St. Charles East dominates at Sycamore
The St. Charles East wrestling team had a simple mission Saturday in Sycamore.
"I didn't know a whole about these teams," St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said after the Saints delivered three convincing victories at the Sycamore Quadrangular. "We don't see them very often. Today the focus was individually."
The Saints captured 25 of the 28 matches with Cary-Grove and Sycamore in improving to 8-1 on the season with one-sided wins of 67-10 over the Trojans and 68-5 over the host Spartans.
St. Charles East defeated Antioch 46-18 in its middle match.
The Saints' lower weights were particularly dominant as Peyton Schroeder, Joe Ruffino, Ben Anderson, Justin Benjamin and Lucson Schneider were all undefeated between 106 and 132 pounds.
"I feel like I did really well," said Ruffino, the top-ranked 106-pounder in Class 3A, according to the authoritative website illinoismatmen.com. "I came out strong and got some shots in."
The Saints' returning state qualifier has won nine of his season-opening 12 wins at 113 pounds.
The Saints' Niko Derain is another aspiring state qualifier.
The junior had a pair of falls and a major decision for St. Charles East at 145 pounds.
"I just wanted to win and give us extra points for the team," Derain said of his 7 bonus points. "I tried to wrestle smart and not do anything stupid."
In the Saints' thrashing of Sycamore, Carter Meggio, Max Hatch and Kevin Weaver had falls in three out of four matches between 160 and 195 pounds.
The lone victory for Sycamore was secured by 220-pounder Joey Beaudoin with a technical fall.
"We knew (Antioch and Sycamore) had quite a few individuals who ranked highly in (Class) 2A," Potter said. "It gave us an opportunity to compete with people who are up there high (in the rankings)."
Anderson, Benjamin, Schneider, Derain and 152-pounder Steve Dziadosz all had truncated matches against Sycamore for St. Charles East.
The Saints had five falls against Antioch, headlined by Hatch, Cody Glidewell and Weaver in successive fashion between 170 and 195 pounds.
Cary-Grove dropped to 1-5 this season after losses to the Saints, Antioch and Sycamore.
The Trojans were at a major disadvantage by having to forfeit four weight classes.
"We have been trying to wrestle as best as we can for six minutes," C-G coach Will Petersen said. "We have a lot of injuries, a lot of guys who are trying to get back. Our older guys, they did what they needed to do."
The two bright spots for Cary-Grove were upperclassmen Cadin Koeppel and Hayden Hill.
Koeppel had nothing but falls for the Trojans in his three matches at 195 pounds.
"I just went out there with a game plan, knowing exactly what I wanted to do," Koeppel said. "I wanted to break (my opponents) down to get bonus points for us. I had two (falls) in the first period and one in the second."
Hill was unblemished at 152 pounds.
"It was overall a good day," the Trojans' senior said. "I had a nice break. I got a good sweat in. I wrestled first in the one match and then wrestled last."