Beyond wrestling meets, the sport also offers duals, where teams go head to head. Last year, for the first time ever, Nebraska sanctioned girls wrestling state duals. This year the event was expanded from 8 teams to 16, along with Class A and B, and Yutan was invited to compete.
“It was a really fun atmosphere. Duals are a lot of fun because it makes wrestling a lot more of a team sport than it gets credit for,” head coach Dan Krajicek said. “So just seeing how the girls seem to wrestle a little bit stronger or harder when they know they’re wrestling for their teammates.”
To prepare for duals, the team had hard and light practices, such as doing live matches or drilling techniques. The girls also took steps of their own to prepare for duals, like making sure they were mentally and physically fit.
“We had some pretty tough practices,” junior and 155-pounder Amalea Vaughn-Lantzer said. “A couple days leading up, we did some light practices, so we weren’t too tired. I got good meals in and good sleep.”
During each dual, a wrestler from each team in the same weight class will wrestle. There are fourteen different weight classes, and each win by decision is worth four points, while a pin is worth six points. If a team doesn’t have a wrestler in that weight class and the other team does, that team will gain six points, which was a disadvantage for Yutan throughout the day because of their small team.
“The team, we lost almost every dual except one. But like as individuals, we only lost because of numbers,” senior and 135-pounder Jordyn Campbell said. “We have the smallest team there, so that took a toll on us, but I think we only lost four matches out of 30 combined.”
During the first round dual against West Point-Beemer, junior and 115-pounder Leah Thompson had to work around some of the challenges she faced during the match. Thompson ended up pinning her opponent, gaining six points and the team won 46-30.
“This was my first experience on a dual team,” Thompson said. “The girl that I wrestled first from West Point had a crazy bridge, so I had to adjust my approach and mindset on how I was going to beat her, and I ended up pinning her.”
While the team did end up losing 42-40 to Lakeview in the second round, there were exciting moments along the way. In order to have a chance at beating Lakeview, senior and 120-pounder Allison Kirchmann had to pin her opponent for six points.
“My coaches told me she was a pretty good wrestler, and it was going to be a tough match,” Kirchmann said. “I told myself I had to compete to my best ability for my team to give us a chance to beat the number 1 seed at state duals. It wasn’t looking the best when I was down in the third period. Krajicek chose the top for me, and I ended up pinning my opponent.”
During the duals, the team would have a “pin chain” necklace that the wrestlers would place around each other’s neck after pinning their opponent, and it was a highlight of duals for many on the team.
“My favorite part of duals was the pin chain we had because it’s fun to just pass it on to each team member as we got our pins in the duals,” junior and 110-pounder Addisyn Darling said.
Even with the challenges, the team still supported each other during the matches, which shows the close bonds within the team.
“I would say getting to cheer them on as a team was really fun, because it just kept us all engaged in watching the matches,” 130-pounder freshman Addilyn Scheuler said.
Overall, the team ended up placing seventh after losing 42-36 against Summerland in the third round and then beating Tekamah-Herman 36-24 in the fourth round.
“We won all of the 50-50 matches, like matches that we weren’t sure if we were gonna win or not,” Krajicek said. “We had a couple girls upset some people. So that was a lot of fun to see. And then in a dual atmosphere, that makes it just that much more exciting.”
