Cameron Erdmann, a freshman on the girls’ varsity wrestling team, won first place in her competition at the girl’s wrestling home scramble on January 3, and won one match at the scramble at Issaquah High school, January 9.
Each period is two minutes long with three periods in each match with overtime afterward. “If I’m winning and it’s by a pin it’s sometimes, or usually in the first round. If I lost, then I make it to the third round. Then, it goes into overtime if it’s timed. And overtime for the first round, it’s first to get a takedown, and then it’s top and bottom rotate,” Erdmann said.
Winning first place in her match at the home scramble on January 3 and winning one match but losing another at the Issaquah scramble January 9, one of Erdmann’s tactics to win is her perseverance. “Just as long as I don’t give up. Or don’t get pinned, which is my goal, to not get pinned. Then it’ll be fine,” Erdmann said, “Because I can’t deal with myself if I lose. Or if I don’t give up a fight then I’ll just be mad at myself, so I just keep trying.”
Along with her tenacious mindset, another strategy Erdmann uses in her wrestling matches is a move called the cradle where the wrestler prevents their opponent from escaping by wrapping one arm around their opponent’s neck and the other around their knee. The wrestler then clasps their hands together, leaving the opponent unable to move. “Cradle’s kind of my go to move,” Erdmann said.
As a freshman on the varsity team Erdmann doesn’t think it’s much different than JV wrestling. “It’s kind of just varsity isn’t that different from JV. I feel like, because for girls, it’s so small that JV and varsity usually just go to the same, and it might be, it’ll be the same tournament, just that there’s a varsity and JV side.” Erdmann said, “It’s still wrestling. It’s not like different.”
When first starting wrestling in seventh grade, Erdmann was uncertain about whether it was something she would enjoy doing, but now into her third year of wrestling and she is going strong. “I do soccer and I’m not very aggressive so in seventh grade my dad told me I had to do either lacrosse or wrestling, but I decided to do wrestling so I wouldn’t have to join an actual team. I could just do it through the school.” Erdmann said, “But now I like it.”
As a freshman who already has gotten into two varsity sports, Erdmann continues to participate in sports and pushes herself forward to do the best she can. “In wrestling I’d say I push myself pretty hard because in those matches it’s all on me to win and nobody can really help me except for giving tips or encouragement.” Erdmann said, “I’d say I’m a pretty competitive person and if I lose then I want to at least be able to say I fought and gave it my all.”