Saints win 7th straight over N. Stars
The battle for wrestling supremacy in St. Charles was short on overall suspense but replete with intrigue on Wednesday night.
The annual pre-Thanksgiving dual meet between the two St. Charles programs was essentially decided during the lineups exchange when the North Stars failed to produce athletes in six weight classes.
But the eight contested matches at Wredling Middle School were hardly run-of-the-mill exercises in tactical one-upmanship.
Eighty-four is the maximum number of combined points possible in a wrestling dual meet, and St. Charles East handed its crosstown rivals their seventh consecutive loss in the series with a 63-19 Upstate Eight Conference victory.
With five falls in the matches, as well as a disqualification, the teams collectively fell 5 points short of the rarest of dual-meet distinctions.
"You have to look at the matches wrestled," said St. Charles East coach Steve Smerz. "I think the matches wrestled showed that it was early in the season."
After surrendering its opening forfeit at 135 pounds, the North Stars looked to Eric Justice, the first state qualifier in program history, to even the team score at 140.
The North Stars' senior was comfortably ahead of the Saints' Pat Matthews, only to see his season-opening match end with a disqualification on an illegal slam.
It was that kind of night for St. Charles North.
"I'm really speechless; I don't know what to say," said Justice. "I don't really disagree with anything the referees called."
The heart of the North Stars' lineup is at the middle weights, and seniors Dave Trizzino and Lin Stacey negated the Justice mishap with second-period falls to knot the score at 12-12.
The decisive North wins at 145 and 152 pounds, respectively, were short-lived, though, as East senior Kellan Sellers extended the pin streak to three at 160.
"I got the attitude that I wasn't going to settle for anything less than a pin," said Sellers. "You never want to lose to your rival school. You don't want to be the senior class that loses (the team streak against North)."
Billy Diamond and Adam Schaefer are stalwarts at the next two classes -- 171 and 189-- for the Saints, and the East mainstays terminated their matches in three collective periods to extend the unanswered run to 18 points.
The only regular decision of the night came next as East senior Steve Schenck scored a pair of third-period takedowns against the North Stars' Dan McSweeney to prevail 9-3.
St. Charles North forfeited five of the next six weight classes, leaving Dan Dunklau as the last bright spot for the squad.
The 119-pounder had the most lively match of the night against Nick Cramer; each wrestler was precariously close to being pinned, but Dunklau ultimately prevailed 17-6.
"We're not going to live or die by this," said first-year North coach Scott Trizzino. "We need to get into shape. We looked like we were out of shape."