Barrington shows too much starpower for DeKalb
The wrestling stars were out Thursday night, and when it was over, they were shining brightly on sixth-ranked Barrington.
The host Broncos defeated No. 9 DeKalb 31-20 in the regular-season dual finale for both highly regarded teams.
With lineups filled with state-ranked athletes, it figured nearly every bout would be close and hard-fought, with most ending with a 3-point decision.
Until the middle weights.
That's where the Broncos quartet of Luke Rasmussen, Rami Sakka, Markus Hartman and Jarrit Shinhoster helped take control of the dual. They generated 16 unanswered points, 11 of which came from a major by Sakka (145, 31-7) and a pin from Shinhoster (160, 22-1) as Barrington took the lead for good against the Barbs (19-7-0) and coach Sam Hiatt.
"This was a great dual, and one worth the long drive here," said Hiatt, whose team will be a co-favorite with Yorkville prevail in the Northern Illinois Big 12 tournament Saturday. "It's too bad we couldn't get a couple more bonus-points wins tonight, but it was a great test for us heading into our conference tournament.
"It was an interesting night when you consider two of the best in the state - our guy Fabian Lopez (32-1) and Hartman (32-0) - didn't pin their guys, while there were plenty of good-vs.-good wrestlers, instead of missing each other like you see at most of your duals."
The night opened with a "great vs great" as third-ranked Jake Meyer (32-1) of Barrington (24-3-0) faced No. 4 Blah Dahnweih (31-3) at 195 pounds.
The Barbs junior took the lead 60 seconds in with a takedown near the edge and eventually claimed a 10-4 victory. It's Meyer's first defeat of the season; the two likely will meet at sectionals in three weeks, perhaps in the final.
The Dahnweih triumph fueled a 14-0 run by DeKalb. But after a 6-point forfeit at 113 in Barrington's favor, Cael Dyer (120) and Sean Cleary (126) put together solid efforts with decisions to bring the Broncos closer at 14-12.
"We've been coming on strong of late with big wins over a couple of state powers, Lockport and Glenbard North, so the team right now had a lot of confidence heading into tonight and for the final month of the season," said Shinhoster.
Just before Luke Rasmussen's 6-0 win at 138, Kai Conway (23-10) kept Lopez, the state runner-up, from a pin or tech-fall. Conway, in fact, scored a takedown in the latter part of the third period to make the final 11-5.
Two bouts later, the No. 2-rated 152-pounder, Hartman, used a sweet reversal to go up 4-3 in the second period and looked to be on his way to a pin over Austin Johnson - yet could not get it as a near fall with 19 seconds left ended this one 9-3.
Shinhoster's pin just 31 seconds into his match pushed the Broncos' advantage to 28-17, meaning in order for the Barbs to win by 1 they'd need to close with two pins.
Jacobe Schmenbach (30-5) did prevail 5-2 over the Broncos' Daniel Rasmussen (28-6), but the outcome made it impossible for the visitors to overcome their hosts.
Conor Prettyman (13-9) put the finishing touches on the Broncos' victory with a last-second reversal at 182 pounds to defeat Logan Roach (26-9) by a 2-1 decision.
"Two years ago when a lot of us were sophomores, we all felt this could be the year we could something really good," said Sakka. "And so far we have, by beating several state-ranked teams, winning the MSL West and hopefully the conference tournament next weekend."