Injury-stricken and trying to put together the best team they can, the Men’s Wrestling team will wrestle against the Loras Duhawks on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Head coach Eric Juergens said the team has been reminiscent of last year’s team with all the injuries and the struggle to have a strong team this year.
“This year has been too similar to last year thus far,” Juergens said. “We struggle to have everyone in our lineup for our dual meets, and even when we do we haven’t been 100 percent. As a team we need to be firing on all cylinders to be able to do great things.”
Despite the circumstances, the wrestling captain John Seaman remains hopeful the for the team’s season.
“We’ve lost a couple close dual meets and we’ve suffered more than our fair share of injuries,” Seamen said. “As the season progresses I expect our team to get better and better.”
Although the injuries make it hard for the team to progress, Seamen believes progress for the team is still possible.
“We’re improving daily. A lot of guys are stepping up in a big way,, Seaman said. “We don’t have any regular freshmen starters, but they have stepped in when we needed them and performed well.”
Seaman thinks the team has done well outside of dual meets.
“Our tournament performances have been good but we have only had two,” Seaman said.
While the team is facing the problem of injury, Seaman is optimistic about the team’s chances against Loras.
“We’ve always had tough dual meets with Loras. They normally have a good team,” Seaman said. “I am confident we can beat them this year. We have home field advantage and a lot of returning wrestlers who have wrestled Loras before.”
The Duhawks beat the Vikings last year, but Juergens believes the team can get revenge and win this year.
“Loras is a tough team, they nipped us last year, and obviously it’s a meet we feel we can win,” said Juergens. “As per for the year though, if we don’t have all of our starters in, and they don’t wrestle well in terms of fighting the whole seven minutes of the match, we still definitely have a hard time winning.”
Seaman said the meet is going to be a great one to watch.
“Loras is going to be a great dual,” Seaman said. “If anyone wants to see a battle they should come out to watch us wrestle this Wednesday.”