Prospect fights past Wheeling, regains East title
Over the past six years, it's been a fight to finish in Mid-Suburban East wresting between Prospect and Wheeling.
Last year, on its way to a league title and later a spot in the Elite Eight, Wheeling gave retiring head coach Neal Weiner one last top prize by winning the division crown.
On Friday night, Prospect wrestled back the big trophy with a thrilling 36-26 victory in Mt. Prospect as the Knights' top man, Ryan Vedner, closed out the visiting Wildcats with a match-ending pin inside Jean Walker Fieldhouse.
"What a way to end my senior year - getting the pin to win the dual, and a division title, and all on my final time wrestling here at Prospect," said the fifth-rated 170-pounder in the state, who with his pin at 1:53 pushed his overall record to 29-2 and sent the Knights to a 5-0-0 finish in the division.
"You know Wheeling came out and battled us hard right from the start, so it took a real team effort to come out of here with our hard-fought victory," said Knights coach Tom Whalen, whose club made it six titles in the last seven years.
"We treated this match like it was a dual-team state series, in that we won the close ones, stayed away from bonus-point losses, got a few bonus point wins for ourselves and went in with an attitude of wrestling for each other and team."
This contest began at 182 pounds, and after the Knights (17-6-0) conceded a 7-3 victory by Willy Giles, it was all Prospect for a while. The Knights ran off 24 unanswered points to take a 30-6 advantage after 126 pounds.
"You don't want to start chasing a big lead against a very good opponent," said Wheeling coach Charlie Curran. "We were able to get ourselves back into the match but never got over the hump when we failed to get bonus point wins where we thought we might, while giving up a couple of pins - which always comes back to bite you."
Joe Kaiser (195, 21-4), Marcos Santos (106) and Andrew Baysinger (126, 28-3) gave the Knights 18 big points with pins. Santos earned high praise from his coach, as did Jack Milos (28-3) with a gritty 2-1 victory.
"I know their 106-pounder (Eric Le) wasn't here tonight, but Marcos did a phenomenal job for us, as did our freshman (Milos), who stayed composed in a really tough match with Manny Ramirez (16-5) in the closing moments," said Whalen.
Baysingers' pin at 1:49 ended the Knights run before Brian Madrigal (132, 21-6), Johnny Quintero (138), Andy Madrigal (145) and John Paul Smith (152, 32-6) breathed life into the Wildcats valiant comeback.
Mason Skloot (18-4) pulled the visitors back within 30-26 with a fall at 4:39 in his 160-pound bout to set up a dramatic finish by Vedner. In his 29 victories, he's recorded 21 by either majors, tech-falls or falls.
The Knights will travel to Dundee-Crown on Saturday to take on Geneva, Lane Tech and the host Chargers, while Wheeling will be at Notre Dame.