Rams Wrestling Ends Season on a High Note
By: Kolton Kruse
The final week of the wrestling Rams’ 2023-24 season was a great success. The team’s excellent send-off of the regular season began with a stellar weekend at the Bob Mitton Invitational, followed by two exciting team wins on Tuesday for Senior Night and two more dominant victories on Wednesday in Alleman.
Beginning on Friday, January 19, 2024, at Orion High School, 11 wrestlers competed in the annual Bob Mitton Tournament, performing very well. There were many great opportunities to learn from matches, pick up important wins, and score valuable team points. Overall, the Rams finished the weekend with seven individual place winners and an impressive second-place team finish. Individual results were Ben Porter (fr.)- 2nd place, Tharren Jacobs (sr.)-1st place, Dean Wainwright (so.)- 1st place, Kolton Kruse (jr.)- 4th place, Blake Smith (jr.)- 1st place, Zac Bradley (sr.)- 1st place and Iyezayha Hill (sr.) - 6th place. Also, Blake Smith was voted the Outstanding Wrestler award for upperweights.
Continuing into the meets during the week, the Riverdale community came together on Tuesday, January 23rd at 5:30 pm to recognize the team’s three seniors on Senior Night. This year’s seniors included Tharren Jacobs, Zac Bradley, and Iyezayha Hill. On Senior Night, the Rams took on Monmouth-Roseville and Knoxville earning a 54-24 victory over Monmouth-Roseville and a 58-12 win over Knoxville respectively. This special night also saw all three of Riverdale’s seniors record big wins including pins from Bradley and Hill and also seeing Jacobs record a technical fall.
Capping off the season, the Rams traveled to Alleman High School on Wednesday, January 24th at 5:00 pm to wrestle against Alleman and Mercer County on Alleman’s senior night. Altogether, the Rams had a brilliant night and finished their outstanding season recording another 2-0 evening as a team. Impressively, neither of the opposing schools scored more than 20 team points on the Rams squad and Mercer County was even held to just 9 overall team points. The scores for Wednesday’s duals included a 44-19 triumph over Alleman and a 66-9 win over Mer-Co.
This season’s team went 22-6 overall and was coached by new Head Coach Aron Kindlesperger after cornerstone coach and teacher at Riverdale Myron Keppy retired after last season and tragically passed a few months later. Also helping the Rams have this great year were, Assistant Coach, Justin Zigler, and Heath Smith. Each wrestler is thankful for the knowledgeable and helpful additions to the coaching staff and knows in their hearts that Coach Keppy would be very proud of this year’s team.
Come show your support for the wrestling program by attending IHSA Regionals this weekend, February 2nd, 2024, at Fulton High School, and cheer them on as they work to make it to IHSA Individual Sectionals and also try to take their 2nd straight team regional title which would advance them to IHSA Dual Team Sectionals in a couple of weeks!