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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's state champion wrestler Noah Surtin celebrated Senior Night in style Thursday night and moved his record to 47-1 on the season.
Surtin certainly had one of his easiest bouts of the season on Jan. 16 as he picked up a forfeit win in the 126-pound weight class as the Tigers won over CBC 36-27 in a much-anticipated meet at the Jon Davis Wrestling Center.
Since the CBC meet, Surtin has won his weight class at the Columbia, Mo., Hickman Tournament, scoring seven pins on his way to the championship, and added two more pins on the Tigers’ Senior Night triangular meet, pinning Cade Trautvetter of Chatham Glenwood at 2:25 and Zion Wilhite of East St. Louis at 1:58 to take his record to 47-1 on the season.
Surtin was honored between the second and third rounds of the meet along with fellow seniors Jack Evans, Connor Sotello, Sam Clark, Sam Martin, Josh Anderson and team statistician Payton Flowers.
Going into the CBC meet, Surtin focused on the team goals, and helped his teammate, fellow state contender Luke Odom at 145 pounds, get ready for his bout against Joshua Saunders.
Surtin feels that the Tigers are an up-and-coming program, and are very solid up and down.
“Edwardsville is on the come-up, and our team is very solid all the way through,” Surtin said. “I’m excited for what we could do, what we can accomplish at state at the end of the year, and we’re just really improving. We’re getting big wins, and we’re starting to get noticed, so I’m really glad and happy for us.”
Surtin, as mentioned, is a defending state champion, and he likes his chances of repeating, along with his team’s chances as well.
“I think they’re high, I think it’s a similar situation to last year,” Surtin said. “I think I have a tough bracket with a lot of tough kids, but I think if I wrestle to my potential, I can definitely win another one. I’ll keep working hard, acting humble and trying to put the work in and hopefully it can happen.”
Surtin feels that he’s been wrestling very solidly, and only has one loss this season. He feels that the loss will help him as the season goes into the stretch run.
“I think I’ve been wrestling pretty solid,” Surtin said. “I had that one loss, but I think that I wrestled solid throughout the match. Obviously, a couple of tweaks, and I’ve learned a lot from it. So the loss was great for me, and I’m a better wrestler because of it. I’m excited, just getting better and better every day.”
And Surtin is looking ahead to the state series, where his goal is to help the team get as many wrestlers as possible, including his teammate Odom, into the state meet, along with the team series as well.
“I am looking forward to it, yes I am,” Surtin said. “Me and Luke can accomplish some great things, not only just us, but if we can have a good amount of state qualifiers, the most we’ve ever had. I’m excited for what the team can do at team state, too. So I’m excited about everything. Just proud of the guys.”
SEE STORY TO COME ON THE OTHER SENIORS.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
