Prospect's memorable season ends in state quarterfinals

BLOOMINGTON - Lockport dealt a knockout blow to the state trophy hopes for Prospect's wrestling team on Saturday morning as the Porters registered a 32-24 victory in a dual-team state quarterfinal at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The 8-point loss ended Prospect' 17-match win streak, and a magnificent season which saw coach Tom Whalen's club start slow but finish fast.

The Knights won an exciting regional title at Lake Park and followed up with a sectional win over Notre Dame last Tuesday to send Prospect downstate for a second consecutive season.

"There's a lot of great things about this season, it's just that right now it's very difficult to talk about them after his disappointing loss," said Whalen, heartbroken following the loss. "We felt coming in that even though Lockport is a well coached team with several quality guys in their lineup, that this was a winnable match for us.

"But a few things didn't go the way we had hoped early on - forcing us to make up ground, which became nearly impossible after the middle of Lockport's lineup won 4-5 matches in a row to build a big lead."

Prospect senior Bobby Jarosz won the last match of his prep career at 160 pounds, a 5-0 victory to give the 2016 state qualifier a record of 30-13.

"Yes, we thought we could win this one and advance," Jarosz admitted. "But when you start out behind - and we give up bonus points, which is something we rarely do - your chances to win are much more difficult."

Lucas Reinhardt (220 pounds, 20-15), one of several varsity newcomers to make a big splash for the Knights (20-7-0) this season, opened the contest with a 4-2 victory,

But things went quickly south for Whalen's men.

Lockport (23-4) got a pin from its big man Ronald Tucker (44-6) just before the final whistle.

Then Matt Ramos and Anthony Molton followed with a decision and a major to bump the Porters' cushion to 13-6.

After Anthony Silva (120) stopped the bleeding with a 4-3 win over Garrett Golub, the Porters turned things over to four of their five state qualifiers.

It began with Brandon Ramos at 126, who along with Abdullah Assaf, Shayne Oster and Trevell Timmons, blew open the tight match by scoring the next 19 points before Jarosz ended the streak.

Oster, who won 2015 and 2016 state titles, finished second at 145 to Austin O'Connor of St. Rita.

Oster moved into second place in career wins at Lockport (154) following his pin at 1:50.

"We were beat by a better team today," said junior Matt Wroblewski, who with Jarosz, Joe Siracusa and Alex Koczwara finished the tournament with the last 18 points with a pair of pins and decisions.

Wroblewski's pin gave him 18 on the year, along with 43 wins overall.

"We're going to lose a lot of very good wrestlers from this team, but what a lot of people don't know is how good of a system that we have here at Prospect, and how dedicated our JV has been these past couple of years in order to continually send quality guys up to the varsity after our graduation losses," Wroblewski said.

"Matt is the reason that I became so much better from that first day I came into the room as a freshman - he deserves so much credit for that," Jarosz said. "And he's the reason this team has reached the level we're at right now."

Jarosz, a standout running back for the Knights' football team, is still in the process of sorting out his options for next fall - which will include a collegiate career in football.

"This has been quite a year because we have an exceptional bunch of student-athletes," Whalen said. "We have a guy like Alex (Preissing) who was a state qualifier last year, but went through a series of injuries this year. He still put it together in order to compete against Notre Dame, and here today."

"Then there's guys who were not even on the varsity last year who came out and won 25, 30, 35 matches for us. Jake Verschoor was a terrific linebacker in the fall who made his mark, plus Joe (Siracusa) who will likely need surgery after this weekend, who somehow was able to be in our lineup.

"That's how you get to the state tournament, with guys like that. And the hope is that the younger guys have seen this, and are ready to step in when their turn comes around next year."