Prospect, Hersey in tune
Prospect and Hersey both tuned up for a key early season Mid-Suburban League divisional duals Friday by going 2-0 on Thursday.
The Knights and Huskies both earned win against Hoffman Estates and Fremd on the mats at Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.
The reigning MSL East champion Knights first handled the Hawks 66-3, then continued their evening with a 56-15 triumph against the Vikings.
“We were a little better tonight, but we’ve got to be even better for our opener in the East tonight,” said Prospect coach Tom Whalen, whose team was without Adam Wroblewski for this double-dual.
Wroblewski, a senior, had the best team finish last weekend at Barrington’s Moore-Prettyman meet with a fourth-place medal at 152 pounds.
“I thought we had a pretty good first day at Barrington, but were just awful in the morning session Saturday, so it was good to see us come out tonight with a little more urgency,” said Whalen.
Prospect took control against Hoffman Estates with six consecutive pins, beginning with Brian Magler at 160 and ending when heavyweight Alex Pack ended his bout at 3:56 to give Prospect a commanding 50-3 advantage.
“The overall results were not very good, but individually, we saw some positive things and a good effort all the way around, which is what we’re looking for early on,” said Hawks coach Tony Ganas, who was missing heavyweight Junior Castillo (he’ll miss 2-3 weeks with a broken hand). “With a young team like ours, it’s really all about having the guys buy into the system — which they have. Then, it’s learning as they go and getting a lot of reps until they are comfortable with what they’re doing. So far, we’re seeing that. And in time, we’ll see better results because of that effort.”
Mustafa Hashim earned the Hawks’ lone win against Prospect with a 9-4 decision at 132 in the opening bout. Against Hersey, a major decison (12-4) from Cliff Eiring at 138 pounds and a hard-fought 3-2 victory by 2013 sectional qualifier Robert Alvarado at 120 gave the Hawks their points in a 53-7 defeat against Hersey.
“I can still hardly recognize my roster this season,” joked Hersey coach Jim Wormsley, who is without more than half of his key wrestlers from last year, including state runner-up Hunter Rollins (now at Central Michigan). “This group is going to learn a lot on the fly, but we’ve seen good progress, and it’s a great bunch to be around — and one that gets a little better each time out.”
Hersey held off a late charge from the visiting Vikings to win 34-31 in their first dual of the night. In that matchup, the Huskies used victories from Grant Warner, Artum Myshlaev, Tom Somenek, Dino Simmons, Frank Sherman and Jorge Montesino to build what looked like an unsurmountable 28-3 lead. That was before Alex Jacobs (2-0 on the night) ended the Huskies’ run with a 10-0 major decision at 195 and inspired Fremd.
After Jacobs’ victory, Djameno Ntowe (220) and Pat McMahon (285) finished up with back-to-back decisions to draw the Vikings closer at 28-13. But a fall for Hersey’s Mitch MacTavish offset the same by Fremd’s Chad Mirabelli to help give the Huskies an edgy victory.
“We’ve got a way to go because of all of our inexperience, but we also have a very good group of young guys who have potential,” said Dan Ruettiger, one of head coach Ralph Cortez’s assistants, who praised the work of Jacobs as well as Grant Barwacz and Jake Ellin.
Whalen was happy with the efforts of Chris Rivera (120) and Sam Lobono (138). Both went 2-0 for the Knights.
“I know Chris wasn’t happy with how things went last weekend at Barrington, but he came back to pin his guy from Fremd as well as getting a major against a very good wrestler (Alvarado) from Hoffman,” said Whalen.
Prospect hosts Hersey on Friday at Mid-Suburban League divisional duals begin.