Naperville Central hanging tough in DVC

There's no time to pause for the Naperville Central wrestling team after beating visiting Lake Park 65-12 during Thursday's senior night.

The Redhawks, whose only DuPage Valley Conference dual-meet defeat was to Glenbard North, travel Friday to Wheaton North to close our the regular season with both teams considered to be in the upper echelon of the conference and the league meet just a week away.

Naperville Central coach Noah Fitzenreider would like his team to earn as much DVC success as it can. But he said he stresses to his team to think beyond that.

"We don't look day to day. We look at the big picture. It would be nice to win conference. But our goal remains to get as many as we can to state," he said.

As for the battle with the Lancers, Lake Park's lineup continued to be affected by injuries and the team had to forfeit eight weight classes. Naperville Central won four of the six matches that took place.

The meet started at 138 pounds and Redhawks senior Steven Bumpus won by decision and was followed by victories from Jackson Punzel at 152 (decision), John Szczap at 170 (technical fall) and Shuji Mizoguchi at 113 (fall).

Fitzenreider singled out the seniors for praise especially Mizoguchi and Cam Hayes, who won by forfeit at 160.

"Shuji is steady, exactly what we want in a wrestler. He's the most consistent. He's a fun person to coach. He does everything you ask," the Redhawks coach said. "Cam is the definition of hard work and hasn't stopped working to go to state. It's amazing how much he has improved from freshman year."

Mizoguchi is an honorable mention selection in his weight class in the rankings of illinoismatmen.com. Hayes is ranked No. 11 at 160.

"The DVC is very good competition every week. It's very good for us. We've all had some tough matches and we dig ourselves out of the dumps. We're there as a team for each other," Hayes said.

Lake Park's lone non-forfeit win came from Anthony Gulyk at 195, where he won by fall in 3:20.

"He finally did what he was supposed to do without hesitation and it worked. That's very important at this time of the year. There was a difference in him from the first period to the second period," said Lancers coach Anthony Cirrincione.

Lake Park closes the regular season by hosting Neuqua Valley on Friday and then competing at the Downers Grove South Mega Duals on Saturday.