A year of wrestling experience makes a big difference

Two years have passed since the Trojans wrestling team won its second state title in 2014. Since then they have been slowly rebuilding.

According to Trojans coach Craig Rieger, the state championship team was senior-laden and left the team with little experience the following year. He said not many placed in regionals. Only one went to state last year and this year Rieger hopes to improve on that.

“Our big goal is just qualifying more for the state tournament,” he said. “With this new conference, I am curious to see who is strong. Mojave was strong last year and won the zone (regional) tournament. Their lineup was senior-heavy though. They have a state champ coming back at 220. Western always throws out good, tough wrestlers. Cheyenne always has numbers. We don’t know too much about Sunrise Mountain and Desert Pines, though.”

Rieger says the year of experience that his team had last year made a big difference.

“Two years ago we had such a senior-heavy team,” the coach said. “A lot of those boys didn’t get a lot of experience. Some of them wrestled junior varsity, but then the two classes below that class, last year’s seniors and juniors, well, there wasn’t that many wrestlers in those two classes. This year we have a good junior class and good sophomore class. And last year they were freshman and sophomores on the varsity. They competed well last year. Now they have a year of experience. So we are excited.”

Rieger is excited about the whole team.

“Tristan Maughan is just a sophomore and he has worked hard and Jeremy Albertson has worked hard,” Reiger said. “I would like to see Albertson do well. Brandon Bunker is another one. Zach Trieb is coming on this year. He can be a good one, this is his first year.”

This will be Albertson’s third year of wrestling and he will be wrestling at 195 pounds.

“I will be tightening everything up and making things faster and smoother than last year,” Albertson said. “I am basically stronger than I was last year. I have been in the weight room since last wrestling season non-stop. My signature move is the screwdriver. This move has come natural to me.”

Rieger added Dustin Rily to the list.

“Another one to watch is Dustin Rily, he wrestled amazing last year,” Rieger said.

Rily will be going for the 152-pound spot.

“I lost two matches last year and had a good season,” Rily said. And he admitted he had to fight with his grades.

”I am going to have to try to keep my grades up this year. I want to communicate with my team more. My signature move is the cradle.”

Rily said the cradle was an awesome move.

“You grab a leg and you basically crunch the guy up — it’s pretty cool.”

This year Rily had to worry about dropping too much weight. He said he started the season at 165 pounds but had to drop 13 pounds to compete at 152.

“I’ve just got to be careful and not drop too much muscle,” he said.

Brandon Bunker will be wrestling heavyweight this year, which is 225 pounds and above.

“A year of wrestling makes a whole lot of difference,” Bunker said. “The techniques you learn throughout the year and the moves all come together after a year. Everything becomes fluent once you are past that first year. I will go out and wrestle hard and do what I do.”