THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Lovett's last dance ends with NCAA title, leading future stars in sport of wrestling

As the season drew to a close, former Post Falls High wrestling star Ridge Lovett just tried his best not to think about it.

Because, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter to the guy he was in the spotlight with.

Lovett’s dreams of a national title.

Nebraska wrestling’s best finish in school history.

They didn’t care.

But Lovett sure did.

LOVETT BEAT Virginia Tech’s Caleb Henson, the defending NCAA champion, 1-0 on March 22 to win the 149-pound NCAA title at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

“It was just one last chance,” Lovett recalled earlier this week. “I tried not to think about it, but going into the tournament, and that first match was scary when I got put on my back, it was a wakeup call that it was my last chance. I had to stick to the game plan and do what I’ve been doing and go bust these guys up.”

Henson was credited with a three-point takedown late in the second period, but it was reversed by video replay following a challenge by Nebraska coaches. Lovett scored an escape midway through the third period for the only point of the match.

Following his match, Lovett embraced his coaches, then found his parents, Lonnie and Tashawn, who were matside for the finals.

“They escorted them down matside for my match,” Lovett said. “I came out of my tunnel on the other side of the arena. When I was running up on stage, I could see them and I ran over to my coaches and said to my coaches ‘let’s go get this done.’”

Lovett added he received all kinds of messages of congratulations following the championship match.

“I had a couple hundred texts, a couple hundred SnapChats and probably 500 Instagram DMs,” Lovett said. “We had a pretty good number of my former club coaches and high school coaches out there. We had a good group out there.”

His message to his parents was all thanks.

“My cauliflower ear blew up during the match, so I got blood all over my mom’s face,” Lovett said. “That’s what she was mainly concerned about. I told them I loved them and thank you, because they put me around the right coaches and people to get me where I’m at. Taking me to tournaments, they sacrificed a lot to help me get where I’m at. It was just an 'I love you and thank you.'”

At Post Falls, Lovett, now 24, was a four-time state champion, finishing with a 168-0 record.

“It was always the goal,” Lovett said. “Wrestling is what I wanted to do, to be a four-time state champion, go undefeated. Be a four-time NCAA champion and go undefeated in college. Once you jump up to those levels, winning four is tough and staying undefeated is tough as well.”

Lovett lost 1-0 to Henson in the semifinals of the 2024 NCAAs, and finished sixth. He went 1-2 in his first trip to the NCAAs in 2021, and did not place. He was runner-up in 2022. He redshirted in 2022-23. His first season at Nebraska, 2019-20, the season was canceled before the NCAAs due to COVID-19.

Lovett became the first champion at Nebraska since 2011, when Jordan Burroughs won at 165 pounds. Moments later, Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor, one of three Cornhuskers in the finals, won at 157 pounds.

“On that Saturday, we went and weighed in at 8 a.m., and our finalists went back to the hotel,” Lovett said. “We ate breakfast and we chatted with my mom and sister (Dylan) a little bit. After that, I went back up to the room and was playing games on the iPad and Playstation and we were hanging out and chilling. Someone came to pick us up and were listening to Meek Mill and getting fired up heading back to the area.”

Lovett noted the team took a private plane home to the Nebraska campus in Lincoln, Neb., from Detroit following the tournament.

“Our athletic director flew out to watch us and we came back on a private jet,” Lovett said. “Me and Antrell, we were sitting there with our trophies and national championship jackets and taking pictures on the plane. We were just ecstatic.”

LOVETT WAS in Rathdrum as an instructor at a wrestling camp at Lakeland High on Wednesday, with 70 competitors signed up.

“I kept telling them if you stay the course, your coaches will give you outside perspectives,” Lovett said. “I told them I’ve wrestled a lot of the same tournaments you have, and you’re doing the same things I did. If you continue to stay the course, are around the right people, you can do exactly what I did.”

On May 17, Lovett competed in the World Team Trials in Louisville, finishing fourth in his weight.

“I didn’t wrestle really well when I was there,” Lovett said. “I was super sick, and cutting weight, while traveling and being sick was horrible. These dudes, nobody cares. If you had a bad match, or the mats are slippery, nobody cares. You’ve still got to get the job done.”

Will Edelblute, a 2018 Lakeland High grad, has been the coach at his alma mater for the past three seasons.

“It’s awesome,” Edelblute said. “Ridge and I wrestled each other a bunch of times in high school. For him to go from being a competitor to coaching the guys that I’m trying to bring up in our program, it’s awesome. He’s done a fantastic job with the kids that have been here, especially the little kids. It really means a lot that he’s given back to the sport that gave him so much.”

Lovett will now transition into coaching a club team in Lincoln in August, as well as running camps throughout the summer.

“I’m heading back to Lincoln to run a camp on Saturday (today), come back Tuesday for a wedding here and then going back to Lincoln because I’m moving out of my house,” Lovett said. “Then come back because I’m running a camp in Post Falls and Kettle Falls and helping Team Idaho in Fargo in a few weeks.”

He'll remain in Lincoln, where he'll continue to train with the Titan Mercury Wrestling Club for future national competitions.

After his NCAA title, Lovett still found some time to enjoy himself.

“I did a camp in Hawaii and made a little tradeoff where I did a couple of camps, but then stayed an extra three days because I wanted a little vacation,” Lovett said. “I flew my girlfriend out with me and we hung out for a few days and I was in Los Angeles for a few days, so it’s been cool.”

Lovett’s alma mater, Post Falls, won the state 6A wrestling title in Pocatello earlier this year.

“It’s awesome,” Lovett said. “Coeur d’Alene has won a few in the past few years, we’ve won one and Lakeland would have had a good shot without a few injuries that set them back a little bit. It’s just elevating and they’re going to do that together. It started in Post Falls, and if you have one elite program, all the other schools are going to start chipping away at it. And that’s what we want to grow together.”

“For a lot of us that went the college route, this sport means a lot to us,” Edelblute said. “We’ve got a love for it and trying to pass it along to the next generation, it means something to me and it does to him. It’s really important for those guys that have pursued it and made it such a big part of their lives.”

AT NEBRASKA, Lovett said that he learned a lot about the sport.

“I really learned how to be a professional,” Lovett said. “How to live the right way, weight cut and manage my diet and social media. I learned a lot more about being a professional in the sport.”

And in the changing landscape of college sports, where now athletes can be paid for their name, image and likeness, Lovett never wavered from his commitment to Nebraska.

“It crossed my mind because you hear all these numbers coming out, like this kid is getting $500 and this kid is getting $250,” Lovett said. “But we were building something at Nebraska and that, and the coaching staff and guys there, they believed in me and I believed in them. We developed a culture there that was bigger than the money. We just had our best finish in program history and had three in the finals, two champs. Eight All-Americans, nine to the blood round and it was worth it. I’m doing camps all summer, so I’m making my money.”

And making a difference for those kids, who are now hoping to be in his shoes.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.