River Forest High School put on another strong showing at the Greater South Shore Conference Wrestling Dual Championship, held this year at Edison High School in Lake Station Indiana. The conference match boasted an impressive lineup of the best wrestlers from ten area schools. The Ingots held off against a strong challenge from Wheeler, but ultimately took the championship once more with a 48-30 win over the Bearcats.
Rounding out the rest of the results were Calumet New Tech in third place, followed by Hanover Central who took fourth overall and Illiana Christian in fifth.
“COVID-19 really threw a wrench in our season,” said Ryan Donovan, head wrestling coach for Hanover Central High School. “Early on, it really hit us hard. We had like, seven guys out at one time, but we made some adjustments and it’s getting better.”
The squad from Hanover was one of the larger ones in the area with over 20 wrestlers, eight of which had matches in today’s GSSC match. Next, they head off to a JV match before preparing for sectionals. Coach Donovan is optimistic about his team.
“Last year we had half the team qualify for regionals, so we’re hoping to repeat that again this year,” Donovan said.
Griffith represented one of the smaller teams at this year’s GSSC, though what they lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in heart and competitive spirit.
“It’s gonna be a pretty rough day,” said assistant wrestling coach Sean Kinney. “Not too many head-to-head match-ups, but we’re gonna go out there and give it our best.”
“We only have four guys, so it was hard, but we fought hard. You can’t ask for anything more than that,” said Griffith wrestler Lucas Metz.
Teammate Connor Cervantes agreed.
“We gotta do everything we can to try and put some points up on the board. We only have four guys that can do it. Coming here, going up against schools that have every weight class isn’t easy. All we can do is go out there and do our best, wrestle hard,” said Cervantes.
Griffith hosts River Forest next Tuesday in a duals meet.