Conference Duals part 1

This evening the wrestling team was at Gibson City for the first half of HOIC Conference Duals against GCMSF, Heyworth, and LeRoy.

Getting warmed up

Caeden found himself against DeSchepper from GCMSF.  They wrestled many times in junior high, and after Caeden had this awesome encounter with Kellen, we realized they had been in IKWF kids club together when Caeden was in Gibson City's club in kindergarten!  They will probably continue to see each other in matches throughout the rest of high school.  The mutual respect they have for one another is very cool to see.

And they are pretty evenly matched...

And they actually look similar, as far as build, which you don't always see in wrestling.

They also look similar in hairstyle.

It was a great match, and very close.  Kellen was the one who got his hand raised at the end.

The second round for Ridgeview was against Heyworth.  Their coach would not do matchups ahead of time, so he chose which wrestlers he was sending out once one of our guys stepped up to the table to report for his weight class.  Caeden had to wrestle Spencer, who is a senior and a state champion.  I can tell you by the feeling of impending vomiting that I had when I saw who Caeden had to wrestle, that I am incredibly proud of Caeden for walking out there on the mat and going head to head with that guy.  That takes an incredible amount of guts!  I think Spencer was surprised by how flexible Caeden was (as are most guys who wrestle him), and he was unable to pin him in the first period.  

The third round we wrestled LeRoy.

Taking a little breather...

Goofing around

Teammates, assessing the situation...

In this round, Caeden had to wrestle Gulley, who is a mother state-level wrestler.  He knew this ahead of time, and we'll just say Caeden succumbed to Gulley's strength.  Coach said he was not disappointed that Caeden lost to Spencer and Gulley and that he was proud of him going up against them.  Me too.  Our boy has learned and grown a lot this season!

The team lost all 3 duals this evening, and Coach was a bit discouraged by that.  It really is a tough conference.  We will see how the rest of the duals go on Saturday.