Naperville Central picks up win over Naperville North

Junior and returning starter Jackson Punzel sees a great future for the Naperville Central wrestling team.

"We're pretty young, but we're getting some experience. I think we'll do a lot better at the end of the year," Punzel said. "We're kind of picking it up a little bit. We're always working to improve."

On Thursday, Punzel initiated an exciting peek at the past in the Redhawks' DuPage Valley Conference dual with rival Naperville North.

Punzel, sophomore Angelo Eklou and junior Ben Cianchetti pulled off consecutive pins in the last three contested matches to complete the Redhawks' 55-10 home victory.

The victories came at 182, 195 and 220 pounds, respectively.

Surprisingly, Punzel, current junior Cameron Palmer and Cianchetti pulled off consecutive pins at 170, 182 and 195 in last year's 46-21 dual victory at Naperville North.

"That was fun (tonight). We did a similar thing with North last year. It was kind of nice to repeat that a little bit," said Punzel, whose pin in 3:34 gives him roughly a dozen this season.

"I've bulked up a little bit in the off-season. I'd say I'm doing a lot better."

Also winning by pin for Naperville Central (3-2 in DVC) were sophomore Tyler Driessens at 106 in the opening match and senior Nick Keating at 152. Seniors Fabricio Navarro and Derek McDaniel and sophomores Ryan Chitwood and Matthew Kaszuba won by major decisions at 138, 160, 113 and 145, and sophomore Ryan Silva prevailed 3-2 at 132. Junior Carson Eipers won by forfeit at 285.

Cianchetti said he wasn't reminded of the streak before his pin in 1:10. Last year's pin came on a reversal when trailing in the second period.

"I just go in with an open mind, try to calm down," Cianchetti said.

"It's one of the biggest (duals) we have, even if we're supposed to outscore them. It's one of the biggest matches because it's cross-town. (Last year) was a big match for me. That was a lot of fun. I just built off the team."

For Naperville North (1-3 in DVC), senior standouts Gabe Matar won by major decision at 170 and Ben Kruk and Lucas Van Poucke won 6-4 and 6-3 at 120 and 126, respectively.

"Naperville Central is the tougher team. They're more aggressive. They showed it tonight," Naperville North coach Tom Champion said. "Give 100 percent credit to them."

Punzel (19-2) and Cianchetti (19-3) both competed in 2017 regionals last year but did not advance. Now they lead the seven Redhawks in Thursday's lineup with at least 15 victories, along with McDaniel (18-3), Keating (18-4), Driessens (16-5), Navarro (15-5) and Palmer (16-6).

Silva pulled out Thursday's match by riding the Huskies' Aaron Summers the entire third period. Out of the down position, Silva had a 3-point second period following a Summers takedown in the first.

"Each year you have your strong points and weak points. I don't really see a weak point this year," Cianchetti said. "We have a lot of (key underclassmen) this year. They're really good, though."

The Redhawks graduated both 2017 all-staters and their record isn't as good as last season because of a tougher schedule. Most recently, they were 3-3 in duals at the DeKalb Invite Dec. 29-30.

"What we're seeing now is some of the young guys actually step up," Naperville Central coach Noah Fitzenreider said. "We have half a team that's stud wrestlers. They wrestle year round. The other half is learning how to wrestle, learning how to win at varsity competition. You're starting to see that now."

After wins by Kruk (25-2) and Van Poucke (23-4), Matar (17-3) gave a gutsy performance in a 12-2 victory over Palmer.

Matar just returned to action Tuesday after a back injury that forced him to retire after a quarterfinal loss at the Niles West Invite Dec. 16 and then the stomach flu, forcing him to miss the DeKalb Invite. Matar avenged a 2017 regional loss to Palmer.

"The nice thing (tonight) was my back felt better because I wasn't wrestling," Matar said. "Then just getting back into conditioning, it was all right overall. I was just a little tired but I can get back into it."

Kruk held off a late attempt by junior Colin Baumgartner to tie after being neutral the last 29.7 seconds.