Huntley has big first day at Barrington
It was a very good day for Huntley's wrestling team Friday in Barrington.
After finishing far off the pace of Fox Valley Conference rival Jacobs at the Rockford East regional last weekend the Red Raiders produced a near-perfect effort on Friday to send four wrestlers into Saturday's semifinals where one more victory will send the quartet in search of travel plans to Champaign for the state tournament.
Zach Spencer (106 pounds), Josh Stenger (130) Ricky Vigil (132) and Brandon Meyer (152) boosted their hopes of a trip to the 3A state tournament when they turned up the heat on their respective opponents to advance, and stay alive in the front draw as the first day of competition came to an end.
"It was kind of a rough regional for us, but this is the one that is really important and it's so far, so good for us," said Red Raiders' head coach, BJ Bertelsman, who will also have heavyweight Dominick Swanson (21-6) still in the mix in the first round of wrestlebacks.
The freshman Spencer (35-8) got the Red Raiders' express in gear with a 12-4 major decision over Nick Elias (New Trier) setting up a rematch with No. 7 Dylan Utterback (39-5) of Deerfield, whom Spencer beat earlier, 9-7 in OT.
tender, who qualified into this sectional a year ago, was dominating during his pin at 1:59 of freshman Jarrit Shinhoster of Barrington, and now the No. 8 rated sophomore faces Patrick Ryan (26-10) of New Trier.
Vigil (29-3), the lone state qualifier for Huntley from 2014, was an easy winner in his quarterfinal needing just a little over three minutes to pin Nathan Reinsdorf (Stevenson) to set up what promises to be a marquee semifinal with FVC champ Garrett Dziedzic (27-9) of Crystal Lake South.
The Gators' senior, ranked 7th in the state, defeated the No. 12 rated Vigil (2-0) in the only meeting between the two 132-pounders this season.
"It was tough waiting around because of my first-round bye. To tell the truth, I'd rather wrestle that first match than sit around but it's all worth it, and now I get to face Garrett, and if I can get my takedowns, and stay strong on my feet, I believe I can beat him," said Vigil, who is a three-time sectional qualifier.
Dziedzic's teammate, Eric Barone (145, 37-1) looked sharp in his only bout of the day, and appears on course to face Fernie Silva (Hononegah, 17-2) in the finals for the second consecutive year, a match which would pit the No. 2 Silva versus the No. 3 Barone
Back to Meyer.
The Huntley senior got out of the gate a little slow in his opener with Mikalos Jackson (14-9) of Palatine, before dispatching the Pirates' senior 10-4. Next up for the four-year star was No. 12 Mike Kouvelis (Grant, 35-9) a 2014 state qualifier, and three-time sectional qualifier as well.
After a seesaw first period which ended even at 3 Kouvelis opened the second period with a one-point escape only to see Meyer go ahead for good with a takedown before extending his advantage to 6-4 (escape) and later adding on en route to a hard-fought 8-5 victory.
"It felt good to get this win," admitted an exhausted Meyer, who now faces CSL champ DJ Penick (33-2) from Highland Park.
"That first takedown really gave my confidence a big boost and after that, I felt like I was in control the rest of the way."
FVC and regional team champion Jacobs had a tough day in the Barrington field house after watching just Chris Dranka (41-5) go through at 132, where he will now face No. 3 Alec McKenna (New Trier, 38-1) in his semifinal.
Regional champ and three-time sectional qualifier Cody Ferencz (33-7) will have to climb back into contention in wrestlebacks, as will Beau Harrier (106, 30-8) among others, after the Golden Eagles' sophomore fell 6-0 to FVC champ Britches Sikula of McHenry in the quarters.
No. 2 rated Christian Brunner (Dundee-Crown) produced a workmanlike 8-0 major decision over Jordan McInerney (Libertyville, 18-11) to move on. Next up for the 2014 state runner-up is Fremd junior Alex Jacobs (31-3) the MSL champ.
Cary-Grove senior Michael Cullen (120, 34-1) was untouchable during his 2:31 on the mats Friday afternoon and now the Trojans' star will face three-time sectional qualifier Mitch MacTavish (32-10) from Hersey in his semifinal.
Trojans' big man Michael Gomez (29-3) wiped away the cobwebs collected from sitting four-plus hours to defeat Zach Nemec (27-8) of Fremd 8-0 in his only bout of the first day.
"It was terrible sitting around until almost 8:30 to finally wrestle. It gave me way too much time to think and I overthink everything, so it wasn't good to be warming up at 4:30 (when we started) then watching and waiting for the rest of the night," said Gomez, who takes on 2014 state qualifier Tyler Cooke (Hersey, 32-7) Saturday.
Teammates Dale Charlier (126, 24-16) and John Cullen (138, 26-9) are now in wrestlebacks, with the junior Cullen forced there after his valiant effort against No. 4 Andrew Mehrholz (Deerfield, 40-2) fell short (3-2) in his quarterfinal.