With the sound of the crowd cheering and the thudding on the mats, wrestling is a crazy sport with cutting and gaining weight to compete for the next title but what really happens behind the scenes? 

Cutting can be difficult for athletes. They need to cut weight so that they can compete in the weight classes they are more used to , sophomore Emma Otsuka  remembers times she has struggled the night before a match.

“If you’re a pound and a half over the night before, then you definitely have to run a few miles with layers on,” Otsuka said.

Otsuka is not the only one who has had trouble with this. Senior Grady Fox has had times he did not feel like himself when he was trying to make weight. “There is definitely a change, but your stomach gets used to just being shrunk up after a while,” Fox said.

Being stuck in weight can be bad, especially when athletes have to drop a large number of pounds it could make athletes feel sick because they don’t eat making the athletes starve.

“My sophomore year, I messed up my weight a couple days before, so I couldn’t eat anything the day before,” Fox said.

Maintaining  weight is a challenge, but athletes can make a meal plan to help them maintain their weight.

“I eat carbohydrates in the morning and carbohydrates at lunch, then lean protein for dinner,” Fox said.

Eating is a key in gaining weight but sometimes eating too much can lead to athletes not feeling well.

“When gaining weight you just try to eat everything so you can feel stuffed, which makes practice and matches hard,” sophomore Willie Jon Morales said.

Athletes have requirements in wrestling such as Alpha weigh-in is what the wrestler weighs before the first day of practice and when they pass the hydration test.

“We have to do an Alpha weigh-in before the season starts, and make sure we are hydrated and have whatever percent body weight we want to cut,” Fox said.