Since 1962 · 20 WIAA State Titles
Wildcat wrestling in River Falls, Wisconsin ... Pre‑K through Grade 12.
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4K through 5th grade. One or two evenings a week, depending on grade.
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Biggest rack, smallest buck, biggest doe. Free to enter this season. One photo, all season long.
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Members run the fundraisers, the tournaments and the concession stand.
Join the clubSix decades of Wildcats, built by River Falls families ... and by wrestlers who came back to coach the program they grew up in. Today the program runs Pre-K through Grade 12.
Bill Wright puts a wrestling team on the mat at River Falls High School.
Four Wildcats win state in one season ... Kevin Black, Brady Cudd, Joe Cudd and Phil Meier ... and the team finishes runner-up at team state for the second year running. Nothing before or since has matched it.
Cam Loomis coaches the program he wrestled for, class of 2010. Before him, four-time state champion Kevin Black. Before them, Brady and Joe Cudd. Wildcats coaching Wildcats, again and again ... and the next name on this list is already in the room.
144 qualifiers and 78 placement medals
These individual champions have powered five WIAA Team State appearances. Dave Brandvold's teams alone took twelve conference championships.
The full honor rollJoin the team
42-2 Season record
38-1 Season record
45-0 Season record
39-1 Season record
38-0 Season record
38-0 Season record
38-1 Season record
39-0 Season record
37-1 Season record
38-1 Season record
39-0 Season record
36-2 Season record
38-0 Season record
36-0 Season record
31-2 Season record
31-2 Season record
29-0 Season record
32-0 Season record
27-5 Season record
13-2 Season record
The first NCAA and NCWWC titles by Wildcat graduates came a week apart in March 2025: Macey Kilty, then Mitchell Williamson.
NCAA Division I All-American
Wildcat class of ’68
River Falls High School class of 1968 and the 1966 conference champion, then a cadet at West Point, class of 1972, where he captained the Army team. The program's first NCAA Division I All-American, thirty-one years before Kevin Black. Son of UW-River Falls coach Byron James.
2x NAIA All-American
Wildcat class of ’71
River Falls High School class of 1971 and a state qualifier for the Wildcats that year, then a two-time NAIA All-American at UW-River Falls. The college and the high school are separate institutions that share a name.
Student Voice, UW-River Falls, 1975
National Champion
NCAA Division III
Head coach · 1990-2008
Won the 1985 final 7-3 at Augustana, coached by Byron James. Our coach, not our alum: He grew up in Spring Valley and won this title for UW-River Falls, the university across town, then led the Wildcats as head coach from 1990 to 2008 ... 205 dual wins. Counted here because the title is River Falls wrestling history; not counted as a Wildcat graduate.
Student Voice, UW-River Falls, 1985
2x NCAA Division III All-American
Wildcat class of ’97
Academic All-American ... not an athletic honor
River Falls High School class of 1997 and the WIAA state champion at 130 that year. He wrestled two seasons at the University of Wisconsin, earning two letters, then transferred to UW-La Crosse and went 57-9 over two years there. WIAC champion at 141 in 2001 and a first-team all-conference pick, 25-5 on the season, and the individual champion of the twenty-six-team Pete Willson Invitational at Wheaton with a 5-0 record.
UW-La Crosse wrestling media guide, 2001-02
NCAA Division I All-American
Wildcat class of ’99
Academic All-American ... not an athletic honor
UW Athletics
2x NCAA Division I All-American
Wildcat class of ’06
2011 · 2nd · Olympic Trials Qualifier · 96 kg
UW Athletics
National Champion
NCAA Division III
Wildcat class of ’18
Other national honors
Beat Carl DiGiorgio of Coast Guard 4-1 in the 2025 final; lost the 2026 final 4-1 to Josh Harkless of RIT. The NJCAA title is a separate governing body's championship, so it is listed under its own label and not counted in the NCAA lines above.
National Champion
NCWWC
Wildcat class of ’19
2023 · World silver · 65 kg
NCWWC is women's collegiate wrestling ... a national championship in its own right, and not one of the NCAA divisions counted above. River Falls High School class of 2019: raised in Stratford, she transferred here for her junior year to train under Kevin Black and graduated a Wildcat.
The Badger Classic here at RFHS and the folkstyle state series born in River Falls
Began at UW-Stout in 1985 and later moved to River Falls, where it was held at UW-River Falls before coming to the high school. Each December, up to 48 teams and up to 5,000 fans converge for two days of top-level competition ... staffed by booster club volunteers on the mats, at the door and in the concession stand.
In 1990, River Falls booster president Dave Black and four other clubs started the Wisconsin State Youth Wrestling Association and ran the first Wisconsin folkstyle state tournament. The association later merged into the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation. The tournament travels statewide now, but its roots here continue to shape young wrestlers across Wisconsin.
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