Big finish as Maine West tops Vernon Hills
Maine West's wrestling team started slowly but picked up a whole lot of speed once it got going to record a 54-18 victory over host Vernon Hills on Friday night in the Central Suburban North season finale for both teams.
After earning a 6-point forfeit to begin the night, the Warriors (9-8-0, 2-3-0) quickly found themselves chasing the the Cougars (12-14-0, 1-4-0) in their cozy wrestling gym as back-to-back pins from Jesse Goldufsky (113) and Blake Teschky (120) pushed the hosts ahead 12-6.
"Jesse has put together a nice little season for himself thus far, and the great thing about that is both he and Blake go hard each day as partners in the room," said Cougars coach Jerry Micelli. "We got off to a great start, but we lost a couple of close ones, plus we gave away 18 points to forfeits, so maybe we're a little closer to Maine West in the end."
After the Teschky win it was all Warriors. They reeled off six straight wins, in addition to a pair of forfeits, to vault the visitors into a commanding 45-12 advantage after 182 pounds.
"This was a feel-good kind of win for us tonight," said Maine West coach Chris Brassell, who will host Hersey, Fenwick and Loyola on Saturday in the Warriors' annual four-team event.
"There's been a lot of progress with this team since the start of the season," continued Brassell. "We're still a very young team. We have nine in our starting lineup who have not appeared in a regional. But the work rate in the room has been very good, and the desire to improve is something I've been very proud of."
Arsalan Afshar (16-8) got the ball rolling for the Warriors with his 12-1 major decision victory at 126 before teammate Steve Chrisovitsiotis' 3-2 ultimate tie-breaking win over Scott Harris put the Warriors in front for good at 13-12.
Jayton Hall (138, 19-7) and David Perez (160) sandwiched an Aydan Schweig (145) decision and a Joe Bux (152) pin with impressive performances to all but end Vernon Hills' hopes.
"We've had our struggles from time to time this year, but we're coming around as a team and the hope for us is to finish top five at the CSL tournament next week," said Hall, who, along with 170-pounder Jacob Bellizzi leads the club in victories. "I was at 120 last year, and added 18 pounds of muscle during the off-season, and I'm hoping it will pay off at conference for myself."
Later, the Cougars' lone senior, Collin Turley (220), won his 31st match of the season with a pin at 1:38 before Keon Boyd of Maine West put an exclamation point on the night for his team with a pin at 0:47.
"I didn't even win 20 last year, so to get to 30 at this point of the season is a nice accomplishment," said Turley. "We are so young - but I really believe the future is bright, and I'm glad to be a part of it all."