Reiss gets career win 100

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on December 31, 2014 3:54 PM

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By ALLEN ETZLER

aetzler@newsargus.com

After years of pushing himself to the brink to cut and make weight, Evan Reiss is finally getting a reward in his senior year.

Reiss wrestled as a 145-pounder in his freshman, sophomore and junior season, despite coming out of the football season usually weighing in around 165 pounds.

"He saw an opportunity at 145 and decided to go after it," Rosewood coach Bill Edmundson said. "He was probably cutting more weight than he should have been the past few years and this year we've got him right about where he should be."

But in his final year, Reiss is able to be "fat and happy," as he calls it, even though he's wrestling at 152 pounds, still a drop off from where he came in during football.

But either way, Reiss hasn't exhausted himself all week leading up to matches so he could compete, and he's seen the benefits it has brought him.

"I've felt like I've had a lot more energy this year and have been able to last longer," Reiss said. "Last season by the end of the third period I was kind of gassed out and I think I went into about 15 overtimes because I couldn't finish guys off. This year I've been pretty good at finishing the matches out... I'm not going to cut those seven pound because that sucks."

Reiss' performance has stalled any, either. He's off to a 19-9 start this year and on Saturday he picked up his 100th win of his career with a first-period pin.

"It's 100 wins so I'm really happy with it, but I wish it would have been more of a fight for it," Reiss said.

A long way from where he started as a freshman getting tossed around by everyone he wrestled.

"I was kind of thrown right into things in my freshman year because we didn't have anyone at 145 so I wrestled there and got the crap beat out of me," Reiss said. "It taught me how to not get pinned. How to bridge, how to roll and all that sort of stuff. I wrestled a lot of good guys that taught me where I need to be at to be good. I learned how to be smart with wrestling."

But still, despite the 22-33 record as a freshman, Reiss was never discouraged. Coach Bill Edmundson knew Reiss would come back from it even stronger.

"He just showed so much leadership qualities even as a freshman," Edmundson said. "I've been able to depend him from the get-go."

Reiss didn't let his coach down, and came back as a sophomore posting a 31-27 record, and then winning 30 matches as a junior and earning a seventh place finish at states.

There was never any secret to how Reiss became successful. Just lots of hard work, and a bunch of cradles.

"I always cradle people and pin them," Reiss said.

His match Saturday was won with a cradle, actually. He pinned his opponent in the Terry Pilkington Memorial Duals in the first period with his signature move. Teammate Rayquon Jones got his 100th win the same day, a plateau the two didn't even know they were close to.

"I didn't know it was going to come this soon," Jones said. "Coach sent a text out that said 'in case you didn't know you're at your 99th career win,' and I'm like 'yes!.' I thought I was at like 80-something or something."

Rosewood is 17-3 this year as a team, and Edmundson knows his two 100-match winners are a big reason for that. Not just because of them winning matches, but because of their leadership as well.

Reiss is constantly pushing his teammates to be better. They even get into some trash-talking spouts from time to time to egg each other on.

Reiss has always been driven by a little trash talk. The biggest win of his career was a byproduct of some trash talk after an Ayden-Grifton wrestler said there would be no competition in the 145-pound weight class to keep him from winning conferences. Reiss showed the kid he was wrong by beating him, and helping Rosewood to take the conference championship.

"It was between us and them for the conference that year," Reiss said. "I remember hearing that and I just 'OK, let's see.' In the match he slipped in something, I think it was my sweat, but he slipped and I pinned him so I'll take it. He was mad, I was happy."