Second Place: Annaliese Arciniega, 9th, Osage High School (Non-Fiction

Second Place: Annaliese Arciniega, 9th, Osage High School (Non-Fiction)

"Down But Not Out"

We were both battling for dominance, one being pushed, then the other getting the same treatment right back. It felt like we were all over the mat. One side one second and the complete opposite side the next. Her leg went in between mine.. and I tripped. I fell onto the mat, but she came with me. In a matter of seconds we were flipped around and I was on top. I was on top.

“You going out for wrestling?” Fank basically shouted in his usual upbeat yet somehow condescending tone. I was walking through the old high school gym, as I usually did, on my way to class. Every day, almost every time I passed him my eighth-grade year, Fank seemed to ask that question. Over, and over, and over.

“No, I’m in basketball, you know that.” Although I was annoyed, a small smirk was appearing on my face.

His smile widened, almost reading my thoughts. He knew what he was doing, “Yeah, what about next year? There are people that do both.”

He and I both knew I was done with this conversation, “I’ll think about it.” I told him, saying what he wanted to hear so that I could continue on my way. I didn’t wait to see what he said and started walking again.

“Bye!” I could hear the smile on his face. I didn’t answer him. Fank wasn’t the only one who constantly pushed me to join, half of that credit has to go to Gable. Ask anyone and they will say she is stubborn and persistent, especially when she’s passionate about something. That’s

not to say I never got annoyed or angry at her constant reminders and nagging, but hey it worked out in the end. Didn’t it?

On my way to the locker room to get changed for basketball practice, I couldn’t help my thoughts. The same ones ran through my mind every day. I seriously hate basketball, I only do it for three reasons. 1. To stay in shape, 2. For my mom, and 3. I need something to occupy my time. My thoughts were interrupted as I entered the musty old locker room. Gosh, this place is disgusting. I continued to sulk as I

changed into my shorts and T-shirt and pulled on my practice jersey. I walked into the gym and sat on the stage awaiting my teammates arrival, it was times like these that made me think: I hate basketball, maybe I’d like wrestling. Maybe I should try it… but those thoughts quickly left my mind as the coach yelled for practice to start.

The whole week leading up to Friday I was on edge. Every time my mind wandered to my match, in the slightest, I could feel my heart speed up immensely. Not to mention the day of the meet. That whole day I tried to put it off my mind, but I couldn’t do that any longer, especially when it was time to leave. In the days leading up to then, I was constantly doubting myself saying how “I was going to get pinned”. It was then, I knew I had to change my attitude. Immediately.

The whole bus ride was spent braiding people’s hair, so that helped to get my mind off things.

As the bus stopped, we all gathered our things and headed inside. We got changed and set up camp, before doing our skin checks. I was in the lower end of the 126-132 bracket and had three matches. After getting skin checked, our girl’s team walked into the gym to warm up, it was then I put on a “mean face”. I dropped my usual smile and put on a glare, trying to look intimidating. Did it work?... Heck, I have no idea.

“Did you already wrestle?” Kaegen asked as she came to sit next to me.

“No, why?” I muttered.

“I don’t know, you look pissed. Like you lost your match or something.”

I tried to keep the smile from creeping onto my face, “Good, that was my plan I’m trying to look mean.”

She couldn’t contain her smile, “Oh!” She laughed as she said it.

“Yeah,” I couldn’t keep a smile from my face either. It spread wider than I wanted, as I let out a laugh.

“I thought you lost!”

“No, now stop making me smile!” I turned to look away from her as we continued to watch our teammate’s match. A couple more matches went by as I waited for my name to be called. Suddenly I heard it.

“....Arciniega…. mat three….” That was all I could make out as the announcer spoke. “Was that me, or was that Hampton?” I asked one of my teammates in a somewhat frantic voice.

“I think that was you” I tried to calm myself down putting my “mean face” back on and headed towards the mat. I sat down struggling to get my warm ups off. I stood back up, asking someone for assistance with my headgear. After it was secured tightly to my head, I started bouncing on my toes, trying to prepare for my match the best I knew how.

