Yet again, the fans and wrestlers stuffed River Falls High School for another Northern Badger event, featuring around 50 schools. St. Croix Falls took the individual title, but there were tons of notable showings both individually and as teams Dec. 29-30.

Of 47 boys teams, River Falls placed third, Spring Valley/Elmwood took ninth and Prescott landed in 29th.

“Saw a lot of growth from the beginning of the year,” River Falls Head Coach Loomis said. “Being a home tournament in our home gym, I kind of was preaching to our team that we wanted to have our home fans and everyone that helped out with that tournament, we wanted to pay them back by, not necessarily wins and losses, but just wrestling the way they expect River Falls wrestlers to wrestle and honor them by putting forth that effort.”

River Falls’ individual placements were as follows: Micaiah Black eighth place at 106-pounds, Isaiah Black seventh place at 113-pounds, Waylon Deaton first place at 132-pounds, Oliver Larson second place at 138-pounds, Rieder Loomis third place at 144-pounds, Brexton Hoernke seventh place at 157-pounds, Maxim Wahlquist 11th place at 175-pounds, Jacob Hutchins third place 190-pounds, Olivia Luther third place at 107-pounds and Providence Kretzmann fifth place at 145-pounds.

Deaton’s win put River Falls at 36 all-time individual Northern Badger titles, reclaiming the title of most of any school.

“He’s gritty, goes hard, never slows down,” Loomis said. “He’s starting to mature in his wrestling, I think, where he’s able to connect, chain wrestle we call it. One move to the next and it’s just an onslaught from when the whistle blows to start the match until whether he pins, or techs or just runs out of time.”

Loomis said Deaton is a man on a mission this year, and you can see it in his eyes at 99 wins less than halfway through his junior season.

Junior Larson did reach the 100-win milestone over the weekend. Loomis said Larson is the model of consistency, which makes him a brilliant team leader.

“Oliver’s been really consistent his whole career, and that’s what it takes to get that number of wins not even halfway through your junior season,” Loomis said. “Some kids, that’s their goal for their career, and he hit it already.”

SVE had a finalist in Jack Steinmeyer (second place at 215), who was joined by Austin Krentz (fourth place at 138), Asher Turner (seventh place at 165), Tyler Vanasse (ninth place at 285), Bismillahkhan Kaker (10th place at 150), Sam Schmitt (11th place at 144) and Landon Forster (11th place at 132).

The team finished in the top 10 of a field that fielded primarily larger schools, a showing of how talented the roster is. They again showed out in New Richmond over the weekend with wins from Vanasse and Delia Larson along with seven other top three finishers.

For Prescott, freshman Bryce Feran placed third at 106 pounds and Gunnar Doyle took sixth at 126 pounds. For the girls, Addy Allsop placed third at 114 pounds and Lily Kern took sixth at 107 pounds.

Prescott wrestlers finished the event with a 22-23 overall match record, with many students finishing above where they were seeded.

“The whole team wrestled very well, competed at or above their seeds,” Head Coach Zajac said. “Very happy with the whole group.”

Placing in an event with over 40 schools in both the girls and boys brackets is no easy feat, which Zajac said comes down to mentality.

“Just pushing a positive mindset, positive attitude, continuing to believe in their training and just take it one match at a time,” Zajac said. “It seemed to work for the entire group.”

Over the weekend in New Richmond, Prescott continued to grow with wins from Feran, Doyle and Allsop.

“They work hard in practice. They are great teammates and role models. Each one of them just puts in a lot of time,” Zajac said. “Their hard work is starting to pay off.”

The trio was joined by Emma Schmitz and Trevor Lansing in second, as well as Kern taking third.

Facing the wide variety of schools is no easy task for anyone, but the variety creates some interesting matchups that are beneficial in the long run.

“That’s the great thing about it. It’s a great mixture of big schools, small schools, schools from our area, schools like De Pere and Freedom,” Loomis said. “You really have to be ready to go because smaller schools in our area have a certain style that we’re used to seeing and schools from across the state we don’t get to see as much [wrestle differently].”