Notre Dame wrestling low in numbers but high in morale

Notre Dame wrestling has historically not been one to play with a full deck, but Wednesday took the cake.

Due to injuries, the Bulldogs went into the tri-meet with Kennett and Sikeston with only four wrestlers. Quality over quantity is a frame of mind they have had no other choice but to adopt.

“It’s definitely been a struggle with all the injuries and the mishaps with other wrestlers,” Notre Dame senior captain Ethan Jackson said. “But it’s been awesome having the supporting staff I have around me.”

Scoring wise, Notre Dame lost both meets with Sikeston and Kennett due to both teams collecting forfeits. However, in terms of the matches, their fantastic four had mixed results.

The senior captains were flawless for Notre Dame. Emma Steimle won her only match by fall, and Jackson won both his matches, pinning Kennett’s Jesse Goldsmith and turning a defeat into a victory over Sikeston’s Eli Torres in the final seconds with a reversal and back points to win 12-10.

“I was supposed to wrestle two other kids from both the teams and it definitely got into my head, made me a little frustrated,” Jackson said. “I didn’t necessarily take that in my first match, wrestling smarter and just kind of gonna take my time with things and just focusing on getting my takedowns and then eventually leaving it to a pin. That second match, I just let the frustration get to me and I wrestled extremely sloppy. Just kind of lost my head there and there at the end, and I kind of gathered my senses and fix my mistakes and got the win.”

Along with Jackson and Steimle, Sam Criddle and Parker Lemmons won their matches against Kennett to leave the Indians with only forfeits as points.

It’s definitely a confidence booster from going to winning maybe one or two matches with Kennett and as a whole to end up winning all the matches that we had tonight,” Jackson said. I think it definitely shows the captains and mainly the coaches the knowledge that they’ve been giving to the seniors all the way to the freshmen. And it gives a sigh of relief to those underclassmen, who had been struggling to find their momentum heading into districts. So I think it’s a it’s a good thing and a eye opener for them.”

The Bulldogs will see those two teams again and many more on Friday and Saturday in the SEMO Conference Tournament in the Tiger Field House at Central Junior High School.

“I’m looking really looking forward to it,” Jackson said. “For myself, knowing the guys I’m gonna wrestle can be a hard one. It’s probably going to be the toughest tournament I wrestle, besides either state or districts.”