The Ridgefield Spudder boys wrestling team racked up eight match wins and two wins by forfeit to topple the Mark Morris Monarchs 56-20 for the dual meet win on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Spudders head coach Tyler Draper wasn’t just pleased with the varsity performance, he highlighted the dominance by the underclassmen, as well. Ridgefield High School’s junior varsity squad secured seven pins in a row, all by freshmen, Draper said.
“Kudos to my middle school coaches, right, that are just feeding us good athletic wrestlers that love the sport,” Draper said, adding that club wrestling programs have helped the Spudder program grow. “It helps to have club. We have a club out here in Ridgefield through [Clark County Youth Wrestling]. We’ve also started another Ridgefield wrestling club for more offseason wrestling so that kids, if they want, can have the opportunity to wrestle year-round, and that’s great for the community and great to build our team. We had 75 people come out for wrestling this year, so that’s huge.”
In the Dec. 18 dual, the match kicked off at 190 pounds with Cohen Draper securing a first round pin for the Spuds. Ridgefield lost the next four out of five matches, with Willie Legg securing a 12-6 win at 106 pounds.
After the slide, the Spudders rallied with six straight wins, including four pins, a tech fall and a win after the first round due to injury.
“The team’s wrestling well and not just our varsity lineup, we’re pretty deep this year,” Draper said. “So I’ve had kids step in spots where they’re not normally, and they have performed.”
Looking ahead, Draper has high hopes for this year’s squad, especially with the Clark County Championships taking place at Heritage High School on Jan. 17.
“I’d like to place at the counties,” Draper said. “I think I have a team that can do that this year. I think that, you know, aside from our first loss to Hockinson, we’ll take second in league. I have no doubt we’ll take second in league. The bummer is our first match of the season was against Hockinson before we had any other matches, but it is what it is. Our lineup wasn’t quite squared away but we’re slowly getting right to where we want our lineup to be to be super powerful.”
The Spudders will next appear at the Pac Coast Wrestling Championships beginning at 9:30 a.m. both Friday, Dec. 27, and Saturday, Dec. 28, at the Clark County Event Center, 17402 NE Delfel Road in Ridgefield.
