It's tough. We really thought we had a shot at them this year and we just had a great season. We wrestled hard and the kids put everything they had into it. You can't ask for more than that.

It was incredible. We wrestled outstanding. We broke the record for most points, most champs, most finalists and most placers. We had 14 placers. You can't do better than that. It was amazing.

They're all climbing the ladder (toward a state championship).

A lot of times as coaches we do a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario and we listed as coaches the best we could do is get 12 and we thought 13 was stretching it. The kids did outstanding.

They've been wrestling since they were 6 and 7.

This is a real self-motivated group. They know how to behave in the classroom and on and off the mat. Having a bunch of kids like that makes my job a lot easier.

It was absolutely amazing. It was one of the best days I've seen in the Hartland program's history. It was strange. We just kept winning and no one wanted to say anything about it. It was like a bowler throwing a 300 game. You don't want to say anything about it. No one even talked about it.

It was a little disappointing for us because we felt we could get a couple more. You look at it now and 30 seconds of wrestling took us from 11 qualifying to eight. We had our opportunities and the eight that qualified wrestled phenomenal. They had to because our regional had six of the top 10 teams in the state. The region was loaded.

Things are going well for us. The kids are calling themselves the 'Five-Week Freaks,' knowing they have to do everything perfect behave, do their school work, eat right and be focused while wrestling. They are a great group to work with. They're having a lot of fun.

When you wrestle a team so many times it gets closer and closer, but that didn't happen today. The kids wrestled great and we were able to rotate kids in. It feels great. It's a little different going in as a favorite. We have to take it one step at a time, two down five to go.