Lisle third behind Lake Forest, Streamwood
Lisle 152-pounder Mark Pivek had his perfect wrestling season come to an end at Saturday's Steve Melichar Invitational, yet he's hopeful some good will come from the setback.
The Lions junior took a 19-0 mark into the finals after recording a pin in the semifinals but came up on the short end of a 9-3 score with Lake Forest's Marko Tupanjac in the title bout in Lisle. Pivek used an escape and a takedown in the second period to close to within 4-3, but the 18-8 Tupanjac was just too tough in the third period.
"My hat goes off to him, he's a great wrestler," Pivek said of Tupanjac, who was one of six Scouts to claim titles on Saturday as Lake Forest took the team championship with 222.50 points. "I feel the biggest thing is I gave up four quick points in the first period, and it's really tough to come back from that after that. The only thing I can do now is learn from this loss. I have to learn what I can do better and fix that from here."
Lions coach John Reuttiger had no beefs with the way his young squad grappled at the meet, especially since Lake Forest and meet runner-up Streamwood (147 points) are much larger schools than Lisle.
"You know when you wrestle from 1A to 3A there's a big difference," he said in defending Pivek's effort. "But he wrestled tough and that match can go either way if he gets a break."
As a team, Lisle placed fourth with Pivek and 132-pounder Drew Sonnefeldt each finishing second. Three Lions won third-place bouts.
"We're young. I mean we have 10 underclassmen wrestling for us," Reuttiger said. "We're trying to get the program back up, and that's what you want right now (tough competition). You want to get them in the grind matches, getting them prepared, getting them ready for the state wrestling."
Jack Pawlowicz had a solid day for the Lions, recording three pins, the final of which earned him third place at 182 after a tough 5-4 loss to eventual champ Devin Reich of Lake Forest in the semis.
"There was some really good competition out there, and it was still a successful weekend for me," said Pawlowicz, who qualified for state last year at 170.
For the Sabres, nine wrestlers competed at the Melichar meet and every one placed in the top four, including four champs. Sunny You was named the most outstanding wrestler at the meet after beating Sonnefeldt 11-5 in the 132 finals to improve to 21-0 on the year. Andres Luna kicked off Streamwood's big day with a title at 106, while Juan Ramirez at 120 and Jordan Ryan at 220 also earned top honors.
"I felt confident coming out because I haven't lost in a couple weeks," said Ryan, now 15-6 on the year after a pair of pins. "So I just came out and wrestled like I usually do. I just went out and relaxed and let them make mistakes and then I countered."
Westmont's lone crown came at heavyweight, where Anthony Griffiths edged Evergreen Park's Dan Kunes 3-2 with an escape point to open the third period.
"I knew I'd be facing the Evergreen Park kid in the finals," said Griffiths, now 16-4.
"I pinned him in the second period the first time we wrestled, so that (today) was a lot tougher match. This time he knew what I wanted to do and I knew it was going to be a tough match."
The Sentinels senior, who won one match downstate in 2015, is hoping to make some noise at state this year. "It'll be good to get a lot more challenging in the wrestling room and to be able to get down and do something at state. I want to get down and place this year. Or win it. That is the ultimate goal."