Weekends in the wrestling community mean its tournament time, and this Friday and Saturday, Ranger Country saw some very impressive results. 

“The team wrestled very well the past two days against some very tough competition. We had some very close matches that came down to the end,” senior Michael Campbell said. 

As stated, this weekend, January 20-21, the Rangers took on multiple opponents in an action-packed throw-down. The team took on Forest Hills Northern to start off its weekend and after a long round one of competition, the boys sadly fell 48-18. However, following this match, the boys put on their game faces and pulled off an almost clean win against the Northview Wildcats with a score of 60-6. This put an end to Friday’s challenges and made way for Saturday’s adventures to come. 

Saturday came with a similar outcome when the team took on Allegan and Coopersville, both of which are powerhouse teams. Following Friday’s trend of a 1-1 record for the day, the boys pulled off an incredible win over Allegan to pull themselves ahead, but Coopersville left the Rangers with a tough loss that would ultimately conclude the weekend at a 2-2 record.

“We beat Northview, but we lost to northern. We beat Allegan, but we lost to Coopersville. We broke even; you can’t break even in life. You’ve got to get ahead. So, we’ll be pushing our team to get ahead this week. They may not like it but it’s going to make them better,” head coach Brad Anderson quoted. 

Although the weekend may have ended differently than coach Anderson hoped, some key athletes showed insane improvements from their last few performances that really stood out to the crowd.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster this weekend,” coach Anderson stated. “We dropped some matches we shouldn’t have but we also have some guys wrestling their best right now. Greyson Ripmaster is 21-0. Landon Cooke is making a late-season push. Blake Jacobs is also on a roll. Next week is a big week and we need to turn the corner.”

With so much excitement in the air to see how the boys can come back after the last two days, the team will return to the mats on Wednesday, January 25, during a home match that fans will not want to miss.