GAC’s is a major tournament that wrestlers look forward to before districts. Many of the schools in the GAC (Gateway Athletic Conference) are also in our class and district. This gives wrestlers a pretty good idea on how they are going to do at districts to qualify for state.

Paxton Hughes (12) got a look at what his path to state will look like after winning the GAC title in the 157-pound division and is looking forward for districts.

Throughout the tournament, Hughes had three matches in total. He was the third seed in his weight class, so he got a first round bye. In the quarterfinals, Hughes teched his opponent from Fort Zumwalt West in the third period to get to the semifinals. In the semifinals, Hughes wrestled a tough opponent from St. Charles. This match went all the way to the end of the third but Hughes was able to come out on top with a decision of 2-1. His opponent got third place at the end of the tournament.

In the last and final match of Hughes’ day, he wrestled a kid from Francis Howell, where Hughes pinned him in 1 minute 49 seconds. This first place win gave Hughes a much needed confidence boost to get him ready for districts.

Hughes started wrestling in 5th grade and did two tournaments but he never continued with it in middle school. He decided that during his freshman year he would start it back up again.

“I got interested in wrestling in fifth grade. At lunch the staff handed out flyers for the team, I showed my dad and he was all over it,” Hughes said.

Leading up to this year, Hughes has practiced hard every day and was able to qualify for state his junior year. Although Hughes only won one match at state last year, he is still very proud of himself for qualifying. Many people expected him to not win any matches at state last year, so everyone was also extremely pleased with his performance.

This season Hughes has a record of 26-8 and is continuing to improve it. He cares about wrestling greatly and has naturally become a leader on the team with one of his best friends Clark Carpenter (12).

“Paxton has become a great leader for our team and everything I need done before practices and tournaments are already done by him and Clark, especially with cleaning the mats before practice without having to even be asked,” Coach Haynes said.

Haynes has been a big inspiration for Hughes with motivating him everyday, as well as all of the other coaches he has had throughout the years.

“I could not ask for better people to mentor me through this sport,” Hughes said.

Hughes is sad that this is his last year of high school but is proud of his accomplishments and is ready to go to state.