When the match ahead of mine ended, I looked at my friends and coaches one last time, internally battling myself trying to calm down. Be mean, go in there aggressively. Pretend it’s someone you hate. Those were the “reassuring” words going through my head as I started towards the table.

“Arciniega?” I nodded as they asked. “You’re green,” It was obvious they had done this millions of times. As if they thought they were a broken record. I’m sure they were much more calm than me. My heart felt as if it was beating a million times a minute, Don’t let it show. I walked towards the mat and grabbed the green velcro band, and struggled a bit to put it around my ankle. My opponent was already there with her red band around her ankle. We got in our stance…. and the whistle blew.

It felt like she came lunging at me like a panther, but with the energy of a young kid on a sugar high. It’s safe to say I wasn’t expecting it, but I wasn’t going to give up. I pushed my surprised feelings back down, and gave her the same energy in return. Her hands found my arms and neck as she pushed and pulled my body. We were both battling for dominance, one being pushed, then the other getting the same treatment right back. It felt like we were all over the mat. One side one second and the complete opposite side the next. Her leg went in between mine.. and I tripped. I fell onto the mat, but she came with me. In a matter of seconds we were flipped around and I was on top. I was on top, scoring two points. I grabbed a hold of her body hanging on for dear life, but it felt like I was on a bucking bull and couldn’t get control of it. I didn’t realize it now, but what I’ve come to learn is that I was riding too high. She stood back up, I locked my hands around her torso and threw her back down to the mat, with some sort of new-found confidence.

“LOCKED HANDS!” I heard someone yell from around me. I ignored it. Again. The same thing. I was on top, but she stood up. I threw her back down. It continued as I threw her down for a third time, I felt like it had been ages but I wasn’t even through the first period. I continued on top before she got up again and broke my lock. We both moved apart from each other, before quickly coming straight back together. She

shot for my leg and I “sprawled.” I should say I attempted to sprawl, but failed (I now know my mistake was not shoving her head underneath my body). She ended up on top and covered me for two points. With a few more hiccups on my side and a few more points on hers. The first period had ended. I ended up on the bottom. As I set up I reminded myself: You have to get up as quickly as you can, don’t let her get you down. Stand up fast. I again heard the whistle and it took some effort but I stood. Seconds turned into minutes as we both continued struggling to stay ahead. I was getting tired, but the last thing I wanted to do was get pinned. In the last few seconds of the third period, I was put in a very sticky situation. She held me down, I was almost on my back at the edge of the mat. My body felt as if it was completely twisted in half (which it basically was). By some miracle I didn’t get pinned, but as the clock ticked down, my time was running out to get ahead. I didn’t. As the referee blew the final whistle, we both got up. My eyes met hers.

I took her hand firmly in mine, “Good job.” Afterwards, I bent down to un-velcro the band from around my ankle. At this point I expected to be upset as I looked over at the still uncleared score board (8-2 not great), but I wasn’t. I wasn’t mad or upset. I walked over to my coaches in good spirits as they explained my mistakes and listened intently. Overall, I enjoyed my first match. Although I didn’t win and know I have lots of room to grow, I was proud of myself for doing that. Rewatching that match, it has probably been one of my best so far. Even if I didn’t win. I have much to learn and I’m not going to lie and say I’m eager to do so, because most days I am not. Most days I have no energy to do a single thing. Most days I want to shut off my alarm and say “I overslept”. But I don’t, and that is key. In everything you do (in this case me), you won’t always want to do it. Some days you feel motivated and others you don’t. That’s life. What I’ve learned in my life (this matches a part of it) is to not give up. Although I don’t think I could say anything more cliche, it’s true. You can’t start something and then not finish it because it wasn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be easy, and you have to learn to enjoy the ups and downs. Which is exactly what I am slowly (extremely slowly at times), but surely learning to do.