The North Butler-Clarksville girls wrestling team took major strides from year one to year two as an official program. In year one, the Wolves had only two wrestlers finish with double digits wins and went 1-5 in duals. The Wolves this season improved their dual record to 8-6, and had seven wrestlers finish with double digits wins.
The Wolves were supported by two seniors in the room, Addy Johnson at 105 and Zoe Pierce at 155.
Head Coach Ben Loviren on the character of Johnson and Pierce and what he looks for from wrestlers.
“Addy is always there for practice. She’s a very positive person, a great leader and a great person. Same way with Zoe, she really enjoyed it. She enjoyed the competition part of things. She was seeing herself gaining experience and could see that she was getting better and better,” says Lovrien. “I like to see the kids recognizing that they’re getting better when they go out and compete. They’re just having fun and they’re competing hard, that’s all I ask for. Zoe was a perfect example of that.”
The Wolves had three wrestlers achieve 30 wins or more this season including Mackenzie Shultz (30-22) at 125 and 130, Maliyah Liddle (31-14) at 170 and 190 and Sydney Lovrien (32-14) at 190 and 235.
Lovrien on the energy and drive to improve shown by all three.
“They lead by example. Mackenzie’s a boisterous girl, you can tell she loves it. Maliyah, she’s the same way. They’re always wanting to get better. They’re wanting to do new moves and progress. Sydney’s the same way. She’s been a leader for us in other sports, too. They had a good season, with 30-plus wins. Hats off to them.”
Five members of the team are multi-sport athletes at North Butler or Clarksville.
Lovrien on how two NBC wrestling alumni are helping during the offseason and how the program works with multi-spot athletes.
“The girls are coming back and they’re getting a workout in. MaKade Bloker and Tanner Arjes are running practice. To me, you can’t get it any better. We’re having practices at North Butler and we’re having them in Clarksville a couple of times a week. In the past, we’ve sent the kids to other places. This year we’re trying things new because we want to make sure that participation is high for these kids. We also ask them to participate in other sports. They also need to wrestle a little bit if they want to make it to that next step. In order to do that, we’re trying to have practices right here. We hope it works out great for them.”
NBC girls wrestling is projected to return eight wrestlers next season.
