Wheeling's the big winner in gathering of MSL's best
The big boys of Mid-Suburban League wrestling met Thursday night in Mt. Prospect, and when it was over, Wheeling was looming largest with victories over both Barrington and Conant.
Wildcats coach Neal Weiner drew closer to 500 career victories after his team defeated Barrington (36-24) and Conant (28-25) at Jean Walker Fieldhouse to establish itself as the early favorite in the conference.
"It was a good night for us," said Weiner, who by the end of the weekend will join a select few in the state to reach the 500-win mark. Among the others is Libertyville coach Dale Eggert, who began this season with 532.
"I've been blessed to have the opportunity to coach at Wheeling, and like this season, to have such a great group of kids - because that's what it is all about, the kids," said Weiner, who starred at New Trier and later won gold medals in freestyle and competitions in 1981 and 1985, while placing second in the Greco-Roman events during those same years.
"After the way Wheeling wrestled tonight, I'd say they are the team to beat," said Prospect coach Tom Whalen, whose team went 0-2 on its home floor, falling to MSL West rivals Conant (38-25) and then Barrington (38-34). Against the Broncos, Prospect built a 22-11 advantage only to watch the reigning MSL champs erupt at the middle weights and turn the dual around in a hurry.
"Both of our matches were tight," said Barrington coach Dave Udchik. "We kind of dodged a bullet with Prospect when we went down, but the guys showed a lot more fight and urgency against (Prospect) than we did against Wheeling, who was clearly the best of the bunch of here tonight."
Against Prospect, Barrington earned all of its points via falls, technical falls and majors. At 145, Markus Hartman got it started with a major. That was followed by pins from Jake Cysewski (152), Luke Rasmussen (160) and Jake Meyer (170).
The Broncos could have used a little of that firepower in their opener against Wheeling, which methodically built an early 15-6 lead with pins from Scott Anderson (182) and Zach Yfantis (285).
"Obviously it's very early in the season, and there's a lot of work ahead of us," said Yfantis, a 30-match winner last season. "But beating Barrington tonight is big for all of us, and it's something we can build from as our coaching staff is trying to get us to be tougher, and to wrestle with more grit in every match."
As expected, with talent level for all four teams made for tightly contested action, with the Wheeling-Conant matchup perhaps the best of the bunch.
The Cougars opened a 9-0 lead before the Cats reeled off four consective victories from 285 to 120.
An exciting 10-9 decision by Tyler Futris (126) slowed the Wildcats and set up a wild back-and-forth ride, with each team grabbing bonus points to make it 25-19 in Wheeling's favor following a 3-1 OT victory at 152 by Dan Wozniak.
Andrew Lara's 6-5 thriller at 160 and Eric Hominac's hard fought 7-4 decision against Jaylen Shaw put Wheeling up 28-22 to ensure the final bout between Conant's Lee Fuller and Anderson would decide the outcome.
Anderson held off Fuller's pin attempt to give the Cats a 3-point victory.
Earlier, Conant broke open a tight match against Prospect by winning five of the last six bouts, four via pin (Tyler Futris, Nicky Amato, Filippo DeFrenza, Hominac).
"I think I could count on one hand how many times I've beaten Conant in my career, so I am very proud of the guys and their effort," said Weiner, who in his career has celebrated 16 individual state medals and has two state champions - Max Nowry along with current Wheeling assistant Luke Smith.
"We did very well in both duals, even in our loss to Wheeling," said Conant coach Chad Hay.
"This is real learning experience for us, and to wrestle the best of the best in the MSL this early gives us a chance to see where we're at, and what we need to improve on.
"Once we get our lineup sorted out and get everyone at the weight they belong at, then we'll get a better idea of where we stand. But as of tonight, Wheeling is a very impressive team."
"We lost a lot of guys from our team last year, including three state qualifiers, but I like the way we're competing right now, and how well our new guys to the lineup have gone out and fought hard here in the early going," said Hominac.
The Cougars host rival Schaumburg on Friday night, while Wheeling welcomes Buffalo Grove, and Prospect entertains Hersey. Barrington has Hoffman Estates at their place on Friday in an MSL West dual.