After defeating Maple Mountain 55-28 on Dec. 9, the wrestling team is in good spirits.
According to senior, Colten Pickering, the team is really proving itself in the practice room as well as on the mats.
“We are in tons better shape than last year, because we’re really pushing each other to go above and beyond during practice which I think really pays off when we show up to a meet,” said Pickering.
Coach Russ Crump thinks the team still has some things to work on, but feels the team is doing pretty good considering they only lost by the difference of one or two matches out of the 14 they wrestle in.
“Right now we have a couple of wrestlers that are undefeated; Troy Jacobs, Skyler McCloy, Parker Frischknecht, and Seth Endemano who has won all but one of his matches by pins,” said Crump.
Skyler McCloy, senior, also feels the team is doing really well but needs to focus more on the little things.
“We need to keep our heads up when times get hard, and try not to get caught in stupid situations,” said McCloy.
Assistant Coach Sam Rogers says during practice the coaches are just drilling basic moves into the wrestlers until the moves become natural.
“Riverton has always had one or two wrestlers that can be counted on to perform no matter who the opponent,” said Rogers. Conner Fredricteson, junior and team captain, likes what he’s seeing and feels the team has improved a lot since the begging of the year.
“We’re not messing around in practice like we did in years past,” said Fredricteson.
Fredricteson didn’t have much to say when it came to the team’s weaknesses, but definitely did agree with McCloy’s statment about the wrestlers keeping a positive attitude during the matches.
Something that all the wrestlers had in common was that they couldn’t wait for was the wrestling meet against Bingham Highschool. According to McCloy, “Nothing feels better than to send them (Bingham) home with a loss.”
The team finished third in their region and sent eight wrestlers to state in the 08-09 season.