Trojans go 2-2 at a tough Boulder City Dual

The Trojans wrestling team traveled to the Boulder City Duals on Saturday and went 2-2 getting much-needed experience. Trojans wrestling coach Craig Rieger said he and his coaches hope to build on the team’s youth this year.

He described his team as being “green” in the lower weight classes.

“On many teams the lower classes is where you find your best wrestlers,” Rieger said. “But our lower classes are made up of freshmen and sophomores. We had one freshman on varsity, seven sophomores, three juniors and two seniors. We are young.”

Despite the inexperience in the lower weight classes, Rieger found some bright spots, like sophomore Steven Tedford (113) went 4-1 and Donnie Miller was another one that wrestled well (120).

“Tedford is a good wrestler,” Rieger said. “He wrestled great and is a good kid. Donnie Miller is a freshman and is green. He is an aggressive young man. He is tough and he wrestles hard. He went 3-2.”

Rieger said the team started off well at Boulder City. His team beat Chaparral 66-6.

“It started out surprising,” Rieger said. “They had a full lineup. That surprised me. I don’t know their program and maybe that was not their full strength eligibility.”

The coach then said they got their second win off Laughlin, who he said didn’t have a full team.

That Saturday the team had to wrestle three teams in their pool. The last team they faced in that pool was the best team at the tournament, Boulder City.

“We got beat bad by Boulder City,” the coach said. “Boulder City is experienced and they have a lot of juniors and seniors.”

The Eagles beat the Trojans 70-6.

“They just looked good,” the coach said. “I have seen those boys on varsity for a couple of years. It is kind of neat to see how they have developed. They were good. They won their tournament.”

From 160 pounds and up the Trojans wrestled pretty well. Junior Dustin Riley (160 pounds) went 3-2. Senior Garret Monje (182) went 5-0, junior Jeremy Albertson (220) went 4-1 and sophomore Jakob Landis (285) went 4-1.

Rieger likes the way Landis handles himself as a sophomore.

“Landis is one of those sophomores,” Rieger said. “He played football on that good JV team. He is a big lineman. He is 235 pounds and is more athletic. He is competing with Trieb (Zach) and Bunker (Brandon). When Bunker and Landis were wrestling, Bunker rolled his ankle. Landis took him down.”

He also mentioned that this is Landis’ first time out for wrestling.

“Albertson wrestled well,” the coach said. “Christian too. Dustin lost two close matches and wrestled well. Brian Palmer wrestled well too.”

Rieger said his wrestler of the week was Albertson.

As far as the team, he is worried that some of the team does not take their grades serious enough.

“They’ve got to stay eligible and keep their grades up,” he said. “Some of the coaches are trying to think of how to motivate some of these guys.”

Normally a full wrestling team has 14 wrestlers and this is another problem for the team.

The Trojans have a 13-man lineup and are missing a 106-pounder. The coach said they have been searching the school for one.

“As far as our 106 spot,” he said, “We have a young man that came to us that is pretty green. We just don’t want to have to forfeit that spot all the time.”

The coach said the reason why the spot was hard to fill was because in general the kids are bigger.

“We couldn’t get any after cruising the halls,” Rieger said. “He is green but he’s here. He never has wrestled before. The boys convinced him to come out. A lot of kids get scared and it’s intimidating.”

The Trojans travel to Spring Valley this weekend.

“This will be tough one,” he said. “We wrestle all big schools there. That’s a tough dual.”

-Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com