He took me down right off the bat and I battled back. I tried to throw at the end to take the lead, but he took me down and got some back points. Every match you have to be tougher. I made one bad move, but battled back.

My goal was (to finish in the) top three. But after I found out the strength of this weight class, getting fifth . . .that's a good weekend and I'm not ashamed at all.

J.T.'s really impressed me. His district tournament was the best he's wrestled all year. His toughness and his ability to win the close matches has really impressed me. He's my drill partner, so that's really been making both of us better all year.

It's nice to be going (to state) with those guys. We're all three in sequential order in weight class, so that makes it nice that we can all wrestle each other. Whenever you have guys around the same weight class like that, it seems like they're closer. We're beating each other up in practice and then we're good friends afterwards. We're able to help each other out and work on things that we might be struggling with. It's nice to have guys you're close with going down there with you.

I really am looking forward to that. I have nothing to lose. He's the three-time state champion, and he's the guy with everything riding on him. I can just go out there and wrestle.

The top three. I want to be in the top three of the state -- that's my main goal. I just think it's going to be who wants it more and who works harder. There's not much separating everybody at the state level. You have to win the close ones and be tougher.