An Amazing R-L Wrestling Season

I could (and should) write the world's longest blog post about the Ridgeview-Lexington wrestling season that just ended, but ain't nobody got time for that. Sorry.  I will just say that it was pretty amazing! 

Some highlights:

- 1st time since the team started 6 years ago that there was a full roster!

- As a TEAM it was a winning season, with far more dual meets wins than losses!

- REGIONAL TEAM CHAMPS!

- NINE wrestlers in the championship round at Regionals!

- SIX wrestlers competed at Sectionals! 

- Caeden had a wonderful winning season! He got 4th at Regionals in a very tough 160 weight class and ended up getting to wrestle at Sectionals!

- SECTIONAL TEAM CHAMPS!

- 3 wrestlers advanced to individual state!

- Going to TEAM STATE!!!

So much fun, improvement, goal-reaching, learning, teamwork, and achievement to be proud of!

Wrestling @ Westville

Wrestling season is off to a great start! As a team, they are 9-0! It's pretty great to have a full roster for the first time!

Caeden is wrestling really well too, and so far has been at the 160 weightless easily! 

They had a meet at Westville tonight. I wasn't able to go, but one of the moms streamed live on Facebook, so I got to see both of Caeden's matches.

VIDEO: First match of the evening:

VIDEO: Second match of the evening:

Home wrestling meet

 Tonight Ridgeview hosted a wrestling meet with a couple other schools. No fans from the other schools were allowed to attend, and only 2 fans per wrestler were allowed to watch. 

G'ma Sandi and I cheered the guys on!

Coach Lopshire in action

Caeden is weighing about 165, but is wrestling up in the 182 weight class since there are a lot of other guys around the 160-170 classes. 

First Sophomore Match

 Wrestling is in the spring this school year, and we can't go watch meets in-person unless they are at home. So tonight was the first HS meet and I watched Caeden on my phone. At least there is streaming.  I was on my way back home from getting groceries in town and pulled in to a parking lot so Sylvia and I could watch. Screenshots for proof!

Fresh/Soph Sectionals

Sylvia went to watch Caeden at Freshman/Sophomore Sectionals today. 
He won his first match by pin!

He lost his next 2 matches and was done for the day and the season.  I think he is actually relieved for the season to be over.  It has been a tough one, and I am proud of him for working hard and progressing through it.

Fresh/Soph Regionals

Caeden and 3 other guys from the high school team competed in Freshman/Sophomore Regionals today.  

Caeden lost both of his matches, but since there were only 4 in his weight class and 4 get to go on, he will get to compete at Sectionals next week.

Regionals

Yesterday and today, Caeden wrestled in his first high school regional tournament.  It has been such a challenging season for our family, with Jeremy coaching and leading the wrestling program and many difficult dynamics of that, plus the whole dad coaching his own kid thing between him and Caeden, plus the fact that Caeden is the only Ridgeview freshman on the team. 

They have done okay during most matches with Jeremy trying to step aside and let Coach Morris coach Caeden.  That has been better for both of them.  I was really happy to see this moment going down today while Caeden was getting warmed up for his match.

Reporting at 138#

In his first match, we knew Caeden would be wrestling Drew.  Drew is the cousin of one of Caeden's teammates, and they have wrestled before.  They respect each other.  

It was a good match.  Caeden wrestled well, but Drew won. (He actually went on to get 3rd in the tournament.)  

-------

Coach Morris instructing Caeden before his match today (Saturday)

Although it was a good match, Caeden lost and was eliminated from the tournament.  He won't go on to Sectionals.

Apparently, this was a difficult discussion, according to Caeden immediately afterward.  However, I am really grateful for Coach Morris, because he is not Caeden's dad and can say things and coach Caeden in a way that Jeremy cannot just because he is also dad.  Coach Morris has been such a blessing to Jeremy this season, and he is so glad to have him on board!

I am proud of Caeden and his freshman season of wrestling.  I believe it is the most difficult sport, and I'm proud of him for always keeping on and always going out there and working hard.  

He is growing.

at Dwight

Tonight's matches were in Dwight.  

It's a ways away, so I actually rode the bus with the team.  (I won't be doing that again!) 

Caeden won his first match!

His second match was a good one, but he did not win.

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.