Dundee-Crown edges Geneva for 2nd at Newbill
Christian Brunner had a simple task.
If the Dundee-Crown sophomore captured the championship match at 182 pounds for the Chargers, the squad would ease past host Geneva for runner-up status at the Vikings’ 16-team wrestling invitational on Saturday afternoon.
Brunner more than answered the call, following a pair of technical falls to reach the finals against Geneva junior Mitch Bradberry.
The Chargers’ standout terminated the match in the second period with one of the oldest moves in the sport.
“The power-half (nelson) is my fall move,” Brunner said.
Twelve of the 16 teams had at least one champion as downstate Alton won the overall title with 152.5 points.
The Brunner pin enabled D-C, which had three runners-up, to ease past Geneva by 4.5 points for second place.
“I was getting shots and tilts, (scoring) back points,” Brunner said of his twin technical falls to reach the finals.
Diamond Flynn (106 pounds), Christian Johnson (220) and heavyweight Jeremy Marshall dropped championship matches for the Chargers.
“Overall, it was a decent day,” D-C coach Bob Skillman said. “We had a rough start. We figured we could have won four or five more matches (in the) early (rounds). Even if we wrestled our best, I don’t think we could have beaten Alton.”
Larkin 126-pounder Duke Bogicevic stormed to the title win back-to-back wins over defending state qualifiers.
The Royals’ senior turned back respective challenges from Alex Cowan (Fenton) and Sean Barelli (Rockford Boylan) in the final two rounds.
Bogicevic, who improved to 25-1 on the season with his second invitational championship, needed less than a minute in the finals to record a pin.
“I kind of go with the flow and see what happens,” Bogicevic said. “(Barelli) tried to muscle me, and it didn’t work.”
Larkin, with a skeleton lineup, finished in the 15th team slot.
Bradberry was the lone finalist for Geneva.
But the Vikings were able to accrue points on a regular basis through the consolation rounds: 11 athletes ultimately placed.
“We have a good, balanced lineup from 106 pounds through heavyweight,” Geneva coach Tom Chernich said. “As a tournament team, our Achilles’ heel is ... we don’t have the horses to (win individual titles). Our goal was to place in the top three, so we did that.”
Evan Baker (106 pounds, sixth place), Steven MacDonald (113, sixth), Ryan O’Brien (126, eighth), Colin Parsons (132, fourth), Mike Huck (145, sixth), Brock Perry (152, fourth), Austin Chaon (170, third), Nate Montgomery (195, fifth), Jake Anderson (220, third) and heavyweight Billy Douds (sixth) rounded out the Vikings’ place-winners.