Maine West wrestles past Glenbrook North
Fresh off its strong tournament last weekend, Maine West's wrestling team put together another strong performance in Des Plaines on Thursday night.
The Warriors posted a 40-34 victory over Glenbrook North in a Central Suburban North dual meet.
Maine West (8-1-0, 2-1-0) twice shook off the stubborn Spartans (2-4-0, 1-2-0).
The second time sealed the deal when senior Jayton Hall recorded a pin at 145 pounds, which was followed by an impressive major decision victory from teammate Sean Muellner (10-1) to close out the visitors at 40-21.
"It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason we're doing so well this season," said Hall, now 9-0. "But there's no doubt the chemistry on the team is fantastic. And it's all about the team first, then individual success."
Warriors coach Chris Brassell agreed.
"This year everyone has bought into what we're doing," he said. "And the combination of great leadership, our coaching staff and everyone working hard for each other has allowed us to get out to the start we've had thus far."
The Warriors recorded plenty of firsts last weekend in the 40th Marchese Memorial at Hoffman Estates.
Among those were first-time tournament championships from Arsalan Afshar (132, 10-0) and Jacob Bellizzi (195, 10-0), which helped the club finish third overall behind tourney champ Naperville Central and runner-up Notre Dame.
Afshar and Bellizzi were at it again on this night - each unloading on their opponent with well-executed pins.
Afshar's triumph followed a pin from Ilia Tomov to give the hosts a 24-18 advantage.
Bellizzi came through in the second bout of the evening.
His six-pointer, combined with consecutive forfeits at 220 and 285, gave the Warriors a nice little cushion at 18-3 before the visitors got back even (18-18) with a forfeit at 106. That preceded a fall from Raphael Galvez (113) and a 2-0 decision by Max Sherman at 120.
"You can't call us inexperienced because we're a junior- and senior-dominated lineup," said Glenbrook North coach Jason Erwinski. "But the guys we have in there have little or no varsity experience, so we're kind of learning on the fly at times. But tonight might have been our best overall effort of the season."
Erwinski is a former state champion at Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago and he later starred at Northwestern.
Trailing 30-21, the visitors crept closer (31-20) with a 8-1 win by Ben Rubin at 138.
But Hall and Muellner quickly dashed the hopes of their conference rivals with two wonderfully executed displays.
"After having my season end at sectionals last year, and seeing what the competition is like at that level, I went out and worked very hard during the off-season to get improve all parts of my game so I can give myself the best chance of getting downstate and bringing home a medal," said Hall, who will attend Northern Illinois next fall and major in accounting.
Spartans captain Cam Casey, who was the 182-pound champ last weekend at the Mudge-McMorrow Invite at Prospect, opened the night for the visitors with a 7-2 victory before Bellizzi canceled his decision with a fall.
The Warriors will take a short drive on Saturday to the Niles West tournament, which has replaced the Lake Park Invite in this same time slot.
Notable first-time entrants at Niles West are Barrington, Conant and Jacobs.