Reine Hanna

Photo courtesy of @ethswildkits

On December 18th, ETHS Wrestling faced New Trier on Senior Night. The Kits won three out of four matches, winning both girls’ and boys’ junior varsity, alongside girls’ varsity. The match commemorated the careers of ETHS´s seniors, like Jeremy Marshall, Muhammad Bayat, Michael Pryor, Miguel Morales, Douglas Johnson, Cesar Ramos-Morales, Zach Weston, Kathy Nguyen, Fatima Gomez, and Kyra Rivera.

With this year being her second year on the team, varsity captain Samantha Gipson remembers her first Senior Night having more engagement between the athletes, as the later date allowed them to get to know each other better and build bonds as teammates.

 “We made posters last year for the seniors. It would have been nice to do it again this year,” recalls Gipson.

With the conflict of finals week and the upcoming date of the event, the girls’ team sought to find other ways to bond with the new athletes later on in the season.

“This is the second Senior Night I have been to, and I can say they’re pretty fun,” said Sophomore Artjon Lamce.

Lamce, who is a member of the varsity boys wrestling team, holds a strong belief that the energy brought into this meet by the audience makes the Wrestling Senior Nights stand out.  Although senior night isn’t unique to wrestling, this is the one event that really brings an audience together, furthering the engagement for the upcoming regionals and sectionals.

 “This is the night we give our seniors the spotlight. We get to let them shine. They mean a lot to the team and to the school,” commented Lamce.

It was a close match that Lamce had against his opponent, though ultimately, the latter had gained an advantage.

 “I remember I got angry during my match. That could have been what drew my attention away,” explained Lamce.

At the end of his match, he shook his opponent’s hand the same and refused to let the loss get to his head. Instead, the rest of his time at the event was spent cheering on his senior teammates. 

One of these seniors is Jeremy Marshall. An athlete whom the underclassmen on the team look up to, as well as someone who had just reached a 100-win milestone in his wrestling career, and made a State Championship qualifier. Marshall has been the captain for the boys’ team for two years now, and has been wrestling at the high school for eight. The wrestling program isn’t just a team to Jeremy; it’s a family of people he has been around the longest at this time of year, and it’s important to him that his teammates know how big of an impact they have had on his wrestling career.

“It’s the only time you’re gonna have a senior send-off. You can wrestle not a whole lot of people over and over again, but Senior Night is the most important night of your life,” said Marshall. 

As of now, our seniors from the class of 2026 have not announced any commitments to colleges for wrestling, but we are eager to see how they carry themselves past the level of high school wrestling.