Chestnut Ridge wrestling fans can almost mark their calendars annually. In the second week of February, it’s time to reserve a hotel in Hershey.
“I fell like we do live up to it well. We just keep on getting better and better everyday and we just build off each other,” said senior Conner Buttry.
Early in the season, the Lions had to look inward and ask some tough questions of themselves, following a slower start than they expected.
“‘Are we actually pretty good? Are we really good? Where do we belong?’ And we kind of bucked up and said that we need to be good and that we are good. It’s either now or never,” recalled Buttry.
That attitude led the team to another District Five team wrestling championship and more important, another trip to the Giant Center.
“One of the big things with our team is that we wrestle a lot better as a team than we do individually,” said senior Aaron Burkett. “We actually wrestle better for each other than we will just for ourselves, so I think that plays a big part in our team accomplishments throughout the year.”
The first team Chestnut Ridge meets tomorrow is the last team they saw in 2015, the Boiling Springs Bubblers.
“We lost to them two of the years we were down there. We lost to them in the state finals last year, so it will feel great to go down there and dominate like we’ve been,” Burkett said.
“We want to beat them really badly,” said Buttry. “We don’t really like them necessarily so it would be nice to beat them too.”
Chestnut Ridge’s confidence and their familiarity with their first foe at State’s has them ready to burst Boiling Springs’ bubble.
“I don’t think anyone can beat us right now, if we wrestle the way that we should,” added Buttry. “We have a lot of talent and we work really hard so that’s a big step up in our game.”