Springville, Iroquois Share ECIC III Wrestling League Crown

Feb 1, 20242 min read

Photo shared by Springville Griffins Varsity Wrestling on Facebook

With identical 5-1 records in ECIC III league matches this season, Iroquois and Springville will share the 2023-2024 division title. For the Chiefs, it is the program’s first league title in a full season since 2019-2020. For the Griffins, the share of the league crown is the first divisional championship for the program since the 1993-1994 season.

Springville (5-1 league, 10-3 overall) fell only to division rival Eden in a close 41-34 dual on Jan. 3rd but took down the Chiefs 46-28 on Jan. 24th.

"We’ve continually seen growth within our program year after year, both in numbers of wrestlers and in their abilities on the mat," said Springville-Griffith Institute head coach Mark Vogel. "We do our best to highlight the importance of that to our athletes all the time. Wrestling is the toughest sport there is – you can’t judge how well you’re doing simply on wins and losses. If the kids put purposeful work in, they’re going to see progress."

Springville head coach Mark Vogel // Photo courtesy of Jeff Pataky

"One of the things we’re most proud of is how each of our wrestlers cares about the greater good of the team," said Vogel. "While wrestling is an individual sport, the team component is equally important. Kids have been willing to bump up a weight class to fill in and battle for the team. Wrestle-offs for varsity spots have not created friction, but have seemed to make bring the team closer together.

In my opinion, we’ve gotten stronger as the year has gone on and that’s a testament to the hard work the student-athletes have been putting in."

Juniors Preston Bond and Adam Brown posted 6-0 records in ECIC III duals this season for Springville.

Springville's Bond // Patkay

Iroquois (5-1 league, 5-2 overall) fell only to Springville but secured a share of the league title with a home win against Maryvale in their regular season finale on Jan. 30th.

Junior Brady Wilkinson and sophomores Josh Pfeiffer and Alex Schiffhauer posted unbeaten records in all league duals this season for the Chiefs.

With a big group of modified wrestlers expected to join the varsity and junior varsity ranks in the coming seasons, and only losing two seniors this year, Iroquois expects to be in the league title race again in 2024-2025.