Last week on February 8^th at the Wrestling Regional Dual tournament, first year varsity wrestler for the 132 lbs. weight class, Paul Kirkpatrick, was hospitalized for a serious injury he sustained while wrestling in the team’s first match of the night against South Hagerstown High. It was a bitter end to a great year for the senior that was also sadly his last. Through Paul’s hard work and dedication as a team member as well as that of the rest of the team they were the first team in Tuscarora History to make it to and win the regional dual competition. It was only two days ago that he was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and he is now working through physical therapy.

Paul’s injury occurred about half way through his match when his South Hagerstown opponent attempted to pin him through a move called a stack. The move involves pushing your opponent’s body up into the air so that all of their weight is resting on their shoulders in order to pin them. In executing the move you make sure to keep your opponent constricted by maintaining control of, and pulling on, his arms so that they are unable to escape. Unfortunately in the instance of Paul when his adversary went to perform the move he did so incorrectly. The South Hagerstown wrestler didn’t do it out of malicious intent but it was rather simply a grave mistake. Instead of putting all of the weight on Paul’s shoulders the wrestler misaligned Paul’s body and positioned him with all of his weight being transferred onto his neck. When he went to constrict Paul’s arms and push him down to pin him he inadvertently moved one of the vertebrae in Paul’s neck causing him to scream out in pain. Twenty minutes later Paul was on a stretcher being taken out of the school and loaded on to an ambulance to be flown to UMMC. It was only two days ago on the 14th that he got out of the hospital after two separate surgeries. He is now working through physical therapy and expects to be back in school in approximately two weeks though this is a basic estimate. We at the Titan Times wish him the best, and for him to have a speedy recovery as we encourage all of you to do as well.