Due to COVID-19, sanitizing precautions continue to have an effect on students. These precautions are specifically important to students participating in high contact sports, such as wrestling. 

The team started practice on Nov. 23. They will be continuing the season following step-by-step sanitary procedures in the interest of keeping the athletes safe and healthy as junior Mateja Clark explains. 

“Someone dries off the mats, which is  just cleaning off the big debris. Then someone takes a sanitizing water mixture to wipe down the mats. Someone else then takes the mop to clean them all off. We also have sanitizing wipes for our headgear, and there is the UV light which is going on them overnight,” Clark said.

Not all of the precautions are just for the prevention of COVID- 19, but to help with things such as skin diseases. The spread of contact transferred diseases is especially important to monitor while participating in wrestling. 

“You have to make sure you don’t have any skin infections and watch for them, and make sure you are not showing symptoms for COVID because of how much skin-to-skin contact we have,” Clark said.

Junior Chase Kurczek explains the requirements to compete in a wrestling meet referring to the sanitary actions that must take place before an athlete takes the mat.

“For meets we have to take disinfectant wipes and wipe them down all over our body. After matches we have to do it again, which we didn’t do last year,” Kurczek said.

Kurczek says he thinks the wrestling team is doing all they can by consistently wearing their masks, even when taking drinks.

“We always wear a mask, and for drinks we always have to drink really far away from each other, so we are able to just pull down our masks,” Kurczek said. 

Due to circumstances involving the health of people, the number of people able to attend a wrestling match has lessened significantly. 

“We only get two tickets per wrestler so only two people can watch them. It’s not as loud anymore which feels different,” sophomore Brooks Schultz said.

The next wrestling meet will be Tuesday, Dec. 22,  at home against Ripon.