On Jan. 24, Minooka hosted the SPC conference boys wrestling tournament. Minooka’s varsity took second as a team, losing first to Yorkville by 11 points.

But several wrestlers placed first as individuals. These wrestlers were Maddux Tindal, Mason Vogt, Kaden Meyer, and Robbie Murphy.

The varsity wrestling team showed pure ambition with wrestlers like Tindal and Vogt going on a 3-round streak of technical fall victories to achieve 1st place.

“We wrestled the best we’ve wrestled all year,” assistant coach Anthony Rink said.

The team is set to advance several wrestlers in the state series.

“We’re practicing really hard in the room, and with all our starters back, we have a full 14-man lineup going into regionals,” Meyer said. (Editor’s note: Minooka finished third at regionals and advanced nine to this week’s sectional at Edwardsville.)

Even with this confidence and competitiveness, Minooka is putting out; they undoubtedly have fierce competition, such as Yorkville, Lockport, and Joliet West who all have had a history with Minooka and kept that up at SPC with close scores to Minooka.

“We don’t ever want to worry about anyone else but ourselves,” Rink said. “It is a bigger tournament with higher stakes, and if we can stay focused, we should do good.”

Even underclassmen are thriving in Minooka’s wrestling program at SPC, such as freshman Jaxon Roberts, who placed third in his first high school conference, no less.

“He wrestled really tough,” Meyer said. 

Michael Bielman is a member of the wrestling team.