GMC Wrestling Tournament

I covered the GMC Wrestling Tournament for the second year. This year it seemed to go much faster than last year. I heard there were some sick and injured wrestlers which I am sure contributed to that. The early rounds of the tournament is held on 4 mats. That means a lot of moving around for me which is actually a good thing. Moving around keeps me from getting too sore. Though by the end of the day I just wanted to stretch my legs straight out in front of me. The finals and consolation bouts are held at the same time on 2 mats. Luckily I was able to place myself at the end of the 2 mats so I could try to capture all the wrestlers in the finals. I decided just to post some images from the early rounds. To see more images from the event click the Games link on the right side of the screen.

Fairfield At Lakota East Wrestling

After a day of photographing the Freshmen Invitational I found myself at Lakota East for some Varsity wrestling. I did get to stop by my office and download my cards from earlier and even started going through the images before leaving again. My husband was nice enough to make me a small meal as well which was appreciated. I was happy to see a meet sheet available at the door. I love knowing who is wrestling against who in each weight class. If I have covered the teams before I have a pretty good idea but once the matches start is nice to have something to write my images numbers on so I can divide the images by weight class later. Plus I just like having a roster. There was only one ref for the meet which is a little strange for Varsity. Normally there are 2 but with all the tournaments going on that weekend I would imagine it was hard to find refs. It was good for me though since I only had to worry about shooting around one ref. Here are my images from the evening meet.

I did a quick blink when I first say this one and then had to laugh. The head almost looked like it should be the wrestler's in the white the singlet.

Oak Hills Freshmen Invitational

This wrestling Invitational happened back on January 19th. It was a start to a full day of photographing wrestling for me. After this event I covered a varsity match in the evening. By the end of the day my back was definitely sore. I like to get as close to the floor as possible to photograph wrestling because a lot of the action happens down on the mat. This means I am hunched over or leaning to my side. Sometimes I lay on the ground but I hate the fact that I am not mobile at that point. You never know when some of the action is going to come at your way fast and you need to move. Even though I am at the edge of the mat sometimes the momentum of the wrestlers carry them off the mat so that is what I need to be aware of.

During the preliminary rounds of the event there were 4 mats in use. That kept me hoping from one point to another. Especially since I like to get clean backgrounds whenever I can. If I can avoid getting another match in the background of the one I am photographing I try to get myself in a position to do so. Here are some images from the day.

Oak Hills At Fairfield Wrestling

More wrestling images. The matches occurred back on January 17th. The lighting is definitely better at Fairfield than most places. They use red mats which do not absorb as much light as black ones which is nice. The JV and Freshmen teams competed at the same time which makes it a bit more difficult for me to get great images of all the wrestlers. Last year I remember a few teams have different uniforms for the teams which helped me out when it came time to proof the images at the end of the night. I could separate them based on uniform color. No luck this year. Luckily the backgrounds were different enough that I was able to tell the 2 level apart. Or at least I hope I got them right. Here are some images from the night.

I am always amazed by the flexibility of the wrestlers.

Checking the time left in the round.




I like that the ref is in this picture giving you an idea of what is going on.

Mason JV Invitational

I decided to skip posting some basketball games (may post them at a later time) and post wrestling instead. The Mason Invitational was the first wrestling I did all season which was really unusual. I normally have a few other meets covered before mid-January. If you have read my blog in the past I mention the low light available in gyms that can cause problems with image quality. Add a few huge mats for wrestling and it gets worse. They absorb a lot of light so it becomes even more of challenge to deal with low lighting. Wrestling is always interesting to cover. I am always amazed at how strong and flexible the wrestlers are. Things can change in a split second during a match. I have seen wrestlers go from losing a match to pinning their opponent in a few short seconds. Below are some images from the meet.