The Bear River Wrestling Team hosted their first and only tournament at home in the Jack R. McCrory gymnasium on February 11. This was the first wrestling event held at Bear River for 23 years.

Head wrestling coach Kevin Figueroa discussed what it was like to hold a wrestling tournament at home.

“It was great!” he said. “We haven’t held a PVL tournament in 23 years. It was great results, great audience. All the players and coaches appreciated that we were done by 4 o’clock. That’s really hard to do with wrestling tournaments.”

He also explained how they did in the tournament.

“We came in fourth place in team tournament, but on individual, we’re taking three first-place (positions),” Coach Figueroa said.

Senior Wrestler Noah Danieli talked about how he did at the tournament.

“I ended up taking first for my weight class, so that’s good,” he said. “I became the PVL all league champ.”

Jacob Rivett, a junior wrestler, also took first place for his weight class.

“I got first place PVL champion,” Rivett said.

Another junior, Travis Carpenter, talked about his eventful matches and his first-place win.

“I took first, won both of my matches by like 15 points,” he said. “I threw a guy into a table. They were some pretty hyped matches.”

Both Danieli and Rivett were ecstatic about not having to get up early to travel and also getting support from local fans at the school.

“It was an awesome feeling, seeing some of my classmates come in and cheer me on, that was really cool,” Danieli said. “I didn’t have to wake up super early to come to this tournament today.” 

“It was so nice because usually we have to meet at the school at 5 o’clock, but we got to be here at 8:15 this morning, which was really cool,” Rivett said. “The Leadership class has never seen me wrestle, so they came and watched, which was cool.”

Carpenter talked about the pressure of wrestling at his own school.

“It’s a lot more pressure, you feel like you kind of need to win,” he explained. “It’s more exciting.”

Danieli and Carpenter both have high expectations for the next tournament and beyond.

“I actually have a really good chance of moving on to Masters, and even further than that on to State, which not many people do at Bear River,” Danieli said.

“I have a good chance (to go farther),” Carpenter said. “I could run a little bit more, you know. Get my cardio in. Other than that though, I should be good. … My goal is state, but it’s going to be hard to get there.” 

Coach Figueroa talked about what happens now for Bear River wrestlers.

“We have 10 people moving on, all our team made it,” he said. “Now, we all go to Union Mine for Sections, then the top 4 that win in Sections go to Masters. The top 6 at Masters make it to State. We have 2 that we think can make it (to State).”