While wrestling isn’t all about the winning as a team, the Indians would have liked to score more points as a team in their first competitions.

The Manhattan High wrestling team failed to come away with the victory in its first two meets of the season. They first fell short against Washburn Rural on Thursday night in their opening competition and their second in the Gardner-Edgerton meet where they ended up fifth.

Their opening dual against Washburn ended in a narrow loss for the Indians as they lost by a point after all the matches were over. Senior Carlos Martinez, juniors Mason Wallace and Devin Norris, and sophomore Jalin Harper all won their matches, among others.

“The first dual we got up to a slow start. A couple of kids didn’t make weight but we can’t blame it on that because we knew we would lose the duel before it started and we knew what we had to do,” Harper said.

Next on the schedule was the Gardner-Edgerton Invite that took place on Saturday morning. The Indians traveled and competed away from home. Despite losing their first two meets, juniors Eldon Picou and Mason Wallace and sophomore Harper all placed second after they all climbed  in the 285 lbs., 145 lbs., and 138 lbs. divisions respectively.

“We [Wallace and Harper] wrestled two of the best kids in the nation and you have to wrestle the best know where you are. So we just have to keep working hard and work toward our goals every day,” Wallace said.

Manhattan ended up with 138.5 accumulative points placing fifth  out of the 16 teams that went to the competition.

“We did well at the tournament, we placed as the highest Kansas team which, yeah fifth isn’t good and it’s not what we went for, but it was a good step and I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Harper said.   

The Manhattan wrestling team will compete again Saturday when they host the Manhattan Dual Tournament.