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Prospect falls, but program takes a step forward

BLOOMINGTON - Glenbard North ended Prospect's downstate run quickly on Saturday morning.

The powerful Panthers defeated the Knights 42-19 in Class 3A team wrestling quarterfinal action to conclude the season for Tom Whalen's club at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The Panthers (26-2-0) later fell in the semifinals to Sandburg (25-3-0), which earned a spot in the finals against Oak Park-River Forest.

"It's never the way you want your season to end, but credit (Glenbard North)," said Whalen. "They are a deep and talented team who won the matches they needed to, and the bonus points, to get themselves a well deserved victory to move on."

The Mid-Suburban East champions, making their first-ever state finals appearance after a thrilling 1-point sectional victory against Grant, started well enough. The Knights took three of the first four bouts against the Panthers, beginning with a hard-fought 5-3 decision from Bobby Jarosz (37-10) at 152 pounds and ending with back-to-back decisions from Matt and Adrian Wroblewski to give the Knights a 9-3 advantage.

"It was as a good a start as we could expect, but we hoped to get ourselves another win or two before the strength of their lineup came around, and you could see what happened when it did," said Whalen.

State runner-up Luke Greenberg (42-9, 195) got things rolling for the Panthers with a technical fall at 5:32 before Dillon Warnecke (29-14) outlasted James Ford 9-8 to put North ahead for good at 11-9. Ford roared back from a 5-0 first-period deficit.

"It was disappointing not to get a win for us, because before then we were right there with them," said Ford, a two-time individual state qualifier who finishes with 75 wins in the last two seasons. "But they just had a little too much at the lower end of their lineup for us to handle."

The Panthers excelled against the Knights (21-5-0) at the lower weights.

State medalist Kirk Johansen (52-3) began a pin frenzy for the Panthers at 106, followed up by state champion Austin Gomez (51-1). After Prospect's Alex Preissing (42-12) stopped the bleeding momentarily at 120, it was all North the rest of the way.

Michael Milan and Phillip Partipilo put another 16 points on the scoreboard with a pair of falls, and a major from Anthony Marre made it 42-13 before the Knights were given the last 6 points of the season with a forfeit at 145 pounds.

"Despite the loss, it's been a great season for the team and our program," said Ford. "Our goal from the last day of last season was to win our regional, and get downstate. We accomplished both, and I feel like the future of Prospect wrestling looks very bright."

Whalen will say goodbye to just a few from this year's team, including Chris Rivera and Adrian Wroblewski (39-7), both two-time regional champions. Also moving on are Alex Straczek and Dema Govalla, in addition to Ford.

"It's been a great bunch of guys to be around and involved with," said Whalen.

"You asked me the other day what was the turning point in our season, and I told you it was after our first lost to them early in the season. We didn't show any fight at all on that day, but we came back and won the rest of our duals following that loss.

"Today, although the final score wasn't a true indicator, there was a lot of fight and great heart in our effort from start to finish. We battled up and down our lineup against a very good team, and that's something they should be proud of because my staff and I are very proud of all of them."

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