St. Charles East defends UEC title
St. Charles East captured the ultimate consolation prize at the Upstate Eight Conference wrestling tournament at Geneva on Saturday afternoon.
Batavia ended the Saints' two-year River Division championship run during the regular season, but St. Charles East had seven top-three finishes - including a pair of champions - to defend its tournament title with 218.5 points.
Metea Valley, which tied West Aurora for most titlists with three, was runner-up with 202 points.
Glenbard East had a pair of champions to edge West Aurora for third place; Batavia, Waubonsie Valley, Geneva and St. Charles North had one champion each.
"(The Batavia loss) still stings, I'm not going to lie," St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said. "Coming into the tournament, I kept reminding (my athletes) that we lost the dual-team conference championship. All it did was kind of light a fire under us."
Keone Derain and Ramon Lopez defended their championships from a year ago at 152 and 170 pounds for the Saints.
"I knew I was going to win that match," Derain said after securing a reversal in overtime to turn back West Aurora senior Alex Gonzalez. "Once it went into overtime, it was a matter of I was going to get one (point) or he was going to get one. I'm exhausted right now."
Lopez, who missed much of the regular season with a football injury, denied Metea Valley senior Sam Elston at 170 pounds.
Joey Ruffino (106 pounds), Anthony Rubino (120) and Will Leite (220) dropped their championship finals for St. Charles East.
West Aurora senior Chachi Jacquez was named the tournament MVP as the 120-pounder was dominant in his 14-3 major-decision victory over Rubino.
The Blackhawks' leader has the possibility of eclipsing the magical 50-win barrier with an extended postseason run.
"I was just working my pace," said Jacquez, who improved to 41-2 on the year. "A lot of kids can't keep up with it. I was working my stuff. (Rubino) wasn't able to score much."
Isaac Jacquez is 38-2 for West Aurora after the sophomore outdueled fellow ranked competitor Axl Ariza of Metea Valley with a 4-2 win at 113 pounds.
Erik Olson claimed the Blackhawks' third title by besting the field at 138 pounds.
The junior turned back St. Charles North junior Steve Collins for the title.
Dylan Uzumecki was the class of the field at 220 pounds as the Batavia senior had all the offensive points in his championship match against the Saints' Leite.
"I had high expectations coming into the tournament," Uzumecki said. "I definitely wasn't going to be happy if I didn't take first."
Colin Parsons' 30th win of the season was worth the 132-pound conference championship.
"I had to work as hard and as fast as I could," the Geneva senior said of his 14-5 victory over Glenbard East junior Scott Szabo.
In the second championship match involving St. Charles North and West Aurora, the North Stars' Chad Reynolds literally clung onto the Blackhawks' Rashann Ford for a 4-3 win at 160 pounds.
"All of my matches were really close," Reynolds said. "I knew (Ford) would try to throw me. I just tried not to get taken down."
Metea Valley can win its first divisional championship in program history with a weather-delayed win over Bartlett this week.
But the Mustangs had six wrestlers place in the top three at the 16-team individual tournament.
Jake Toepfler had the lone fall of the championship round to earn the Mustangs' first title at 126 pounds.
"He (Glenbard East junior Nolan Vincent) was ranked higher than me," Toepfler said. "It felt great (to get the fall). I was the third seed."
The other two Metea Valley victories came by identical scores of 3-2 by Kenan Carter and Dylan Ervin at 145 and 182 pounds.
"After the season (last year) I never stopped wrestling," said Ervin, who denied South Elgin junior Zach Crosby. "Everybody (associated with the program) has helped me out a lot. I feel very grateful."
Max Ihry had a conclusion to his conference season that he will not soon forget.
East Aurora senior and top-seeded 195-pounder Tim Young was the sole athlete in the field to enter the tournament undefeated.
But the Warriors' junior had his third takedown with 16 seconds remaining in the final period to secure a 7-3 victory.
Young had his 26-match winning streak halted; Ihry improved to 32-5 on the year.
"Knowing where my feet were (was critical)," Ihry said. "It's the best moment I have had this wrestling season. It felt great."
West Chicago finished in 10th place, and Neuqua Valley settled for 12th.
Manny and John Garcia won third-place matches for West Chicago at 113 and 220 pounds; D. J. Warkthein duplicated the result at 195 pounds to lead Neuqua Valley.
South Elgin had five wrestlers in the top four to place seventh overall.
Crosby was the lone Storm athlete to make the championship match at 182 pounds.
The Storm leader is 26-11 on the season after falling by a mere point in the finals.
"I didn't attack like I should have," Crosby said. "I need to work harder in the practice room."
Josh Menendez was the sole South Elgin major-consolation winner as the 138-pounder improved to 24-15 with his 9-3 third-place win over Metea Valley junior David Veitch.
"I feel good (about my finish) overall," Menendez said. "One of my matches I didn't wrestle my match (a 2-1 loss to Collins). We're off-season partners. I was hesitant against (Collins) and I shouldn't have been."
Izzy Villarreal (106 pounds), Mike Perez (132) and heavyweight Matt Cravins all dropped third-place matches for South Elgin.
Bartlett and Larkin tied for the 13th place overall.
The Hawks' Dan Flores and Alex Montbriand led Bartlett with seventh-place finishes at 113 and 170 pounds.
Hugo Barraza, Leo Martinez and Zabdi Garcia all lost fifth-place matches for the Royals.
Sunny You had a shutout third-place win at 132 pounds to anchor Streamwood.
Elgin senior Matt Gedritis' fourth-place finish was the Maroons' best result of the weekend.
"I put a lot of work into it," Gedritis said. "It's up to my coaches to get me to the level I need to get to for the regional."