Wayne, Lake Zurich max out at Palatine
Maxx Wayne's max effort yielded Lake Zurich wrestling history Saturday.
After pulling out an exciting 28-26 victory over visiting Lake Forest on Friday night in North Suburban Conference action, Lake Zurich put the finishing touches on a 4-0 weekend at the six-team Palatine megadual meet.
Starting at 145 pounds, the Bears (12-6) opened their busy day with an impressive 52-18 nonconference victory over West Chicago, before they added a 47-27 win over St. Charles North in the second round.
To cap off its day, Lake Zurich built a 31-15 lead over Grayslake North (11-13) after nine matches and rolled to a 51-21 triumph. Grayslake North went 2-1, capturing a 35-25 win over Carmel Catholic and topping West Chicago 33-27.
The host Pirates opened with a 39-24 loss to St. Charles North, before toppling Carmel 39-36 in a meet that had only one actual bout contested out of the 14 weight classes due to forfeits.
Carmel finished the day with a 33-30 victory over St. Charles North to salvage a 1-2 record. Palatine (3-8) dropped a 43-15 decision to West Chicago in the final round.
Lake Zurich got 3-0 performances from twins Jason and Justin Wollard at 106, Nick Swanson at 138, Pete Baldaccini at 170, Kyle Fleming at 182, Billy Busse at 195 and Eric Brown at 285. Key junior Josh Dyer is out of the Lake Zurich lineup due to a concussion, while sophomore teammate Joey Stutzman has missed the entire season due to a football-related injury.
Ian McGee (120) went 2-0 for the Bears, while sophomore Ben Baca (126) won his only match.
Then there was Wayne, Lake Zurich's 120-pound junior. He set a single-season school record with his 65th near fall.
"It's kind of cool because the guy who previously had the record (Brandon Arteaga) was a senior when I was a freshman and I really looked up to him," said Wayne, who is 24-9 this season. "It's going to be tough (to reach state), but I have to go all six minutes and always be pushing the pace."
Grayslake North senior Jake Wright (26-5 at 145) continued to roll, as did Knights junior Joe Arroyo (20-5 at 113). Alex Moran won three matches at 160 pounds.
"We had some holes in our lineup with injuries, but I thought we battled well and showed some of our depth in the duals," Grayslake North coach Collin McKillip said. "We wrestled well in the third period, which is something we've been talking about doing."
Despite a lack of depth, Carmel had some strong efforts. Undefeated and fourth-ranked Nathaniel Morris won three times at 160 pounds to improve to 33-0.
The Corsairs also got three wins each from No. 2-ranked 126-pounder Mike Tortorice (28-3) and freshman Riley Palm (25-3), who is ranked sixth at 106. Two-time state qualifier Kenny Barber (4-2) went 1-0 as he just returned from a football injury. Carmel freshman Tommy Hoy is 11-8 at 132, while 138-pound teammate Bobby Pryhocki (18-5) is due back soon from injury.
"I'm going to see the No. 1-ranked guy (Marian Catholic freshman Donnell Washington) at the conference meet in two weeks," said Tortorice, who placed third in the state as a junior. "All I have to do is keep my head on straight and mix up my shots."
If Carmel can get back most of its lineup before the Antioch regional, coach Bob Kuykendall is optimistic his squad could be a contender for the team title.
"We have some guys who are experiencing individual success and it's all geared toward getting ready for regionals," Kuykendall said. "If we can get our best wrestlers ready and get other weight classes to step up, we can do well in the regional. That's been our goal all year."
Palatine was led by Oscar Rodriguez (19-4 at 113) and Jon Alanis (15-6 at 220).
"A lot of teams didn't have a full lineup today, and we were using seven of our guys here,"Palatine coach Dan Collins said. "We're coming together. They just have to execute in real-match situations consistently."