McDonald helps Kaneland salvage the day
Kaneland's Calvin McDonald had an inherent advantage in his 220-pound wrestling match with Riverside-Brookfield senior Greg Suarez Saturday morning in Maple Park.
"I wrestled heavyweight (for Marmion) last year," McDonald said.
The sweat and toil expended the last three years for the five-time defending Class 3A regional-champion Cadets paid off for McDonald as he sought to give host Kaneland a salvage of its first two team matches at the Knights' annual quadrangular.
Kaneland was trailing R-B 35-33 when McDonald took the mat for the final match of the event.
A simple decision would have sufficed for the Knights, but McDonald capped the Knights' 15-0 unanswered run to conclude the dual meet with a fall with 12 seconds remaining to ice the 39-35 victory.
"Basically I just went in for a double-leg (takedown)," said McDonald, who improved to 14-2 on the season. "I got into it. That was about it. I hugged his head (to secure the fall)."
R-B (9-6), which dropped matches to Upstate Eight River members St. Charles East and Geneva earlier, had taken a 35-24 lead after a Christian Vasquez technical fall at 145 pounds.
After a series of double forfeits - regrettably common on the day - Kaneland closed the gap to 35-30 with a Noah Butzman fall at 170.
Tim Rosko set the stage for McDonald by with a takedown-3-point near-fall sequence at the buzzer to earn a 9-2 win for the Knights at 182 pounds.
"Tim pulled out that decision and kind of sped up the process (for the comeback)," said Kaneland coach Joe Orosco, whose team improved to 4-8. "Calvin, we're just trying to get him to open up his offense more. We're trying to open up that more and get him to score in more opportunities."
Kaneland had five wrestlers make the Class 2A state cut last year with all but 120-pound returning all-stater Nathan Orosco returning.
Logan Piercy began the Knights' lone victory on the day with a fall at 126 pounds.
Geneva improved to 7-10 on the season with its respective 47-29 and 37-30 victories over Kaneland and R-B.
There were only four contested matches between former Western Sun Conference rivals Geneva and Kaneland.
The Vikings' Jace Black, Armando Martinez and Mike Donatelli combined for 8 bonus points with a pair of falls and a technical fall against the Knights at their respective weights of 126, 145 and 170 pounds.
Black, Donatelli and Max Maxwell (152) all had pins against R-B as well.
"Donatelli, he just pretty much takes everyone down and pins them," Geneva coach Tom Chernich said. "Jace, he is a pinner. He gets into scrambles and gets the job done."
Donatelli and Honor Nguyen are the Vikings' lone returning Class 3A sectional qualifiers.
Nguyen had a 7-0 victory against R-B junior Irvin Valdes.
Donatelli and Nguyen had but one loss apiece this season in combining for 33 wins.
Nathan Orosco had the Knights' lone contested victory against Geneva with a 19-4 technical fall.
"I have to stay positive and keep working on my shots," Nathan Orosco said. "I felt pretty good going into this year after what happened last year. I am trying to stay sharp on my shots and keep moving on offense."