After wrestling almost the whole season at 160lbs, sophomore Anthony Santoro wants to drop to 145lbs for the remainder of the season.

Santoro, who wrestled at 132lbs last year and was a district qualifier, said he put on weight for football and decided not to drop until now. Santoro said, “The team brought up the idea to me because we have lost some kids due to COVID, then I began to encourage myself to drop for my own benefit.”

Santoro admits that he’s confident in his ability to perform at a high level and even perform better when wrestling at a lighter weight class. “I obviously want to win the whole conference tournament but I also want to help the team win the team race which will be close this year if we don’t fill the holes in our lineup,” he said.

Santoro says he just does not want to win the conference, but he also wants to make it to districts again and perform better than he did last year. “I think that losing all that weight will make me quicker on my feet and it will give me more energy being at a better weight class where I am not so big,” he said.

Santoro said that there is a system to lose all the weight safely so that he can still perform well. Currently weighing about 160lbs, Santoro said, “I have started to do extra cardio workouts after practice and I have begun to clean up my diet, eliminating the junk that I don’t need, so that I can start to get down to weight slowly.”

With the conference in three weeks and sectionals another two weeks after that, Santoro said, “I think I can probably get down in like two weeks, right before the conference tournament.”