On Wednesday November 29th, Sunlake High School had its Beauty and the Beast meet, which is a combination of girls weightlifting and boys and girls wrestling who put in a lot of effort to show school spirit while competing. Daniel Locascio, a junior at Sunlake, attended the competition to wrestle.

Daniel did not win anything because the match he was put into was called a dual. “A dual is when one team verses another team from a different school and basically you go for points to points and whichever team has the most points or matches won wins the dual,” said Daniel. The entire meet was long because of all the people competing, lasting from 3:30 to 9:00 pm. Daniel’s match only lasting about a minute and a half. The whole school’s gymnasium was set up for the wrestlers and weightlifters before they even got there. Volunteers and staff who had helped set up the event had to be at the meet for even longer than the competitors.

While Daniel was competing, he felt very exhilarated and nervous about the matches. “I really enjoy wrestling because every meet or competition I go to is an enlightening experience and although I get nervous almost every time, I compete there is also a huge rush of adrenaline that makes me more excited than nervous,” stated Daniel. Wrestling is a very intense sport that requires a lot of strength and endurance, with tons of injuries that come with it. Daniel said that the toughest thing about wrestling for him is cutting weight. “It is optional to cut weight but I do it anyway. I lost about thirteen pounds for just this season alone to make it to 144 and it makes it especially hard for me because I like food.”