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Grant earns Erb championship

Grant held a slim 211-205 lead over Notre Dame after the 138-pound weight class before gradually pulling away the remainder of the final round.

Carmel was the next highest finishing area team with a fifth-place score of 97 points followed by Buffalo Grove (89.5 points) in eighth, Wheeling (85 points) in ninth, and Wauconda (63.5) in 11th.

Grant’s road to the crown was led by 182-pound senior Tony Cashmore, who improved his perfect record to 14-0 with a 7-3 decision in the championship match.

The Bulldogs had five second-place finishers including Nick Koch (13-4) at 106, Gage Datlovsky at 113, Troy Parent (11-2) at 120, Jared Lalanda at 195, and Dan Haeffele at 285.

Grant also got third-place medals from Noah Drabek (126), Nick Fanella (145), Andrew Vroman (152), and Connor Haran (220). Mike Kouvelis added a fourth for the Bulldogs at 138.

“Tony (Cashmore) is looking good, we just have to keep it going and focus on the basics because there is still a long way to go,” said Geist, whose team led the two-day tourney basically the whole way. “I’m really happy with the way we wrestled, but it also shows some of the areas we still need to work on so it’s a good tournament for us.”

Carmel senior Jake Cochrane (15-0) remained undefeated lifetime against Haeffele with a 3-1 decision for the title.

The Corsairs got a third from Kenny Barber at 113, a fourth from Jimmy Dandino at 160, and fifths from Brodie Palm (106) and Joe Salvi (145).

“He (Cochrane) is wrestling well, he’s generating points on his feet, and he’s really starting to put together a good plan of attack,” said Carmel coach Bob Kuykendall. “To be in the top five here when you are missing four weight classes is really good for us.”

Cochrane took fourth in the state in Class 2A last year and he is yet to be taken down so far this season.

“I took third here last year and fourth the year before so it was nice to win this tournament,” said Cochrane. “My goal since freshman year is to win the state title, and conditioning and generating offense will be the key.”

Buffalo Grove senior Brian Egan certainly generated plenty of offense this weekend as he improved to 15-0 on the season with a 6-2 decision over previously undefeated Devin Tortorice (13-1) of Wauconda for first place.

“The last kid (Tortorice) was really tough so the gameplan was to go out there, wrestle smart, and stay conservative,” said Egan, who celebrated his 18th birthday Saturday. “I hope to stay undefeated obviously, but that’s a pretty high goal and we want to win the division over Wheeling.”

The Bison got a fifth from Rob Mowery at 113 along with sixths from Ricky Cortez (152), Jamie Coyoc (160), and Christian Durant (285).

“He (Egan) had a good outing today and I think he dominated the match (against Tortorice),” said Buffalo Grove coach Dave Durlacher. “We’re hanging in there, but we’ve got a few injuries so we’re looking forward to the second half of the season.”

Wheeling’s effort was led by third-place medals from freshman Tulga Zuunbayan (17-6) at 138 and senior James Cooke at 195.

The Wildcats also got a fourth from Jacob Deltoro at 106 and sixths from David Rodriguez (113), Johnny Carvijal (120), and Ricky Muro (132).

“To take third place in this tournament as a freshman is very good and he (Zuunbayan) has improved a lot from the beginning of the season,” said Wheeling coach Neal Weiner. “(Cooke) had a good tournament too, he’s finally at weight, his conditioning is better, and we have a good group of kids that work hard this year.”

Wauconda junior Nate Magiera (15-0) also remained undefeated by winning the 220-pound title with a 6-0 decision. Alex Schwickrath placed fifth for Wauconda at 170.

“Overall we got banged up and we would have liked to have more success and less injuries,” said Wauconda coach Tom Nance. “We think (Magiera) is wrestling with a broken nose right now which he got in his first match against the Grant kid (Haran).”

Sycamore’s Jake Davis (14-0) was named outstanding wrestler of the tourney.

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