Fremd's firepower too much for slow-starting Palatine
Host Fremd started fast and finished off cross-town rival Palatine early en route to a 44-27 victory in a Mid-Suburban League West Division wrestling dual Friday night.
The Vikings' trio of Grant Barwacz (132), Dom Lorig (138) and Trevor Kristo (145) showed the way by opening the proceedings with a pair of falls and a tech-fall (Kristo) to fuel a 17-0 advantage, and Dan Collins' Pirates suffered their third consecutive loss.
"We didn't have any fight in us at the start," Collins said. "In fact, I believe we gave up takedowns in four of our first five bouts, which led to pins - and that's not a good way to come out and wrestle.
"With that said, I thought we picked it up and wrestled hard down the stretch (but) it's too bad we didn't start like we finished."
Fremd's firepower helped Dan Ruettiger's Vikings (4-3-0, 3-0-0) extend their MSL winning streak to three straight, including double-digit victories Thursday over Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove in the season opener.
"We're still not at full strength, and we're slowly beginning to get the guys at their proper weights, but you can see the progress that everyone is making, and that's the most important thing early in the season," said Ruettiger, who is in his first year as head coach after taking over for Ralph Cortez - who retired in June.
After the Pirates' Mikalos Jackson (152) stopped the bleeding with a win by fall at 4:51, the Vikings engineered another big run beginning with Matt Kurtishi's pin at 160 pounds - followed by 3 pins in four bouts - to extend their lead to 44-9.
"The training sessions and time in the room are much more different this season, and coach (Ruettiger) has done a great job of getting us prepared while making us a tougher group than we were a year ago," said Alex Jacobs, who in his first full season with the Vikings last winter came close to advancing to the state tournament, then earned frosh / soph state title before turning his attention to freestyle and Greco competition.
"Alex is ready to make that big step this year, and along with Dom Lorig and Dom Gallo have taken on the leadership role in an impressive way, and it's shown in the way they have competed thus far as well," Ruettiger said.
Lorig and heavyweight Zach Nemec have recorded 3 straight pins the past two days of wrestling, while Jacobs (6-0) put another 2 wins by fall in the scorebook Thursday.
"Zach has made big strides from his freshmen season to this year as a sophomore, and if continues on this path there's a lot of terrific potential there for us to work with," Ruettiger said.
The Vikings host Lane Tech, Highland and Elk Grove today, while the Pirates travel to Fenton to compete in the 35th Weiss Invite.
"We got a real nice effort from Jason Lopez against their top guy (Alex Jacobs) and we hope that his work will spill over to the rest of the guys when we go to Fenton tomorrow morning," said Collins, whose Pirates won the final three matches by falls.