmons. For these three, it is their first time qualifying for the state meet.

“It felt amazing to make qualify for state, especially since the match that determined if I were to go on to state or not, I was losing, but I came behind and got the pin,” Meneses said. “It was an amazing feeling to come back from losing to my opponent to beating him, so it felt great.”

For the season FHN finished off with a 6-5 record in duels. Of the 9 varsity wrestlers for the district tournament, six of them finished with a positive record. Despite the multiple injuries on the team and the countless varsity roster changes, the coaches are impressed by the results this year.

FHN will now travel to Missouri University to compete in the state competition, where they will face off against 31 of the top high school wrestlers in the state. For Simmons, who will be graduating at the end of the year, his goal will be to be in the top six at state and get his name up on the wall in the wrestling room.

“I want to get my name up on the wall after state,” Simmons said. “It’s going to be a lot of athletes to face, and it won’t be a cakewalk or anything, but I’m looking forward to it.”