Conference championship gold is on the line today for the Mid-Prairie boys wrestling team at the River Valley Conference meet at West Liberty. The Golden Hawks finished the dual season with a 5-18 overall record. They were last in action at the North Tama tournament a week ago, where they finished eighth of 13 schools, led by an individual championship for Tommy Miller at 215lbs, runner-up for Burke Berry at 285 and third for Brock Fisher at 215. Berry and Miller lead the Hawks this season with a matching 28 win total. Max Howe at 144lbs is also at the 20 win mark for the year. Trevyn Riley at 113, Colin O’Rourke at 138, Mason Howe at 144, Josh Turner at 175 and Quinn Callahan at 285 are all above .500. The Hawks were ninth at this event a year ago with the top finish Berry’s third place.

This week, Golden Hawks Berry and Fisher talked about their preparation for the conference championship meet.

Berry said, “We have to do the same thing we’ve been doing. Get your conditioning up, because it’s going to be some top notch guys you’re going against. We want to see all of the guys put in their full effort. We want to be showing what we’ve been working on in the room all season. We want to be aggressive and dominant on the mat.”

Fisher continued, “Keep up on the technique and wrestling hard. It’s going to get a little bit tougher now but, we have to wrestle our match, keep our head and be tough. We have to bring the fight to the guy we’re going against. That’s the biggest thing.”

Mid-Prairie will be joined today by Iowa City Regina, West Branch, West Liberty, Tipton, No. 3 in Class 1A Wilton, Durant, Anamosa, Monticello, Cascade, Camanche, Northeast Goose Lake, Maquoketa, Dyersville Beckman and Bellevue. There are 26 ranked wrestlers in today’s field. Action starts at 9a.m. Continues all day at West Liberty High School.