HANK WICKLEY
SPORTS WRITER
While students were enjoying winter break at home with their families, a select group of student athletes stayed on campus to compete.
The winter sports teams that were on campus during break included both the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the wrestling team, among others. The wrestling team had one event during break and overall the team did well.
“Over break the team did well at the Waynesburg Invitational,” said Brandan Ladd (’20).
“We were able to finish the tournament first overall as a team,” said Zeke Nave (’20).
“Among our team, 7 guys were able to earn individual medals with two being champions.”
From here on out, the wrestling team is getting into the full swing of the season.
“Most of the rest of our season consists of league dual meets and individual tournaments on the weekend,” said Ladd.
“Our goals are simple: stay healthy and continue to work hard in practice and prepare for competition within the conference as well as getting ready for the postseason,” said Nave.
The men’s basketball team struggled in a few ranked games over the break, but kept a good attitude about the rest of the conference season.
“During break, the team had a lot of great competition with teams that are ranked nationally,” said Tyler Edwards, Assistant Coach for the men’s basketball team.
“The goals for the rest of the season are to just learn from past mistakes and overcome to hopefully make the conference tournament.”
As for the women’s basketball team, winter break started slow and ended fast.
“We started off break a little rough with a couple losses, but we rebounded nicely with a pair of conference wins over Kalamazoo and Calvin to start the new year off right,” said Ryan Clark, Head Coach of the women’s basketball team.
“Our main goal for the rest of the season is to finish out our second half of the conference strong and make our league tournament,” said Clark.
Clark also said the team has goals to host a tournament game at home in the playoffs.
“Our goals for the rest of the season are to keep winning, to hopefully win the conference, and to keep taking steps forward as a team and getting better,” said Jessie Jordan (’20).
Aside from competition, student athletes got to spend a lot of time on campus during winter break.
“Even though we sacrifice spending more time with our families, being on campus still gives us a great opportunity to spend quality time with our teammates,” said Nave.
“We spend a lot of time together over break from practicing, lifting, team dinners, team building activities, and even Christmas festivities,” said Ladd.
“Winter break life for athletes on campus is not boring that’s for sure,” said Jordan. “Your teammates definitely become your family and we enjoy all the time we spend together.”
