There was a lot of doubt late in the fall whether or not the sport of high school wrestling was going to make the cut this winter due to the pandemic.

If you were at the Bishop Guertin Colligadome on Saturday – whether as a fan of either the Cardinals or the Hollis Brookline Cavaliers, or there in an official or working capacity, you were glad the sport survived, as long as everyone could remain safe.

It’s been a different kind of season this year for the sport in New Hampshire. No tournaments, no divisional championship meets that have as many as 20 teams in one gym. No Meet of Champions.

Instead, Saturday’s title won by the Cards was a dual meet championship. It was a total team thing, total team tournament like you’d see in so many other sports.

And remember, this was a Guertin team that back in January had to go on a pandemic pause for two weeks. They were wondering if they could have a season.

“We have been working so hard all year, with the coronavirus and everything that’s been going on,” Guertin senior captain Aiden Szewczyk said. “It’s such a high contact sport, we didn’t even know week to week if we were going to have another match.

“To be able to come here at home, to win the championship, it means a lot to us, it means a lot to my brothers and to Coach.”

There could be a push to try to figure out some way to have a dual meet championship. Sure, many times the outcomes are already known before a team enters the building. The forfeits in certain weight classes are sometimes part of the strategy, but also sometimes part of the disappointment if a wrestler doesn’t get to compete or it costs a team a match.

Yesterday they were part of the strategy.

“Two great teams, Hollis Brookline, they’ve been practicing all year, just like us,” Guertin’s Matt Ha said.

“We knew we had a challenge in front of us,” Cavs coach Brian Bumpus said. “At the end of the day, we always expect to be competing and always expect to be there in the end. That was the mentality we came in with.”

Wrestling is always emotional. But Saturday there was a title on the line, and the emotion was flowing. A different type of event, but a high charged event. Adding to it was the fact that a limited number of Cavalier fans were allowed to attend.

It was one of the best high school events, in this humble scribe’s opinion, of the year.

“The environment was great, just the kids being excited, it was nice,” Bumpus said. “It really was.”

“It was fun for the fans, it was fun for the coaches,” Guertin coach Paul Rousseau said. “It was fun for everybody.”

Fun that the Cards and Cavs were probably wondering in the last few months whether they’d be able to have.

Another win for high school sports.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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