Kaneland, Burlington C., Hampshire sending 14 to sectional

The Kaneland wrestling team may not be large in numbers, but it is definitely mighty in stature.

The Knights sent only eight wrestlers into Saturday's Sycamore Class 2A regional, but collected five individual championships and a second-place finish.

Rochelle filled 13 of the 14 weight classes and won the team championship with 151 points while Kaneland placed second with 132 points.

Hampshire and Burlington Central each walked away with three individual championships and placed fifth and sixth in the team standings with 87 and 86 points, respectively.

Kaneland's big five of Nathan Orosco (106 pounds), Austin Kedzie (120), Hayden Patterson (170), Riley Vanek (182) and Colin Gussman (220) all won title matches as expected.

"All five of them made it through and they did what they were supposed to do," Kaneland coach Joe Orosco said.

"We just want to get as many as we can to state and it's going to be awesome," said two-time state qualifier Vanek, as the six remaining Knights will compete in the Sterling sectional next Saturday.

Kedzie, last year's state runner-up, improved to 27-2 with a title match pin of Belvidere North's Chris Jarka at 1:00.

"I've been drilling on my feet this whole week, just working takedowns for the state series," Kedzie said. "It will be nice to have a first-round bye, so I'll be able to watch everyone wrestle and see who I have."

Patterson (29-9) secured an overtime takedown to even a season-long battle at 2-2 with Sycamore's Artimus Cunningham (11-6).

"We've had a couple of long matches in overtime and the decider is who has the most gas in the tank at the end," Patterson said. "I finished second in regionals last year so I definitely wanted to redeem myself from that."

Vanik (34-2) trailed 4-2 in his championship match with Rochelle's Alex Harvey (24-2), but delivered a reversal to even the match and an overtime takedown for the 6-4 win. Vanik has handed Harvey both of his defeats, the first coming in overtime of the Northern Illinois Big 12 title match.

"I just had to believe in myself. I knew I was down, but I feel like I can come back from anything," Vanik said. "Once I got his leg shelved, I knew I could get the takedown. "

"It's good for Hayden and Austin to get wins in those matches because those are kids they'll both see in the next couple of weeks," Joe Orosco said.

Nathan Orosco (26-13) earned a 10-2 major decision over Sycamore's Trevor Boryla while Gussman took a 7-3 decision over Belvidere's Deon Roby. Trevor Jones placed second for Kaneland at 160 while Jacob Urban finished fourth at 195.

At 126, Burlington Central's Austin Macias (30-1) pinned Rochelle's Justin Hernandez at 2:55 of the title match as he continues his quest for the third consecutive state appearance.

"I was pretty excited to have this match because he actually beat the number one kid at my weight earlier this season," said Macias, who placed third in state last year. "Next week is definitely going to be tough but I know I have to wrestle smart and wrestle my game."

Rockets sophomore Nick Termini (36-1) faced a tough test in Rochelle's Eddie Villalobos in the 132 championship, but hung on to capture a hard-fought 5-3 decision.

"I wrestled him in the regional semifinal last year and I beat him 3-2. His style is tough and it was a tough match. I tried to keep him away as much as I could," Termini said.

Erik Hansen (26-10) continued his late-season surge and became the third Central champion with a 5-2 decision over Rochelle's Bazil Bennet.

Sean McMillan advanced with a second place showing at 152 while Jacob Jabavich fell just short, dropping a 4-2 overtime decision for fourth place.

"I can't complain. Three champions and we haven't had that in a while at Central," said Rockets coach Vince Govea. "We're looking forward to next week and trying to get people down to state. We feed into one of the toughest sectionals in the state so we'll see what happens."

Hampshire's Casey Allen (33-8) handled Belvidere North's Kent Myerson 6-0 at 145 in his bid for a return trip to state.

"I tried to overpower him and be smart about the match and not try anything big," Allen said. "I've wrestled a couple of the guys at the sectional before in pretty even matches so I have to wrestle my best and see what happens."

Whip-Purs senior Max McGowen (32-5) recorded a fall over Kaneland's Jones for the title at 160 and Pawel Barnas (23-9) closed the meet with an impressive pin of Rochelle's Nick Henson at 2:28.

"Hard work pays off, especially in the fashion I won," Barnas said. "That's a position when I was 285 pounds I wouldn't have been able to get out of. I cut 40 pounds and now I'm able to get out of that to win."

"Overall it's a good day," said Hampshire coach Brian lossi. "I think all three of our winners are in the top echelon and should be pushing for a place downstate."

At 138, Mark Brown (19-24) joined the Hampshire sectional qualifiers with a gritty 8-7 decision over Sycamore's Bradford Edwards.

"Mark's had a lot of late wins like that lately and I can't say enough good things about how he's wrestled the last couple of weeks," lossi said.