Willowbrook's Rowland, Glenbard North's Gomez win state titles
CHAMPAIGN - Matt Rowland made history in more ways than one Saturday night at the University of Illinois.
The North Carolina-bound senior from Willowbrook avenged a runner-up performance from last season with the fastest pin in Class 3A wrestling history.
The Warriors' 170-pounder needed only 22 seconds to vanquish Deerfield senior Sage Heller. Rowland broke the school record set by his older brother Dan with his 53rd victory of the year against a lone loss.
"To have that record is amazing," Rowland said. "I snapped his wrists into an inside cradle. He tried to roll through it and I put him in a half-(Nelson)."
The other remarkable performance of the night from a local athlete came in much different fashion. Glenbard North junior Austin Gomez was seeking a second straight state title after winning the 113-pound crown last year. But Gomez surrendered the first 5 points of his championship match against Oak Park's Anthony Madrigal.
The match changed in fundamental form with two seconds to go in the second period when Gomez had his second takedown to halve his 4-point deficit going into the final period.
In the fateful final two minutes Gomez recorded two more takedowns, including a final one with 46 seconds to go to earn the 7-6 victory.
Gomez handed Madrigal his only two losses on the season while improving to 43-1. Gomez became the sixth multiple state champion in Glenbard North history.
"If I wanted to stay in the match I had to get that takedown," Gomez said of his late-second period takedown. "The third period I knew I was in control. I looked up at him and he dropped his head. That's when I knew I broke him."
In his first foray at the Class 3A individual tournament, Montini freshman Joey Melendez was one of three finalists for the Broncos. Pitted against top-seeded Plainfield North senior Marcus Povlick, Melendez escaped with a 2-1 victory as his second-period takedown held.
"I came around to the double (leg takedown). I got the 2 points," Melendez said. "I knew at the end he was more tired than I was. This is a great feeling."
Unfortunately for the Broncos, Real Woods and Dylan Duncan had their championship aspirations unravel. Woods was undefeated this season at 113 pounds and ranked No. 2 in the nation. The defending Class 2A 106-pound champion had handed Sandburg senior Louis Hayes his only two losses on the season. But Hayes had a third-period reversal to win the match 2-1.
An almost identical scenario unfolded for Duncan at 132 pounds, but he needed to duplicate Hayes' achievement. Sandburg senior Rudy Yates was the only wrestler to defeat Duncan this season and the Northern Iowa-bound defending state champion and handed Duncan his third loss of the year while improving to 46-0.
"Louis Hayes wrestled a great match," Martinez said. "When you keep seeing the same person again and again, it's going to be tougher to beat him. We have to learn from it. That guy (Yates) is better than us at this point."
Matt Allen and Josh King typified the excellence of area heavyweights. Allen joined his older brothers Jack and Brian in winning a 285-pound state championship for the Red Devils. Allen, along with King, the defending Class 3A 225-pound champion, will be football teammates next fall at Michigan State. They are the only athletes to beat each other this season. While Allen was dispatching Lincoln-Way Central Bryan Ditchman 3-1, King became the first multiple state champion in Hinsdale South history when he claimed the heavyweight title in Class 2A with a 5-0 victory.
Metea Valley senior Dylan Ervin had his Cinderella season come to an abrupt close when Dundee-Crown senior Christian Brunner won his 50th match without a loss on a second-period fall.
The final area potential championship also ended in defeat when IC Catholic Prep sophomore Joe Bianchini dropped his Class 1A 106-pound final 7-4.