Team Pete Airman selected for Air Force wrestling team tryouts

Published Jan. 9, 2018
By 2nd Lt. Justin Davidson-Beebe
21st Space Wing

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Senior Airman Christen Hunt, 21st Medical Group, health service management, family health, is competing at the 2018 All-Air Force Wrestling Trial Camp at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, from Jan. 3-21, in hopes of representing Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. If he wins he will represent the Air Force at the Armed Forces Championship at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in February.

Following trial camp, if selected, Hunt will become a member of the Air Force wrestling team and attend a training program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Hunt has wrestled since he was in the eighth grade and said he thinks of wrestling as a unique sport.

“I love the fact that you can’t blame anybody for your loss. If I go out there and lose, it’s a 100 percent on me,” Hunt said. “Wrestling is super competitive, and it taught me discipline.”

Wrestling has been the best thing for him outside of the Air Force because it consists of a lot of cardio and high intensity interval training, as well as a lot of safe-weight cutting, Hunt said.

Wrestlers use safe-weight cutting to make the weight class their wrestling in without sacrificing strength.

“Pushing yourself is way more mental than it is physical,” Hunt said. “Wrestling is a very rewarding sport. I get a feeling of accomplishment I’ve never gotten anywhere else. All you can do is put your best work in.”

Hunt participates in a Denver wrestling team and attends Rocky Mountain Wrestling events in the Colorado area.

“The Rocky Mountain events don’t keep me in shape, but they keep me familiar with the sport,” Hunt said.

Hunt said his chain of command has been supportive throughout the whole process, from application to acceptance.

The wrestling program provides comradery and a healthy competitive environment for all services, which all compete to win at the championship.

“May the best branch win,” said Hunt. “We all have our differences that makes us unique. Whether we feel like one branch is better than the other … when we wrestle that’s all we’re about at that moment, just wrestling.”

“It’s an overall blessing to be accepted, I get to have fun and do something I love.”

Team Peat Airman selected for Air Force wrestling team tryouts