Sitting in a sauna for two hours or racing around the neighborhood in a sweatsuit may sound crazy to most people. But to experienced wrestlers, it is just another story of someone trying to lose weight.

Wrestling, along with many other combat sports, relies on a weight class system. There are fourteen weight classes for both boys and girls. The boys classes range from 106 pounds to 285 pounds whereas girls classes are from 100 to 235 pounds.

By sorting athletes, it is intended to keep them safe and pair them with the appropriate opponents.

“All wrestlers are put into weight classes. The idea behind that is that you’re only wrestling against people that are your same size to keep the competition as fair as possible”

From this practice, strategic approaches to changing classes have evolved. Players often view the weight class system as something to be exploited rather than abided. Many attempt to change weight classes for an objective advantage.

“Cutting down gives you lower energy but a lot more competitiveness,” sophomore wrestler Rowan Saam said.

Coaches have a different view of weight classes. Safety is their main concern when wrestlers change classes. They worry that athletes will develop eating disorders that will affect not only their wrestling.

“When you restrict your diet, you’re depriving yourself of the nutrients that you need to perform your best,” athletic trainer Morten Orren said.

Efforts to change classes include cutting calories, dehydration, and eating sugar-free diets. When taken to the extreme, wrestlers experience severe changes to their weight.

Liberty coaches encourage the members to use weight loss plans. These plans only allow small safe amounts of weekly weight loss.

“I know kids from other schools that will have a body weight fluctuation of around twenty pounds every week because of how much water they cut,” junior wrestler Dawson Evans said. “There is definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way.”

Other than dropping a lot of weight in a short period, Liberty wrestlers aren’t concerned with the measures people take to move up or down classes.

“It’s completely valid,” freshman wrestler Stella Mostrom said.

“I don’t really have a problem with it. It’s kind of normal,” Saam said.

Despite the normality of this practice, the coach’s views are unaffected. In their opinion working on technique should be the highest priority.

“I want kids to just focus on wrestling and being better wrestlers, not being better weight cutters,” assistant wrestling coach Jake Crawford said.