Wheeling, Conant fall in quarterfinals
BLOOMINGTON - The stay was much too short for both Wheeling and Conant on Saturday afternoon in the Class 3A dual-team wrestling state tournament.
The Mid-Suburban League wrestling kingpins saw their hopes of bringing state trophies home dashed when both were eliminated in the quarterfinals here at U.S. Cellular Coliseum, ending marvelous season for both clubs.
"It was a very good dual, and I thought we wrestled hard - but so did (Lincoln-Way West, 23-3-0) - and they proved to be a little better than we did today," said Wildcats coach Neil Weiner, who in his 30th season guided his club (24-5-0) to an MSL title, a regional title and the second dual-team state appearance in program history.
The Wildcats' 33-28 loss appeared to be headed for a much worse outcome after LWW opened a 15-0 lead after the first bouts.
But Tristan Guaman (32-10), who bumped up a weight to 152, was able to get his mates on the board with a 13-5 major decision.
Two matches later, Jaylen Shaw (33-6), wrestling for the final time, recorded a pin at 170 to make it 18-10 (in favor of Lincoln-Way West).
But that would be it until the Wildcats used a late surge to make a game of it.
"It wasn't good that we didn't get a good start, plus there were a few matches throughout that if we had competed better could have gone our way," said senior Zach Yfantis (42-10), who moved up one division to 285 to win a hard-fought 4-3 decision.
Wheeling won its next three bouts with Eric Le (29-16) getting it started at 106 with a 4-3 victory.
That was followed by a pin from Brian Madrigal (120, 35-14) and a forfeit from Mason Skloot to end the dual.
"It was great to see Jaylen go out with a win, especially because he couldn't wrestle the other night against Huntley because of a bad knee," Weiner said. "And even though (Andrew Lara, 25-17) lost his final match of his career, he wrestled really well."
The blueprint for success by Conant (17-5-0) didn't come together as coach Chad Hay had hoped as his club fell 45-12 Central Suburban League champ Deerfield.
"We knew ahead of time we needed a few things to go our way if we expected to be right there with them, Hay said. "But it didn't go well from the start, and we just ended chasing them the entire dual.
"Deerfield has a very good team. They're tough throughout their lineup and we struggled in some spots we couldn't afford to. And that usually spells trouble regardless of who you're competing against."
No. 8-ranked Deerfield (25-2-0) followed the same course as a few nights ago in its sectional with Barrington by opening up a sizable lead in the early going. It was fueled by state medalist Holden Heller (43-5), whose major decision victory to start this contest at 132 pounds led to a 13-0 advantage.
Sophomore Cormac Kane (160, 23-9), the hero on Tuesday in the Cougars state-qualifying win over Notre Dame, dominated his Warriors opponent on his way to pin to draw Conant a little closer at 13-6.
But Alex Burns doused the Cougars with a fall at 170 to cancel the same result Kane enjoyed. After senior Lee Fuller (182, 22-6) registered a 4-1 victory, that was it for Conant.
"Once we got behind, it was tough to get back into this one," said Fuller, one of seven seniors in the starting lineup on Saturday.
"I feel really bad for our seniors," said sophomore Nicky Amato (132, 26-11), who transferred into Conant from Montini Catholic. "But it's that same group of guys, plus our coaching staff that made my first year here really amazing, and I can't wait to start training for next year."