Gym Season!!!

It is officially the season of sitting in gyms.  Basketball and wrestling are in full force, and we have 2 high school schedules going on.  Both kids have had their team pics taken and have each competed a handful of times.  Owen has had 2 tournaments and 2 duals and is wrestling varsity at 165 pounds.  It's not the weight that he expected to be at, but so far, he is doing ok.  He weighs in at just over 160 on a good day, so we are not having to worry about cutting/maintining weight at all.  At least not yet.  So, this is great!  The downside of this is that he is a freshman in a higher weight class, which means that he will most likely see a lot of juniors and seniors in his brackets. So far he is holding his own and getting better every day.

Versailles tournament

Last Saturday was spent in Versailles.  This was the most recent competition.  Owen did pretty well and placed 5th going 4-1 on the day.  I think there were 19 or 20 kids in his weight class and going 2-0 in pool matches put him in the championship bracket.

Interesting position.

Another odd way to pin someone

More wrestling

Nick coaching

I have a lot more pictures than I thought.  Guess maybe I'm making up for lack of pics during football season.  It's great that he is out there competing again.

First Home Dual

Booneville and Tolton

Owen before the dual

Look at his new kicks!

I was sitting with Gracie and Chase and they got Owen to smile.

We had our first double dual at home last week and Owen did pretty well.  He pinned the kid from Boonville, but lost to Tolton.  It was a pretty close match, but he just couldn't get up from bottom.  He will keep working and getting better.

vs. Tolton

vs. Boonville

First Tournament

Pleasant Hill

This was a tough one to start.  We had some pretty good kids and Owen ended up placing 6th.  It was a 2 day tournament and I drove back and forth (over 2 hrs each way).  He had one match on Friday night and 3 matches Saturday.  I'm learning that the tournaments are all seeded differently and even the pools are oddly matched.  I guess it is because they cannot wrestle more than 5 in a day, which seems a little excessive for one day.

Waiting his turn

After his first varsity win

First match against Blair Oaks.

I'm guessing Owen will get another chance to wrestle him.

One more tournament this weekend before Christmas, which is over in Harrisonville - another 2 day event and also over 2 hours away.  I will be staying this time, since it is even farther that the previous one, but still pretty close to where they were at a couple weeks ago.  Hopefully he'll have another good weekend.

Basketball

Home opener vs Centralia

#35

pregame

Vs Blair Oaks

We had them through the first half...

She's fun to watch

Got away from us, though.

At Skyline

Boxing out

Skyline was a tough team.  They hadn't had anyone score over 18 points in a game.  We scored 21 before they took their starters out.  I won't mention what their score was... We really struggled to get the ball up the floor against their press.

We get another shot at a win tonight at home and then again on Friday in KC.  Hunting for a W!!!

Sports Pics

I love these; they all turned out so good!

But...who is this kid?

What happened to my little boy?

Not sure about this picture

But it makes me smile and they look like they're having fun

Peter in the middle

Pretty tough duo here.

I'm excited to see them work together for the next four years.

Gracie snuck into the wrestlers' photo shoot and got one with Nova.

Love it!

Wish they got to see more of each other.

And Basketball!!

These turned out pretty good too!

Junior season for #35

Gracie and Ayla

Ayla is also pretty fun to watch.

Adisen and Gracie

These two have fun

There were so many pictures, even more of some groups of girls.

They all turned out really well.

BEAT KU!!!

We debated on attending the KU game last weekend.  Went back and forth; going, not going.  We even attempted to give our tickets away, but we still had them on Sunday morning, so decided to drive up to Columbia.  So glad that we did!  It was such a great game and Mizzou beat #1 ranked KU.  I did not exepct that at all.  Of course our tickets are way up high, but Gracie found Chase with a friend much closer to the court.

Here is our view after the win and the crowd filled the court.

More beautiful sunrise pictures.

These are all within about 20 minutes of each other on the same morning.

How quickly it changes...

Sadie signed to play softball with Lindenwood!

Nick and I went to see her signing day.  Gracie wanted to go, but it was probably better for her to be at basketball practice.  Pretty proud of Sadie!

She was on the very first competitive team that Gracie joined (Galaxy) and they have played a lot of softball together.  She spent a lot of time traveling with our family a year and a half ago!

Finally the banquet for football.  Got to see the Bentlage boys dressed up again.

I also got to see our neighbors, who I haven't seen forever.

Owen will need to invest in bigger dress clothes.  The shirt barely fit him...little tight around the neck, and we just bought this outfit for homecoming less than 3 months ago.

 Back in action a couple more times before Christmas break.  They just have finals left this week for school and then two weeks off!  The semester has gone so fast!