The Lakota West wrestling team took the mat at home on Saturday for their much-anticipated season opener against St. Xavier.  Before the start of the dual the program honored their 6 wrestling seniors (Josh Brodgen, Chris Dunn, Grace Hicks, Austin Huff, Daniel Lawson, and Aneesh Vyas) along with senior statistician Emilee Asbury.

The dual got off to a good start as senior heavyweight Aneesh Vyas recorded a hard fought 5-1 victory.  Both teams had holes in their lineup, however, and after a couple of matches and few forfeits the match score was 24-12 in favor of St. Xavier.  The Firebirds stormed back, reeling off 3 straight bonus-point wins and took the lead 29-24.  St. Xavier closed the gap at 182 with a bonus-point win of their own.  The team score was narrowed to 29-28 in favor of West with one match to go.  Senior, Josh Brogden, sent the home fans home happy as he closed out senior night with an impressive 12-6 victory sealing the dual 32-28.