I had an opportunity to shoot youth wrestling. My first time with the sport. Tough lighting in the gym. Comments/suggestions for improvement appreciated.

Honestly looking at your ISO and settings I'd say your lighting was amazing. I normally am lucky to get 3200 ISO F2.2-F2.5 and 1/250th. Photos look pretty good for action and colors. Certainly better then my first attempt at Wrestling.

Matt

Why not bump up the ISO to 1600 since you are using a MK3? I also see a greenish/yellow cast that is probably caused by the recycling lights.

Absolutely, go higher on ISO. Looks like you dialed in Exposure Comp of 1.3, which I am guessing was probably a mistake / accident. The mk3 will comfortably go to 3200. They look a bit underexposed on my screen as well, but I've not calibrated mine yet, but the histogram appears to bear this out as well. It looks like you got low and got some nice angles. Keep it up.

Agree with what has been said so far about exposure and WB, and adding that your second shot is your best action-wise.

Agree with the rest with mk3 go to iso 1600 or better. Nice action on #2. Looks like you got some shots of the wrestlers in the down position the hard part of shooting wrestling is getting a picture while they are shooting in on there opponent. I like shooting wrestling but being a ex-coach I get to watching and not taking pictures.

Other than being a tad bit underexposed and white balance being slightly off (though I don't blame you, small arenas are hard to get good WB in).
Great choice of the 85 1.8, clearly was the perfect lens for the job.

Agree that #2 is definitely the best capture!

I've gotta get me one of them there 85 1.8s!!

Some nice action. Wrestling is one of those sports though that I prefer to use flash for. Especially on the mat - no light reflection off the mat means faces are in shadow. Flash use really helps with those shadows.

Wow, thanks for all the constructive feedback. I try to keep the ISO as low as possible because I hate noise and grain. However, the example above from John A G shows what a little flash can do. Next time I'll try both techniques, increasing the ISO for some shots and using flash on others.

I agree with john , in fact I use one of the little Gary Fong things when I don't use strobes. My guess is he used a diffuser as well.