(Oakland, IA)- It hasn’t even been a week since the district tournament and it’s already time for the state wrestling tournament to begin. No area school is looking better than Riverside with eight wrestlers clinching a spot in the brackets. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy as only five are seeded in the top 15 in their respective brackets with none inside the top ten. Your Bulldog wrestlers and their seedings include:
- #14 seed Kingston Carrigan (Fr) at 106lbs
- #16 seed Kellen Oliver (J) at 120lbs
- #14 seed Jordan Smith (J) at 126lbs
- #16 seed Jack Branan (So) at 132lbs
- #11 seed Jaxon Gordon (So) at 144lbs
- #13 seed Taven Moore (J) at 150lbs
- #21 seed Jett Rose (S) at 157lbs
- #14 seed A.C. Roller (J) at 165lbs
Head coach Casey Conover talks about the mixed emotions that come with postseason wrestling and how his boys are preparing for that trip to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
For many of his wrestlers, he’s actually not too worried about them wrestling on a big stage thanks to their wrestling experience from when they were younger. All eight of his qualifying wrestlers were a part of large AAU state and even national tournaments which are held in large arenas in front of large crowds like the ones they’ll experience in Des Moines. Conover wants them to think about this as a regular tournament and keep their mindset on the mat. That doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy and bask in the tournament for what it is. “They have downtime when they can look around but when it’s go time, we just got to stay focused in our zone.”
As for the wrestlers whose seasons ended last Saturday, Coach Conover already has a plan in place for them and previews an outlook for next season.
Class 1A wrestling starts late at 6 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with live updates on 96.5 KSOM, KS 95.7, Western Iowa Today TV, and the KSOM Sports Facebook Page.
