(Oakland) A 2nd place finish at the Western Iowa Conference Tournament sent the Riverside boys wrestlers into the holiday break on a high note.
Coach Casey Conover says it’s been nearly ten years since the team finished in the top two of the WIC Tourney. What stood out to him the most was the way the team fought. “Our kid battled really tough and fought really hard. It showed right before break getting 2nd at Conference. We had four starters out sick and we still found a way to battle and get 2nd place. I like the fight we have right now.”
Several wrestlers came through with big finishes to aid the team to the runner-up spot behind Logan-Magnolia. Among them were DJ Bramman and Wyatt Bell. “Two conference champs. DJ Bramman wrestled really well, wrestled tough. He looked very, very dominant at 106. Wyatt Bell is a freshman that decided to come out for wrestling a couple of weeks ago. He had a very good junior high career. Having a freshman that dominant is quite impressive at that weight (220).”
Coach Conover lists a number of others that contributed in a big way. “Kellen Oliver finished really well. AC Roller getting 2nd was good at 170. Jaxon Gordon wrestled really well to a 2nd place finish and then Bradyn Comstock got 2nd place.”
Jack Branan and Kaeden Pleas each finished 4th. Placing 5th were Jonatan Gonzalez and Logan Rose.
Coach Conover feels this group is just scratching the surface of their potential. They have only four upperclassmen. “We have to get more technique. I was talking to our freshmen afterwards. They battled and fought really hard at conference, but once we develop some shots and work on bottom we are going to be really, really tough.”
The return to practice wasn’t something they eased into. “We’ll break them in right away. We just finished practice and went an hour of live wrestling. We have to get holiday meals off of them right away. We told the kids we need six weeks of hard focus and we can’t be taking breaks right now. So we upped the intensity pretty good on day one.”
Riverside will head to the 62nd Annual Joe Crouthers Invitational in Missouri on January 5th and 6th.
Riverside coach Casey Conover:
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