Ever since Zack was in the first grade, he has wrestled. Each year he puts in countless hours of training, practicing, stretching, cutting weight and starving. It is interesting to see where he is each year weight wise. As a Freshman, he wrestled 126. As a Sophomore, he wrestled 138. This year, as a Junior he wrestled 145.
As a Freshman, he missed qualifying for State wrestling by his final match. He took fourth at District and did not go to State. As a Sophomore, he placed third at District and ended up going to State and placing sixth at State. He was one of only two wrestlers that went to State last year that placed. Braxton Stocking also placed at State, taking third. The only wrestlers to beat Zack last year were Seniors.
This year Zack really turned it up. He worked REALLY hard to cut weight to make it to 145. He did two a day practices and would go to BYU-Idaho to work out on top of his two a day practices to cut down to weight. After much hard work and determination, he ended up with a great season. He started off strong. Then, he tore his meniscus in the quad in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the beginning of the season. That put him out for the next quad which would be a week later at Sugar-Salem. During that event, the coach put in a third string 138 lbs. wrestler (Cole Goody) to fill in for Zack. The wrestler from American Falls (Cervantes)blew out Cole's arm. He was done for the season. Zack was furious. I think it lit a fire under Zack that would drive him the rest of the season.
Zack really turned it up. He wrestled really well. He went to Pocatello and was undefeated along with 5 of his teammates.
Here is a photo of the boys who were undefeated, Braxton Stocking, Trayven Maupin, Bridger Hansen, Braden Hansen, Zack Jensen and Raul Navarez.
Zack excelled and rose to the top. Here he is shown pinning a wrestler from Capitol.
This is the Sugar-Salem 2014-2015 Wrestling Team. Coaches are Bill Walker, Josh Norman and Brad Hansen.
After Pocatello, the next match was a dual at home against Teton. Teton and Sugar have been rivals for years. Zack wrestled Bryce Beard from Teton. As he stepped on the mat, Coach Hill (the cross country and track coach) did the MCing. He said that the audience was in for a real treat. On the mat were the two toughest wrestlers in the State in the 145 lbs. weight division. He said, "now ladies and gentlemen, some of you may be looking for a high scoring exciting match, but be aware these two warriors are battling and are both on the defense. Because of that, they are carefully calculating each move they make and the move of their opponent. This will be a low scoring match but will be very intense." He then went on to narrate each point scored and in the end, Zack beat Bryce.
Next stop....District!! We have a tough district. Shelley, South Fremont, Teton and Sugar-Salem always have exceptional wrestlers and this year would be no different. Shelley had Austin Betzer and Teton had Bryce Beard. These would be the wrestlers to beat at District to secure a great seed at State. We anticipated that based on the seeding for District, Zack would beat the South Fremont wrestler and that Bryce would beat Austin and Zack and Bryce would have to wrestle for the title of District Champion. Zack pinned the wrestler from South Fremont, but in a surprise to us, Austin beat Bryce!! Zack had to beat Austin to win District. Only the top three wrestlers go to State.
Zack's final match against Austin ended with a pin and a District Championship for him. This would seed him first at State!!!
A week later we were headed to Pocatello to watch two days of wrestling. Sugar-Salem would take 19 qualifiers to wrestle State. It was an intense weekend. We would cheer for each wrestler as they would compete. Each had worked hard to be there.
Zack defeated his first opponent with a pin on day one. His second opponent would be Bryce Beard. At the end of day one, he faced off against Bryce. I am not going to lie, I was biting my nails. Zack defeated Bryce with a pin. This was a big deal as he had never pinned Bryce before. He had always beat him but never in a pin. Right after that, he was interviewed by the news. State Wrestling Interview As a mom, I couldn't have been more proud of the way Zack conducted himself during the interview. He gave a shout-out to Bryce and even acknowledged what a great opponent he had.
After day one of wrestling, only three wrestlers were in for first place, Braxton Stocking (Senior), Raul Navarez (Senior), and Zack (Junior).
We came back on day two and the first opponent Zack was to face was Cervantes. Zack had been waiting all season to meet up with this opponent and I noticed a smirk on his face as he walked onto the mat and saw that Cervantes had his elbow wrapped. I knew it would not end well for Cervantes. Zack went out and gave him all he had and made sure to let him know what happens when you mess with his JV. Zack pinned him. This left one wrestler standing between Zack and a State Championship.
Our three remaining wrestlers participated in the walk of champions. I was pretty touched as a mother to watch Zack participate in this walk. He had worked so hard to be able to go to State and to be seeded first and now he was one match away from actually being a State Champion.
He would wrestle against Spencer Ferguson from Gooding, ID. Braxton wrestled first and ended up losing in over time. Raul wrestled next and lost in about 45 seconds. Zack was up next. Sitting on the side of the arena, I turned and looked next to me to see Spencer's mom. I told her, "no matter who wins this match I am going to cry." "Me too," she said.
Round one Spencer dominated. Round two Zack started to make a come back. Round three Zack pinned Spencer and WON a State Championship!!!
Of all of the wrestlers from Sugar Salem High School to participate in State, only ONE brought home a State Championship. Zack had worked hard and he finally received the recognition he deserved. I told him prior to wrestling his final match that day that if he went out and won or lost is wasn't because of his teammates, coaches, parents or friends it was all on him. He would either win or lose based on him and him alone.
After Zack won, out of the stands came Braxton Stocking, Austin Betzer and Bryce Beard. Braxton ran down and threw his arms around Zack and hugged him and patted him on the back and congratulated him. Austin and Bryce also came down to share their congratulations with him. It was an awesome moment to see.
At the end of State, our three District qualifiers for 145 lbs. who had placed first, second and third placed at State as first, third and sixth. We were SO proud of each of these boys.
This is a photo of the final outcome of the tournament...first place, Zachary Jensen - Sugar Salem; second place, Spencer Ferguson - Gooding; third place, Austin Betzer - Shelley; four place, Marsh Valley; fifth place, Cervantes - American Falls; sixth place, Bryce Beard - Teton. Although winning a State Championships was AMAZING, for me, seeing my son treat other people with dignity and respect and rightfully earning the admiration and respect of his peers was the true win. To see him and the rest of our District on the podium was an amazing feat. He came out and won by pinning all of his opponents at State. He really was a rockstar.
We sent a photo of him to the Rexburg Standard Journal and they did a write up about him. He was so excited.
Around the first of May, Zack received an invitation to attend the Standard Journal Sports Stars Athletics Awards. They held an awards ceremony where each of the top athletes from four schools (North Fremont, South Fremont, Sugar Salem, and Madison) were honored for each sport for the year. Zack was the only wrestler they honored who was a Junior. From North Fremont they honored Zack Clark, from Madison they honored Chad Green, from South Fremont they honored Blaze Eckman and from Sugar Salem they honored Zack Jensen. He was the only one was not a Senior.
We are proud of Zack for all he has been able to accomplish. Over many years of tears, training, practicing, stretching, cutting weight, starving, wins, losses, aches, pains, discouragements, and accomplishments Zack has continued to be a Champion in the making. We are looking forward to one final year of wrestling and many more years of efforts which will prepare him for being a champion in life. We love you Zack!!!
