Trey Stegman and Garrett Patterson both reached very different milestones last Saturday at the Big O Memorial Duals at Yuma High School.
Senior Stegman turns 100 years oldth During the tournament. He enters the district tournament with a 23-4 record this season. 100th The win took a little longer than originally expected, as he missed two weeks of games last month due to illness.
“I was itching to get back out there,” Stegman said. “That was a huge accomplishment. We were able to get that at home as well.”
Head coach Presley Papacek was very proud of him. “It was great to see Trey get No. 100 at home at The Pit. He had a great season, but he had to battle an illness all season and he would have missed it much sooner than he otherwise would have.” He would have been hit by an illness. I think this is a great achievement and he has worked hard to get there.”
Stegman will compete in the regional tournament this weekend at Akron High School, aiming for his third state tournament appearance. (He was placed in community quarantine during his freshman year due to COVID-19.)
“I'm hoping to make it again this year,” said Stegman, who would be the No. 2 seed at regionals at 157 pounds. “I'm really happy to finally get to (states). I've been close to him throughout my high school career.”
Patterson has two wins on scale and mat
Patterson, a senior at Ortiz who wrestles for the Outlaws, took to the mat for the first time in high school. It also gave him his first win.
The 6-foot-3 Patterson weighed well over 300 pounds entering this season after playing football at Otis in the fall. He decided to lose about 40 pounds to bring his weight down to 285 pounds (actually he was 287 pounds including weight) so he could finally compete.
He finally reached the finish line Saturday morning at the regular season finale, the Big O Memorial Duals, at The Pit at YHS.
“I was pretty proud of myself,” Patterson said earlier this week. “It's probably been five or six years since I weighed less than 300 pounds.”
He competed in wrestling last season but was unable to make weight, dropping from 360 to 320. He practiced all season and came back for one final shot.
“Last year was fun and the coaches were great both years,” Garrett said. “I just kept going and in the end I was able to succeed thanks to a lot of support.”
Garrett said to watch your calorie intake and hit your goals. He ate mostly rice cakes, which provided energy but were not very heavy, and drank about half a gallon of water each day. He said he lost about 4 pounds per day and reached his goal last Saturday.
Several family members, including parents Colin and Michelle, all showed up wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with “Patterson 285#.” About 10 of his friends were in the stands cheering him on.
“It was a lot of fun and a lot of people supported me,” he said.
It was no surprise that Garrett, who wrestled in his first real match in high school, struggled a bit on the mat. He was nailed in the first four games on Saturday.
But it all finally came together in the final game of the day. He pinned Holyoke's Hudson Kellner in 47 seconds for a truly storybook ending.
“I definitely worked hard for two years to get there and it felt really good, especially after being so bad in the last four games,” he said.
Coach Presley Papacek said, “Garrett set a goal at the beginning of the season and achieved it. He has worked hard in the wrestling room and at home. He lost over 50 pounds to compete and lost over 50 pounds to compete. It was great to win the match!”
But that's not the end for Garrett, who will compete in the Class 2A Region 1 tournament in Akron on Friday and Saturday for a chance to advance to the state tournament in Denver next week.
“Hopefully we can really make some strides in practice this week,” Garrett said. “I want to get through regionals and get to state. That's my goal this week.”
