Article by John Schimmer

Amaru Casas closed out his high school wrestling career on the Kohl Center floor on Thursday evening.

Unfortunately, the state experience was short lived for Amaru. Although, he was disappointed right away, after reflecting it was a great opportunity. Amaru’s sole match at the state tournament came in a loss by fall to a very good sophomore from Wrightstown who ended up finishing in fourth place in the state. Amaru came out in the first period and wrestled his match on his feet, tying up his opponents hands and keeping his feet moving. Unfortunately he got out of position for a moment and was taken down near the end of the period. In the process of being taken down it was evident his opponent had a lot of mat time as an arm bar went in immediately and Amaru was pinned with 5 seconds left in the first period.

Even though Casas was defeated in his first match at the state tournament it was a great accomplishment for him to be there. This was the first year that he has had the opportunity to be a varsity wrestler full time and he made the most of it. He spent many days over last spring, summer and fall wrestling at open mats at either surrounding towns or at camps.

Amaru did not begin wrestling until his freshman year and knew very little about the sport. He did his best to seek out ways to get better and now has aspirations to compete at the college level. He has a steep learning curve and with his continued desire to make himself better he can have success at the next level.