On Saturday, December 6, Jeremy Marshall wrote his own piece of ETHS wrestling history. Joining just 13 others, Marshall hit the mark of 100 individual wins as he led the team to the title for the second year in a row at the Elias George Memorial Tournament.
Marshall’s focus during his career, and especially this season, has certainly not just been the individual win count. In fact, he wasn’t even aware that he had 99 wins as he was wrestling for
his 100th.
“I didn’t know exactly how many I had, [but] I knew I was close,” said Marshall. “I thought it was going to be during the tournament. I just didn’t know it was going to be that match.”
Even if he had known, Marshall wouldn’t have approached it any differently.
“Yeah, it’s just a normal match … I wouldn’t have wrestled any differently if it were my first win compared to my 100th win. I think you just have to wrestle all your matches expect-
ing to win, being prepared to win,” added Marshall.
Throughout his career, one of Marshall’s favorite things has been wrestling in the historic Beardsley Gym. “I love wrestling in Beardsley Gym. That’s always my favorite thing that’s happened. I wrestled in there three times [matches] now.”
In fact, the team wrestled in Beardsley against New Trier on 12/18. While the team as a whole unfortunately lost, Marshall was able to pick up another win along with a few of others on his team.
While there haven’t been too many in his career, Marshall says that his losses have all helped
him on his wrestling journey to 100+ wins.
“You’re always going to lose, but the more you lose, the more you learn. If you just give
up after losing, you’re never going to improve…you have to learn from how you wrestle
every single time,” reflected Marshall.
Despite the milestone, the season is far from over for Marshall.
With his leadership, the team has found success in recent tournaments. Recently, at the Rus Erb tournament, Marshall and Diego Lopez won their respective weight classes, Rodrigo Salinas took third in his, and Freshman Brooks Tyler placed fourth.
With only one loss this season, his impressive record, performances, and, of course, his achievement of 100 career wins serve as momentum for him and the team as they compete this season and strive for their goal of making it to state as individuals, and of course, as a team. “I want to make it to State as a team. That’s been the dream since freshman year, just making it as a team down the state wrestling with my teammates.”.
The team hasn’t been to state all together during Marshall’s career, but he hopes that can change in his final season.“We have to win a whole lot more duels.” But that’s Marshall’s goal: “Wrestling hard, pulling off some upsets and making it down to a place that’s very hard to get to.”
