The 2018-19 RHS wrestling season drew to a close last weekend at the Fargodome with two seniors looking ahead to college and three underclassmen looking forward to another season with their team.

Although 9th grader Aden Jensen told the Tribune he didn’t place in the state tournament, he had fun.

“I was at state last year,” Jensen said. “It was a good feeling to know I was going back.”

Jensen, who wrestles for Rugby in a cooperative arrangement, attends Leeds High School.

Jensen hopes to return to state next year, and said he plans to work on his skills for next season, including “technique, and finishing shots, and being a leader.”

Jensen explained what it meant to finish shots: “When you’re doing a move, don’t stop in mid-move.”

RHS senior Dylan Grove described his experience at state: “I drew the #1 seed for the first round, so it was a tough match right away. I lost the first round, and the second day, first round, I wrestled a Larimore kid, and the third round I wrestled a Hillsboro kid, and I lost (that match).”

Grove had wrestled in the Fargodome before. “I went as a freshman,” he said.

Grove said of his future plans, “I want to go to BSC for a process plant technician, and probably wrestle as a hobby.”

Wrestling has provided several life lessons for Grove.

“It taught me hard work, and dedication, and not everything in life is easy,” he noted.

Freshman Riley Odden said he wrestled in his first state tournament last week.

“For my first match, (Odden’s opponent was) a kid from Beulah; my second match, I wrestled the #1 seed, and he beat me, and that was on the first day,” Odden recalled. “On the second day, I wrestled Cristian Lagunes; he was from Williams County, and I beat him there, so that was to get in the placing rounds. On the third day, I wrestled a kid from Hillsboro, and I lost to him, and went on to wrestle for 7th and 8th place, and I lost that match,” Odden recalled.

“It was a really good experience,” Odden said, adding he plans to continue wrestling throughout high school.

A veteran of several state tournaments, Riley Zachmeier finished his high school wrestling career at the top.

The 138-pound state titleholder is a senior at RHS.

Zachmeier said he plans to attend Bismarck State College’s process plant technician program like his teammate Grove, “but life changes, so”

When asked if he had a wrestling scholarship in mind, Zachmeier said, “As of now, no, but if I get something I can’t turn down, I might change my mind.”

“There are quite a few coaches that are talking to me. I haven’t really taken any visits yet, because I’m just planning to go to BSC, but maybe I’ll miss wrestling, and I wouldn’t mind getting my school paid for. So, in the next four weeks, I’ll make a decision,” Zachmeier added.

Zachmeier said he had heard from “pretty much all the schools in North Dakota, a couple of schools in South Dakota, and then a junior college in Minnesota just talked to me this weekend.”

However, Zachmeier expressed ambivalence about continuing with wrestling. “I’m pretty sure I’m not going to, because I don’t want to beat up my body for five more years, but if it gets my school paid for and I don’t have any debt, it would be kind of nice.”

Zachmeier said he was concerned about some aspects of wrestling at the college level. “The college season is two months longer, and you have to cut a lot of weight, and stuff like that.”