Freeport’s boys wrestling team broke top 20 in the IHSA rankings following a 5th place finish in the Ted DeRousse varsity tournament this weekend, and a 3-0 win in a quad meet on the 23rd.
The team faces lots of pressure this season coming off of a record-breaking season last year. The team lost 5 varsity starters, but this fact doesn’t seem to affect the team much with their current record.
Right now, the team has a record of 12 wins and 1 loss and they’re currently undefeated in the NIC-10 conference. Nathan Arendt, the head coach, credits the success of the team to the hard work and conditioning that they put in during practice.
“It’s a tough sport,” Arendt said. “Not a lot of sports have to condition like this to be in shape. But these guys–whether or not they complain, they still get the job done, and they work hard. Because they know they have to.”
Aside from present success, Freeport is in good shape for the future, with many wrestlers being freshmen who wrestled in middle school. Many wrestlers on the varsity roster are still only freshmen and sophomores with plenty more years to develop, like Brayl0n Cain, Treyden Diduch, Jrue Montoya, Jakhari Randle, and more.
Junior Thomas Olson, is excited to reunite and practice with this group of wrestlers.
“One of the best memories I’ve had so far is being able to wrestle with my first ever wrestling team again in middle school,” Thomas said.
The girls wrestling team has also had an exceptional start to their season, placing 1st in the Rockford E-Rab girls tournament and placing top 3 in many other tournaments. With only one senior on the team, the girls will have more returning wrestlers and developing talent in the future, putting them in a favorable position for the future of their team.
The girls face a unique challenge of being forced to compete with a larger sample of wrestlers. Because girls wrestling teams are more rare, the team has to travel much farther and join larger tournaments of 30 or more teams with wrestlers from the suburbs of Chicago, making their competition comparable to the boys team despite their being less teams overall in the state.
Despite this, the girls have made exceptional success in their competition.
Most girls have have placed top 3 in a tournament, with many girls– like Brea Balles, Najeyah Wallace, Kaiya Galindo, and Caydance Fellows– placing first in their respective weight classes.
On all levels of the wrestling team: from the starting varsity roster, to the Junior varsity level, to the girls team, the team is demonstrating great success in their competitions.
