Wheeling scores second-place Erb finish
With Metea Valley holding a commanding 44-point lead heading into the final round, the closest battle was going to be for second place Saturday at the 51st Annual Rus Erb Wrestling Tournament.
The Mustangs rolled to the championship of the powerful 17-team tourney at Glenbrook South with 200.5 points. And Wheeling came through when the chips were down as the Wildcats overcame Oswego 141 to 138.5 to take home the runner-up trophy.
Carmel Catholic wound up placing sixth with 119 points as the Corsairs had a very strong showing with four wrestlers reaching the championship match.
Wheeling's upper weights really helped get the job done as sophomore Zach Yfantis (5-1) recorded a pin in 3:11 over Glenbrook South's Shawki Rayyan to capture the 220-pound title.
At 285, Wheeling senior Juan Hernandez (20-3) had to settle for second place as Batavia's Mitch Krusz held on for a 1-0 decision in a real defensive battle.
"I'm very happy, and I've had good coaching and good position," said Yfantis following the big meet. "I definitely want to qualify for state, that is probably my number one goal, and I just want to do the best I can throughout the season."
Saturday's semifinals were not kind to previously undefeated Wheeling junior standout Tulga Zuunbayan (22-1) as he dropped a heartbreaking 13-11 overtime decision to Evanston 152-pounder Malik Pratt to knock Zuunbayan out of title contention in the tourney.
The Wildcats did get third-place finishes from 145-pound sophomore Jalen Shaw, and 106-pound freshman Mason Skloot, who posted a 7-1 decision over Buffalo Grove junior Jake Greenberg.
Wheeling also got a fourth from Alex Rybak at 182, a fifth from Andrew Lara at 160, and a sixth from Brian Madrigal at 113.
"I thought some kids did really well and I can not say enough good things about Zach Yfantis to win this tournament after not wrestling much this season," said Wheeling coach Neal Weiner, whose team trailed Oswego by 1.5 points heading into the final round. "Shaw had a breakout weekend and he did some really good things that he hasn't done all season."
Carmel's strong performance was led by 160-pound junior Nathaniel Morris (13-1), who posted an 11-6 decision over Wauconda's Steve Ciolek (18-4) for the crown. Morris has high hopes going forward this season.
"I didn't know what was going to happen coming into this tournament with so many teams in divisions (Class 3A) that are higher than us," said Morris. "I want to at least place at state if not win it, and winning state has been my goal since eighth grade when I started."
The Corsairs got second-place finishes from junior Kenny Barber at 132, sophomore Bobby Pryhocki at 138, and senior Anthony Swindell at 145. Swindell was the closest of that trio to getting a title as he dropped a 6-3 decision to Metea Valley's Kenan Carter in the finals.
"All of our guys are looking better and we've got about a month left until things get real, this is just practice," said Carmel Catholic coach Bob Kuykendall. "It's been a long time since we've had that many guys in the finals in this tournament and Bobby Pryhocki was a great surprise this weekend because he's only a sophomore."
"Morris was a frosh-soph state champ last year and he knows what it takes to win the big match," added Kuykendall.
The Corsairs also got a third from senior Brodie Palm at 126, and a fifth from junior Mike Tortorice at 120.
Besides Greenberg's fourth, Buffalo Grove's young squad was led by junior Jonathan Toriumi, who posted a 5-1 decision over Oswego's Willie Rodriguez for fifth place at 145.
The Bison also got sixth-place finishes from sophomore Sammy Haro (195), and junior Thomas Gillespie (220), who is a first-year wrestler.
"We're happy with how our guys did because we're still kind of a young team that is still growing," said Buffalo Grove coach Jeff Vlk. "He (Toriumi) took last year off because of a torn ACL and now he's really finding his rhythm and doing a great job."
Wauconda's depleted lineup really struggled this weekend with only Ciolek qualifying for the final round. But the Bulldogs are hoping to bounce back strongly in the new year.
"He (Ciolek) is probably a little unhappy with himself that he didn't win, but we're still in December and what really counts is what you do in February," said Wauconda assistant coach Bob Kenison. "We had a bunch of kids that wrestled well, but the competition was pretty tough and we fell short of our goals a little bit."
No. 1-ranked Class 2A star Jose Champagne (12-0) of Marian Catholic was named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament after rolling to the 152-pound title with a technical fall over Pratt.