Tuesday, January 18

Just had one class today. Practice was pretty rough though. We had an odd number of upper-weight wrestlers on the mat so I ended up in a group of three. I ended up drilling the whole time while the other two got to alternate.

Wednesday, January 19

Nothing too crazy to report today. My weight is about 200 – not good, since I have to weigh 184 for a meet in Michigan on Friday.

Thursday, January 20

Tomorrow is our meet against University of Michigan. I arrived at the hotel weighing about 191. Then I went back to my hotel room and rode an exercise bike we brought with us.

Friday, January 21

We had a practice in Michigan’s wrestling room. They had a chocolate milk machine, which would have been awesome except I had to stay away from it because I was still cutting weight. After about 45 minutes wrestling and 45 minutes riding a bike I finally managed to get my weight down to 186.5. It was 2 p.m., and I had till 6 to lose two more pounds.

Back in the hotel room I rode the bike like a crazy person for about an hour before managing to sweat out the last couple pounds.

At 6 p.m., we weighed in and finally got to eat and drink. I drank about four bottles of water in the first ten minutes. After all that, we still had to wrestle.

Saturday, January 22

I didn’t do as well as I had hoped in the match yesterday, so I don’t really feel like writing about it. We lost, 22-12. Anyways, I need to focus on another meet against Michigan State tomorrow. Weight management went a little better this time around. I was actually able to eat dinner, which hardly ever happens the night before a meet.

Sunday, January 23

I got to eat breakfast this morning. It was only an Ensure nutrition shake, but that is better than nothing. This match went kind of better. Unfortunately, I gave up one point near the end which kept me from winning. The team did very well though, and we beat Michigan State 22-15.

Monday, January 24

Back in Evanston, current weight is 196. Four days until I have to weight 184 again. Yay.

This was originally published in The Current, a weekly supplement to The Daily Northwestern.