Patch wrestler Chris Carlisle wrestles Heidelberg's Marquez Ensey during a 126-pound weight class round robin match at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patch. Carlisle won the match and took second place in his weight class. (David Rogers/Stars and Stripes)
Patch wrestler Chris Carlisle wrestles Heidelberg's Marquez Ensey during a 126-pound weight class round robin match at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patch. Carlisle won the match and took second place in his weight class. (David Rogers/Stars and Stripes)
Patch wrestler Chris Carlisle wrestles Heidelberg's Marquez Ensey during a 126-pound weight class round robin match at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patc. Carlisle won the match and took second place in his weight class. (David Rogers/Stars and Stripes)
Patch wrestler Albert Suarez wrestles Heidelberg's Alex Grant during a 195-pound weight class round robin match at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patch. Grant won the match and took first place in his weight class. Suarez took second. (David Rogers/Stars and Stripes)
Patch wrestler Albert Suarez wrestles Heidelberg's Alex Grant during a 195-pound weight class round robin match at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patch. Grant won the match and took first place in his weight class. Suarez took second. (David Rogers/Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany — It was a field day for the Fields family.
Richard Fields, Patch volunteer assistant coach, was proud to see two sons and daughter qualify for the DODDS-Europe championships Saturday at the Eastern Sectionals hosted by Patch.
Calen Fields, a two-time European champion, is the eldest among his siblings and competes in the 172-pound weight class. He took first in his weight class at the sectionals. He was undefeated last school year and continues to be undefeated. Jaden Fields, who competes at 132 pounds, also took first. And McKenna Fields, a freshman who competes at 106 pounds, took second.
“It makes me proud,” Calen said. “It runs in the family. It’s always nice to see them succeed. We all support each other. So it’ll just be a once in a lifetime kinda thing. Because this is the only time we’re all going to line up in high school.”
Calen said he and his siblings all wrestled together growing up. But he says they have grown on their own as wrestlers.
“We kinda do our own thing,” Calen said. “We have our coaches that are paticular to us. We don’t wrestle the same style at all.”
The brothers are confident they will all do well at the European championships next week.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Jaden said. “Me and (Calen) last year was an awesome experience with him winning and me placing third. It was really exciting. It will be interesting to see us three because I know (McKenna) should place at least in the top six.”
As a whole, the Patch team dominated, with Heidelberg as its primary competition. Patch qualified 17 wrestlers and took first place in eight weight classes. Heidelberg qualified seven wrestlers and took first place in three weight classes.
Heidelberg was originally scheduled to compete in the Southern Sectional in Italy. But two weeks ago, DODDS-Europe moved Heidelberg to Stuttgart in order to even out the amount of wrestlers competing in each of the four sectional tournaments.
“Heidelberg did take some firsts from us,” Patch coach Norman Matzke said. “So that affected the number of people that qualified (for Patch). Some of my thirds probably would’ve gotten second had Heidelberg not been here.”
Matzke says the biggest challenge for his wrestlers is maintaining their weight for the two days of the European championships.
“By the end of the first day, it’ll be a challenge for them to make weight,” Matzke said. “And that’ll affect their strength when they’re wrestling. So there’ll be some upsets that wil occur there.”
