Baker women’s wrestling closed out their regular season at the second annual Jimmy May Open. The tournament consisted of 25 teams fielding 241 wrestlers in total, with our Baker Wildcats making up 24 of those entries. With 10 separate weight classes competing, the lengthy tournament ended up lasting over eight hours.
The Jimmy May Open served as the last tournament of the regular season, marking it as an important closing opportunity for the Baker wrestlers to perform well in order to get a spot for conference and nationals.
“We’re competing really well, competing hard. A lot of girls are very close to being ranked, if they’re not ranked. So it’s kind of our last chance to try to earn that ranking, which can mean conference allocations and stuff moving forward.” stated Coach Kit Harris. “I’m very happy with the team we have with their attitudes, their effort, their closeness. The improvement has been one of the great moments we’ve had this year. But this is kind of our last chance to prove ourselves and let everybody wrestle.”
Many Baker wrestlers had promising tournaments, with ranked wrestler Johanna Carrasco winning three and losing two while Freshman Lucia Hernandez, Sophomores McKenna Haltom, Sophia Castillo and Anna Patz, Junior Audrey Darnell and Senior Jade Martin all rounded out the tournament on a record of two wins and two losses.
Patz was one of the Baker wrestlers at the tournament who felt satisfied with the tournament.
“I went two and two, so I’m pretty happy. I wrestled with people I’ve wrestled before, and I did a lot better than usual, so that was really good.” Patz said. “I got a lot of conference matches in, so I hope it goes well.”
Baker had three wrestlers finishing in the top six. Sophomore Aileya Sath finished with a record of four wins and three losses to finish in sixth place while fighting against many Heart of America opponents. Sophomore Hailee Crosland had a bye in the first round and finished the tournament with a record of two wins and three losses to earn a sixth-place finish as well. Junior Chloe Herrick was the big winner of the day, finishing as Baker’s highest placer at sixth with a record of four wins and two losses after a first-round bye.
“I will say it’s definitely a long season,” Sath stated in between matches. “Getting up towards this point, people can start feeling burnout and just be ready to be done, but I tell myself one match at a time, one day at a time, one practice at a time. Pick on something to improve on, something small to work on that will help me paint the bigger picture.”
The Baker Wildcats ended the Jimmy May Open with an overall team record of 39 wins. As the regular season concludes and a two-week break starts before the conference tournament in Iowa at William Penn, the Jimmy May Open served as a well-fought battle cry to end the season on a high.
