(Oakland) Some of the best wrestling talent in Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska and Missouri will head to Oakland on Saturday for the Riverside Wrestling Tournament. There are 38 rated wrestlers in the field. Ranked teams include West Sioux, Logan-Magnolia, and Aurora, NE.
Riverside will welcome 20 schools to their tourney on Saturday. Coach Casey Conover was asked how they’ve built the tournament into such a strong field. “It helped with Darrell Frain comin in. We’ve always talked about how we really want to build this up to one of the premier tournaments in this area. Having Darrell Frain come in with his wrestling background we were able to get a lot of high quality teams in and we are pretty excited about it.”
Coach Casey Conover says every bracket should be filled with 16 wrestlers plus there is a JV Tournament and a Girls Division. Conover knows this type of competition will pay off in the long run. “Compete and wrestle hard. It’s December. It’s time to get better. One of my youth coaches Kenny Moore made a comment that it’s our job as coaches right now to find matches for them to lose. These tough matches will prepare us for February.”
The Bulldogs are coming off of a pair of dual wins in a triangular with Audubon and SW Valley on Thursday. Coach Conover was pleased with the outcome. “Yeah I was, I was happy with how they competed. We wrestled with intensity and aggressiveness and that was good to see.”
Seniors Jace Rose and Nolan Moore have been the leaders of the group. Coach Conover says Brock Comstock got a big win on Thursday night while Nate Messerschmidt and Austyn Fischer have been competing hard. He’s really excited about the potential of his underclassmen. “I’m really enthused with my young kids. Taven Moore, Kellen Oliver, Jett Rose, Kaden Pleas, and Jaden Tietsort have really been doing a good job.”
Taven Moore registered two pins in Thursday night’s double dual. Jett Rose, Brock Comstock, Nolan Moore, and Nathan Messerschmidt all had one pin apiece.
Riverside coach Casey Conover:
