St. Croix Falls wrestling team honors fallen teammates at sectional tournament

On Saturday, the St. Croix Falls wrestling team participated in the sectional tournament held at Edgar high school one day after losing two teammates in a car accident.

St. Croix Falls Coach Joe Raygor says that the two teenagers were both on his wrestling team, one on the varsity roster and the other on the junior varsity team. He said the kids were going to a morning workout at the time of the accident.

Upon arriving in Edgar, the team was greeted with condolences from schools around the state of Wisconsin. Both coaches and wrestlers used the tournament as an opportunity to honor their teammates and come closer together.

"We kind of left it up to the kids to come today. We had two opt out because they couldn't overcome the grief, but we had eight kids come down today," Coach Raygor explained. "We talked about that sometimes it's not the easy choice, but you have to do what's really hard. We left it up to the kids, we told them we loved them, they came down here they're ready to fight, and they're wrestling hard. We had both families reach out and tell us they wanted the boys to wrestle hard and they're supportive from home. You know that's pretty powerful. The big thing that we preach is family, this is a horrible thing but it reminds us of the family piece."

Four of the wrestlers from St. Croix Falls made it to the finals of the sectional tournament which gives them an automatic bid to the state tournament.