Through challenge after challenge, Colton Evertsen continues to barrel through his wrestling season with strength and adversity.

Wrestling in 220’s, Evertsen has plowed through to a 32-8 record as of Jan. 29, a record that he says was honestly “a lot better [than I] had anticipated, last year I was kind of wrestling nervous.”

Senior Bryce Fallas thinks that his teammate is “aggressive” but also “funny to watch” at times.

Head coach Darren Johnson added that “Colton has some toughness, because all season you are gonna have minor nicks and injuries, in wrestling you really have to fight through it…and Colton never misses a practice, never misses a meet.”

Evertsen added, “It’s been tough, especially the last couple years being on varsity [football] and us going to playoffs, and not getting that break that you really need.”

With the state tournament nearing sooner and sooner, Evertsen and his coach are preparing for life after high school. Coach Johnson knows that “he’s going to stay focused on football, but he knows wrestling helps with football…not just [the conditioning], the balance, the ability to stay low, the competitiveness.”

Coach Johnson also reminisced on the Puma Duals back in December, when Evertsen “had been poked in the eye, and it was swelled up.” Evertsen would go on to pin the next opponent he faced, wearing an eye patch, essentially wrestling with just one eye.

That same meet, on the weekend of Dec. 11, would provide more than just that dramatic win for Evertsen, along with the rest of the campus. Senior football player Michael Roach passed away on the first morning of the meet, at which time several members of the team that had played with Roach immediately left, one of which was Evertsen.

Evertsen will be the first to say that the pin with an eye patch was aided by more than just strength. “In that tournament, I ended up going 6-0” said Evertsen. Five of those were pins.

Evertsen added that “When I went to Wisconsin [for the OshKosh Invite Tournament] , I always sit there I kind of  ask for his presence…using him spiritually.”

Reflecting on the entire season as a whole, Coach Johnson believes that this senior class ranks as “the best season we’ve ever had, that’s easy. We’ve brought home a trophy at every tournament, we’ve beat some of the teams that are our rivals” like Basha and Hamilton

Evertsen added that he thinks this situation with his now deceased friend has made him “more confident, [Roach] definitely helps in the ways that he couldn’t when he was down here.”

One of Evertsen’s plans for the future was to “get a tattoo of [Roach] but due to wrestling it’s kinda hard” to have an open area of skin like that, but his dedication to his friend is evident in the body of work he has put into his senior wrestling season.