Happy Birthday Julia!

 Our book loving, cookbook hoarding, baking-master-in-training girl turned 14!

We love you Julia!

Final Results

Samuel got 5th in 170, Trent got 3rd in 192, Max at 138 (who got hurt in the match that would have decided if he wrestled for 3/4 or 5/6) had to medical forfeit but still got 6th since he won his first two matches.

Congratulations on an amazing season Samuel, Thomas and all the Neumann wrestlers!

The cookie medal was almost as good as the real one.  Maybe.

 

Samuel at State

Samuel had made it to State both his Sophomore and Junior year but only won one match total.  His goal for his senior year was to medal.

He started it off right and won his first match!

Then he won his second match, which put him in the semifinals and guarenteed him a medal!

He lost the semifinal match which put him in  a match that decided if he'd wrestle for 3rd/4th or 5th/6th.

He ended up losing that match too so he went to the 5th/6th match.

He won the final match of his career and got 5th place!

 His final arm raise!

Fifth place!

On the big screen too.

Thomas at State

We were so happy for Thomas and proud of him when he made it to State!  He worked hard and peaked at the right time!

He ended up losing both his matches and getting knocked out of the running but it was a great experience for him.  He'll have those matches under his belt to help motivate him to work hard next year and work toward the goal of making it again!

He would have loved to win a match but I think he understood what a big deal it is to make it to State so he enjoyed the experience overall.
 

State Wrestling This and That

The pep rally was short but fun.

The signs looked great!

The cheering section was ready!

The cheering section got restless, but Father's smuggled in chocolate saved the day!

Neumann was in the top ten for awhile!

And in the meantime we watched so.much.wrestling.

Going to State!

 Photo credit: Coach John Welsch

Most Successful Wrestling Weekend

We think the weekend Samuel and Thomas both made it to State on Saturday and then Philip got 1st and Nicholas got 2nd on Sunday will go down as the most successful Vrana wrestling weekend ever.

This Picture

I love it for so many reasons.  The pure joy.  The triumph.  The muscles.  He'd just won a match at districts that kept him in the running to go to State.  But there's so much more to it.  There's so many years of hard work, so many losses and disappointments.  But he kept going.  He didn't give up.  He worked through the years of losing records until the wins started to come.  And it all led to this.

I also love you can see the curly hair mom clapping.  That's Kelly.  She's watched all the losses and wins too.  She's cheered him on through the hard matches and great ones.  And along the side?  That's Grandpa Lautenslager's arm raised up in victory.  Both of them, and all the wrestling parents, were just as proud of Thomas as Jeremy and I because they knew what went into that win.  The wrestling team isn't very big.  We all watch the all boys win and lose, happy and devastated.  From November to February we're a family and this picture shows that.

My aunt says most people only take a handful of really excellent pictures in their lives.  I don't know that this one is excellent as a picture.  But for all that it means to me, it's one I'll always love.

Districts are Stressful!

Like no other meet.  Sheesh.  And ours was a roller coaster this year.  We were in Madison and Friday everything was pretty good.  Only two of the ten Neumann guys got knocked out.  One was Connor who is a senior and had been having a great year, so that was disappointing but overall it was a good evening of wrestling.  

Samuel and Thomas ended up wrestling at the same time though.  That wasn't fun.  They had a mat in between their matches and Thomas was across the gym from where we were sitting (packed in like sardines with the other 15 teams there).  It's never great when both your sons are wrestling on different mats at the same time but at districts it's enough to get this mom's heart pounding.  Samuel won but Thomas lost so that put him in the consolation bracket since it's double elimination.

We stayed overnight at a hotel with the other BN families so it was fun to have dinner together and the boys were able to have some down time with their team mates.  The littles had a blast swimming and Jeremy enjoyed the brewery that's attached to the hotel.

The next morning the roller coaster started.  After seeing everyone pretty cheerful at breakfast we walked into the gym and found out our best wrestler, Aaron, who had a great chance of taking state in his weight, had been medically disqualified because of lesion on his chin.  He has acne so he and his family were pretty sure it wasn't fungal but the officials wouldn't budge.  He was out.  He's our most serious wrestler and his whole family took it pretty hard but at the same time, after he got over his initial disappointment he was right there by the mat for all the other guys so I was proud of him.  We had wins and losses throughout the day and most of our guys made it to the heart break round.  Then Josh started acting funny.  In the end they determined he had a concussion but there wasn't a specific hit we could link it to.  He was understandably disappointed to end his senior year forfeiting the heartbreak round but it was the right call.

Thomas worked his was back through the cosolation bracket winning two more matches and was in the heartbreak too.  He wrestled a kid who'd been puking the day before (on the gym floor... in a bucket during his match... he was obviously sick) so I wasn't thrilled about that, but Thomas won!  He got fourth place and earned a spot at State!!  He'd been steadily improving and we were all so proud of him!

Samuel won all his matches so he had less of them.  In the championship match he had to wrestle a kid from Raymond Central who'd been in a serious ATV accident this fall and didn't wrestle until late in the season.  I was stressed watching that match less because of whether Sam won or lost-by then he'd alreay made it to state- and more because I didn't want my kid to be the one who rehurt that guy!  He's a great wrestler but Samuel beat him and was the 170 pound district champion!  (The kid he beat went on to be in the State final and when they flashed up his record it was something like 26-1.  I looked at Jeremy as said, "Guess we know who the 1 is!")

Nick had some fun during a break.

Fr. Lee came to districts which was fun.  He was right there for all the Neumann boys' triumphs and disappointments and it meant a lot to the boys (and their parents) that he cared enough to come.  

Every time I asked for a picture of the two of them all season it started or ended like this:

1st and 4th, both headed to State!!

Trent was a district champ too so he as Sam tested their gold medals.

We had four guys make it to State!  Two district champs and two 4th places.

The seniors (including the student manager) Samuel, Alexis, Josh and Connor.

State Tournament in less than a week!

Champs!

The wrestling team got steadily better all season.  At the beginning they got a lot of team 2nd and 3rd places at meets.  Then they tied Fillmore for first at the Fillmore meet.  Then they won the home tournament, then they won the Wahoo Public/Neumann duel!  It was a big deal, the whole time I've been watching that duel (about 4 years) Neuman has lost but by less and less.  Finally this year was their year!  

The team won Norfolk's tournament too, which I think was the largest meet they won.  It was fun to watch the team have so much success.

The week the team won at Norfolk both Samuel and Thomas got first place in their weight classes.

Thomas 182

Samuel 170