Wheeling tops Huntley; Barrington falls to Deerfield
ROCKFORD - Wheeling came up big when it had to, and nobody came up bigger than Tristin Guaman.
The Wildcats' senior, wrestling above his usual 145-pound weight class, defeated Huntley's David Ferrante, who finished fourth at last week's state individual championships at 152 pounds. Guaman's 8-0 win helped propel the Wildcats to a 40-27 win in the Class 3A dual team wrestling sectional at Rockford East Tuesday night.
"He beat a state place-winner, didn't go downstate, and he bumped up a weight class," said Wheeling coach Neal Weiner. "I give him 100 percent credit. Andrew Lara wrestled well, Zach (Yfantis) as usual. It was a good effort all the way around."
In the other match Tuesday in Rockford, Deerfield rolled out to a 37-3 lead over Barrington and held on for a 40-25 win. Wheeling and Deerfield advance to the state dual-team quarterfinals.
Huntley had momentum after winning 4 straight bouts to take a 22-17 lead. But the Wildcats responded with 5 straight wins to take an insurmountable 40-22 advantage.
Zach Yfantis (220), Eric Le (106), Manny Ramirez (113), Angel Villegas (145), Carlos Montiel (160), Andrew Lara (170), and Scott Anderson (182) were also winners for Wheeling.
Josh Stenger got Huntley's run started with a 14-3 major decision over Kenny Hernandez at 120 pounds. In a wild and entertaining match, the Raiders' Zach Spencer pinned Mason Skloot in the final minute. Spencer led 9-8 at the time.
One class later, Huntley's Joey Armijo scored a takedown with 3 seconds left in overtime to defeat Andy Madrigal, 6-4. That win put the Raiders on top, 19-17, in the team score, and they added to the lead when Luke Loprieno edged Wheeling's J.P. Smith, 4-2.
"Coming off a tough loss at state, I really wanted to avenge that, and that's what I got to do here," said Stenger. "It was pretty exciting just to be here with our team. We know that we're progressing as we go and it's great just to get this far."
Loprieno's win was it, however, for the Raiders, until Justin Allen scored a technical fall in the evening's final match at 195 pounds.
The Raiders may have shown the effects of sending 5 wrestlers to the state individual meet last week.
"We tried wrestling tough and it didn't go right, but now we know what to do better for next year," said Huntley coach B.J. Bertelsman. "We had five guys at state, and we had other guys there to practice and watch. They had their whole team practicing all week. It showed that they had the practice all week and we were wrestling at state. Ferrante, he wrestled five matches this week. He's just beat up and tired this week. Don't blame him, don't blame anybody. Everybody wrestled tough."
In between, the Wildcats regained the lead and continued to add to it. Angel Villegas scored a fall at 2:46 to put Wheeling back on top to stay. Guaman followed with his win, Montiel scored a narrow win against Juan Quiroz, Lara recorded a fall and Anderson won on a technical fall.
Christian Benitez, with a pin at 285 pounds, also won for Huntley.
Barrington fell behind 28-0 until Jarritt Shinhoster got the Broncos on the board with a 6-1 win at 132 pounds. Shinhoster beat Holden Heller in a battle of state placements. Holden edged out Shinhoster at state, finishing fourth to Shinhoster's fifth, but Shinhoster turned the tables Tuesday.
Marcus Hartman, another state qualifier for the Broncos, won a 9-0 decision at 152 pounds. Jake Cysewski, with a pin at 160, Jake Meyer, with a 34-second pin at 182, and Jesse Juarez, with a pin at 195 pounds, were also winners for the Broncos, but it was too little, too late, as the Broncos couldn't pull off the Mid-Suburban League sweep.