Larkin upends Elgin
First-year wrestler Ian Keller may not be experienced, much like his teammates on Larkin's wrestling team, but the junior loves dealing with a little adversity during his matches.
Keller avoided a near-pin by Elgin's Faraz Akram in the second period, lost one of his shoes during the match and staved off an unsportsmanlike conduct and other penalties to earn a pin fall in the 171-pound weight class during the third period to help Larkin upset Elgin 39-37 in an Upstate Eight Conference dual meet at Larkin Wednesday night.
It was only the Royals' second win of the year and it came in the bitter Larkin-Elgin rivalry that always lives up to the hype no matter what sport it is.
“That really helped me,” Keller said of his miscues during the match. “When I have adversity or have to face adversity it really fuels my inhibitions to win and doing that really helps me try harder.
“If I go hard, I feel that it fuels (Larkin) to go hard too.”
Keller's teammates followed suit because he wasn't the only Royal to earn falls throughout the night.
In the 152-pound weight class, Larkin's Brett Barry started off down 2-0 but was able to come back aggressively to pin Elgin's Tyler Lake at 1:42 in the third period to increase his record to 11-3. Barry has been solid this year and is taking his matches one at a time but is eying a greater goal at the end of the year.
“My goal is to go downstate, and I think the way I've been going, I be able to do that,” Barry said.
Other falls by Larkin included Andy Koehnge (189) and Andy Laboy (215) which added to the win and should bring a smile to coach Andre Allen, who was missing from action do to family obligations. Filling in was assistant Lupe Coronado, who was very proud of the way Larkin attacked its opponent.
“That's the style coach Allen tried to incorporate. Like going after people, never say die, go hard, do what your taught,” Coronado said. “We're really proud because we were able to pull some freshmen up. That's what we call a whole program effort.”
While the infusion of youth is helping Larkin better itself, the two freshmen — Julyan Madison (112) and Tyler Vonesson (103) — weren't able to come up with victories as both were pinned — by Maroons Jeff Marrow at 112 and Nathan Anderson at 103.
Other than Anderson and Marrow, Tyler Eastor (140) controlled his match virtually from start to finish on the ground contorting and twisting Emilio Avelar to get the pin and Toby Schimel's (20-4) pin over Josh Devontate at heavyweight were the Maroons' (10-10) only bright spots.
“It's just disappointing,” said Elgin coach Justin Goebel, who mentioned one wrestler was out to an illness and another to finals. “Those two kids would have really helped us tonight. Jeff Morrow's been stepping up for us, he wrestled for us at 112 today, he's usually at 103. “
Elgin had to forfeit two matches, losing 12 points in the process.