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Marty Verhaeghe (184), Tereus Henry (197), and A.J. Cooper (285) will be representing FHSU at the championship.
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Verhaeghe and Henry are both new competitors to the NCAA Championship tournament. Henry, 27-10 on the year, has seen a sliver of what to expect for the fast-approaching weekend.
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\u201cHave I been to Nationals before? Yes and no,\u201d he said. \u201cMy freshman year I was taken as a training partner for one of the other qualifiers, but that was when the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading wildly and everything started getting shut down so ultimately, the tournament ended up being canceled.\u201d
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Henry has been preparing for the tournament in a variety of ways.
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\u201cI have been focusing on the areas where I\u2019m not the best at during practice as well as perfecting in the places where I am the best at, as well as lifting and throwing in some extra workouts,\u201d he said.
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When asked about his level of nerves going into the weekend, he seemed confident, but knew there would be different feelings as it drew closer.
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\u201cRight now, no. I’m more excited than nervous, but I know as it gets closer to next weekend and on the day of I will be a nervous wreck,\u201d Henry said.
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Henry sees every competitor as a threat and understands that each contestant fought to get to where they are.
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\u201cEvery person I toe the line with is another challenger,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m preparing for and expecting tough matches with guys giving everything they\u2019ve got.\u201d
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Although he knows this won\u2019t be an easy tournament, he extends his thanks to his coaches for properly preparing him for this moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would specifically like to thank our entire coaching staff,\u201d Henry said. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong I\u2019m grateful for everybody that\u2019s supporting me, but the coaches always push me to believe in myself and to see more potential in myself than I ever do.\u201d
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From the opposite point of view, Cooper is no new face to the NCAA Championships. Cooper traveled to St. Louis for the 2020-2021 season. There, he took advantage and was able to capture a fifth-place finish to achieve All-American status in the 285 weight class.
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Although this is his greatest achievement, his most prized attainment is how he is viewed within his hometown and surrounding communities.
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\u201cMy biggest accomplishment has been being a role model for young kids and high schoolers in western Kansas,\u201d Cooper said. Similarly, as the senior\u2019s final weeks of wrestling come to a close, he wants to thank everyone that has helped, encouraged, or supported him throughout his career. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for every coach I\u2019ve had throughout my career,\u201d he said. \u201cNot just wrestling coaches either. Every coach I\u2019ve ever had has helped me become a better athlete and overall person.\u201d In preparation for this weekend, Cooper has kept his normal routine in exchange for overly flashy measures. \u201cI will continue to stick to just doing the same things I\u2019ve done all year. I will work hard and we\u2019ll see where that hard work gets me.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s also not excessively nervous for the event. \u201cNo, I\u2019m not really nervous, in my mind, it\u2019s just another tournament and I\u2019m not looking to psych myself out by thinking otherwise and putting it on a pedestal.\u201d His only worry for the season has been bettering himself and that will not be changing in regards to this weekend. \u201cMy biggest competition is always myself. It\u2019s important to be better than you were the day before.\u201d The tournament will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday inside Cahifetz Arena and continue at 10 a.m. on Saturday. BY JESS KIRCHHOFFPHOTOS BY JESS KIRCHHOFF & RYAN PRICKETT On Saturday, February 26, the Fort Hays State wrestling team traveled to Grand Junction, CO to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":63899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,784],"tags":[13634,14182,10113,14365,14529,7976],"class_list":["post-63898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-wrestling","tag-a-j-cooper","tag-jess-kirchhoff","tag-marty-verhaeghe","tag-tearney-mcgivney","tag-tereus-henry","tag-wrestling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/IMG_9928.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63905,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63898\/revisions\/63905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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