13 Redhawks advanced to the 5A Region II tournament at Independence High School after placing in the top four of their respective weight classes at the District 8-5A tournament Friday and Saturday The Colony High School.

“Honestly I was pleasantly surprised, I had a few members of the team surprise me. Daley [Burkett] winning districts outright really surprised me, but I knew the hard work she was putting in would benefit,” Bridwell said. “Our girls’ team, we just needed more people, if we had more people we would win that outright, but overall I was really proud of our girls. For our guys team, they stuck a few guys in there that did well, but Centennial has a top-notch guys program and I knew by the end of the day that we wouldn’t get them in team points, but honestly to come out with the district runner up trophy for girls and guys was not something that no other team can say, so I’m proud.”

After three years in the sport, Burkett not only grabbed first place in girls 148 lbs., but earned her first gold medal as a wrestler.

“It was so exciting getting my first tournament win especially at districts,” she said. “My two matches before finals were both opponents I hadn’t wrestled before, so that was a little nerve-wracking, but I went out and wrestled some of the most aggressive matches I ever had which made me really proud of myself and all the work that I’ve put in the last three years.” 

After a long season of competition, Burkett left it all on the mat for some of the most important matches of her career. 

“For finals I was nervous to wrestle the Heritage girl since I had lost to her twice during the season, however, I knew that I had the ability to beat her and that I just needed to really go all out in my match,” Burkett said. “The whole experience was surreal and that win really validated for me that I have come a long way in my wrestling and I’m ready to continue putting in the work and finish my last season strong.”

Taking second place in the boys’ 145 lbs. weight class, senior Tristan Seales reached a personal goal of earning 100 wins as a Redhawk wrestler. 

“I was really proud of myself for getting my 100th,” Seales said. “I knew I was getting close, because I’ve been keeping track, so I wanted to dial in and really go for it. I gave it all for all of my matches but especially that one freshman year, I never thought I would get this far and accomplish this much in high school.” 

Being the only boys’ wrestler to take first place, junior Prince Ugoh celebrated a successful weekend, and a bid to the next round of competition. 

“I felt pretty good, I felt like I worked really hard throughout the season to get where I am, so I’m really just glad my work showed out,” Ugoh said. “I feel like I did really good throughout the tournament, but there’s definitely some things I need to work on, to prepare a bit for regionals.”