Soon enough senior Jared Dickson will be joining his father on the CMR wall of fame for winning the state champion title in the 160 weight division but that isn’t all he will take away from his wrestling experience.
“After a while you don’t really wrestle for the medals,” Dickson said.
“You want to win but if you want to get better you have to remember each match is a lesson, the only way to get better is to lose.”
That may have been the case when it came down to wrestling crosstown rival Kessler Leonard. Throughout the season the two wrestled six times each winning three.
“I like wrestling with him because all our matches were close but it became the same thing every time because we wrestle so defensively,” Dickson said.
He mentioned their matches were so close and often similar that in two separate matches, CMR’s crosstown and state, both came down to the last two seconds in overtime.
Dickson won the second match February 14 claiming the state title for his final season.
“Now that it’s kinda over I want to remember it but (also) put it in my past,” Dickson said.
This may be more difficult than it sounds considering the commitment it took for him to take state his senior year.
“I have a relationship with wrestling,” Dickson said, “it’s seriously like breaking up with a girl.”
Much to his chagrin, Dickson had the whole bus ride back from Billings to muse over his breakup.
“It was probably the longest bus ride of my life,” Dickson said.
“Everyone on the bus was asleep and it felt like I was the only person on the bus that didn’t want to sleep.”
Senior Nick Grasseschi also left his last tournament from Billings on Saturday.
“I’m kind of happy I don’t have to wrestle anymore, but at the same time when people ask me what do you do in high school the first thing I say is wrestling. It will always be there for me and it will be kind of hard walking away from it,” Grasseschi said.
Grasseschi placed fifth in his weight division over the weekend, he wrestled six matches.
“The most physically demanding was the third one,” Grasseschi said. “The first day I was practically starving, you don’t have time to eat.”
The second tournament day isn’t much better.
“The first round of the second day is physically draining,” Grasseschi explained adding his opponent wasn’t able to score any points on him in the blood round which determines if the competitor will place, “It’s a hard match.”
An even harder match still is the quarter finals.
“I was much more nervous for that quarter final,” Grasseschi said, adding that anything can happen in the quarter finals including the upset of a first seeder Bjorn Schroeder form Bozeman in the 103 weight division.
“He was predicted to win it and didn’t even place, stuff happens especially in that round-it’s do or die.”
Sophomore CMR Deven Altenburg is attributed for that upset and beat him late in the second.
“(I was) very excited because he has beat me all year and to ruin his perfect record at state was even more exciting,” Altenburg said.
“He got me in a tilt to try to get near fall on me but I guess he went straight to his back and that’s how I got the defensive pin,” Altenburg said.
With his quarter final upset Altenburg placed sixth in his weight class.
“I was relieved because I’ve been working so hard all year and to place a tought tournament like that was just awesome,” Altenburg said.
Altenburg wasn’t the only sophomore to cause an upset at the tournament, Noah Durnell placed sixth in his 126 weight division.
“I wrestled six matches, won three and lost three, the three that I won were upset matches,” Durnell said.
“It was super thrilling,” he said of placing at state, adding that it had been his goal since the beginning of the season and was excited to be able to wrestle in the Metra.
“The Metra is huge and it is so cool when you win your match and can look up at that many people watching you, that’s cool. It’s my favorite place to wrestle.”
While a venue of that stature may seem intimidating, Durnell pushed aside his nerves to focus on his performance.
“I was like it’s my last tournament, you gotta give it everything if I wrestle my best I’m proud of myself and the outcome was really awesome,” he said.
Similarly, Dickson pushed any worries aside to be able to focus on performing his best at the sport he loves.
“I was more nervous a couple of days before the tournament but once I got there I thought I only have four more matches of my life, I can’t take it too serious,” Dickson said.
To help him cope with his nerves Dickson said he just had to “focus only on what was important and that was wrestling.”
“On Friday, the first day walking in, I just had a good feeling like it was my birthday or something,” Dickson said.
“Getting to do what I loved felt like a gift, even if I would have lost just being there was so awesome.”