HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM: Wrapping up Wahlert wrestling

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By Kayla Schueller, Dubuque Wahlert senior

DUBUQUE - Wahlert wrestling coach Joel Allen was hopeful.

"I'm excited to see these guys do some damage in Des Moines,' he said before the state wrestling championships last month.

Little did Allen know, just how much damage they would actually do.

Allen returned from the state  tournament with three medal winners - Weslee Haynes (170 pounds senior) finished in eighth place, Riley Hasken (182 pounds junior) finished in fifth place and Tristan Birt (106 pounds junior) won a state championship.

So what do they do now?

For Birt, the answer was simple: 'Eat a lot of food.'

Birt not only learned how it felt to wake up a state champion, but also the first one Wahlert has had in 19 years.

However, as far as he's concerned, the work isn't over.

'I start with off-season tournaments and training already in two weeks,' he said. 'I have to just keep moving forward.'

The work never stops for Birt. But will he be able to do it again?

'Anything can happen in the next year,' he said. 'But, hopefully I'll get there again and have even more of my teammates with me. It was great having Riley and Weslee there, but obviously we all wish the whole team could have shared in this opportunity.'

Birt pulled off the biggest win of his career in the championship, in front of a soldout crowd at Wells Fargo Arena and a state-wide TV audience.

'Knowing I had all of the support that I did was awesome, but knowing that my family was in the stands cheering, and would be there when it was over, meant everything," Birt said.

Hasken agreed.

'Having my family there meant a lot, and seeing the friends who made the trip down too was great,' he said.

But, now that it's over, all of this has to be put aside. Work for next year begins because for two of these medal winners, there still is next year.