Fremd pins down 3 wins

Ed Lee/elee@dailyherald.com

Schaumburg's Matt Felde has the upper hand against Pat Conrad of Niles West in the 140-pound match on Saturday at the invitational hosted by Fenton.

Four struggling wrestling teams got together on Saturday at Highland Park for an annual quad featuring Mid-Suburban League contestants Fremd and Elk Grove along with Lane Tech and the host Giants.

With each team coming into the action winless, something had to give before the team buses hit the road home.

Coach Ralph Cortez's Fremd Vikings went a perfect 3-0, defeating their opponents by a combined 163-52. The highlight was a 55-21 win in the Vikes' final dual with Lane Tech, which Fremd net a team-record 7 falls to go along with a pair of major decisions.

"It's a case of us slowly getting everyone back and into the lineup and putting all of the pieces together and where they belong," said Cortez, who welcomed Travis LaShiava (112) to the lineup but is still awaiting 2006 state qualifier Ben Perna sometime around the first of the year.

"It was good for the team (to ) have everyone win at least once today to boost morale and keep everyone focused on the positive, but everyone knows we've got a lot of work ahead of us coming up."

Bryan Opitz, a sectional qualifier last season, went cleanly through the competition at 215 pounds, gathering a trio of falls and doing so in just 3:44 minutes combined.

"I had a pretty good overall day," said Opitz, who'll likely occupy the 215-pound spot in the Vikings' lineup until the return of Perna sends him back to 189. "Last week was a great learning experience, wrestling up a class and going against Pat Walker of Glenbard East."

Walker, the No. 2-ranked wrestler at 215 and fifth-place finisher at state a year ago, defeated Opitz by technical fall.

"He took it to me," said Opitz, "but I got a lot out of that match and it will help me later when the postseason begins."

John LaPointe (285), Optiz's teammate along the defensive line in football, had the easiest day of all as the state qualifier accepted three forfeits to help add to the Vikings' point totals in the scorebook.

Brett Optiz was 3-0 with 3 falls at 160.

Eric Klen was involved in one of the best matches of the day in the Vikings' opener with MSL rival Elk Grove and its 135-pounder Mike Alcazar.

Klen attacked an unguarded right leg early to post a pair of takedowns and a 4-0 lead before Alcazar stormed back late in the second period to take the lead at 8-7.

Klen drew even at 9-9 before using the final 45 seconds of regulation to ride out his opponent before a takedown with 19 seconds left in the first OT provided the difference.

Alcazar went 2-0 in his next two matches, including a fall at 3:53 against Lane Tech's Raymond Baramda to help the Grens (1-5) to their first victory.

"It's good to win," said senior Robert Pechacek.

Pechacek, the Grens' lone sectional qualifier from last year and the defending 135 MSL and regional champ, looked to be in midseason form with his three major-decision victories, one at 145, and the other two at 140 pounds.

"To be (close) to qualifying for the state tournament makes it that much more important for me to get down there this year," said Pechacek, who honed his trade in the off-season with plenty of Greco-Roman wrestling.

Elk Grove senior Kamil Broda (130) felt his first match of the day (a 4-2 decision over Fremd's Richie Stanton) was his best, thought the fans' favorite might have been a 14-12 win over Justin Cobb of Lane Tech.

"I have a lot to prove this season to myself," said Broda, "and having the goal of getting downstate will only make me work harder."

Grens coach Peter Wang was proud of the way his team finished, even in defeat against Fremd, and he was also pleased with several terrific individual achievements.

"Even though we lost to Fremd, we won our last three matches to end the dual strong," said Wang. "And watching our 215-pounder (Rich Szfiarski) come back to finish with 2 pins and Mike (Alcazar) getting a pin at the buzzer after trailing twice in his match with Lane Tech, and Alejandro (Murillo) pinning his last 2 guys were real positives for us."

The shorthanded host Giants had little to cheer on this day. They were missing two-time state qualifier Danny Fisher and recent fourth-place Moore-Prettyman medalist Gus Green (140). Sophomore Joe Schwartz, a Moore-Prettyman champion at 112, finished 3-0.

At Fenton: Any day you spend becoming a four-time tournament champion and two-time winner of that tournament's Outstanding Wrestler Award is a good day.

"I love this tournament," said Wheaton North senior Nate Fitzenreider, after pulling off the above feat at Fenton's eight-team, 28th annual Steve Weiss Bison Invite.

Fitzenreider posted two pins and a title-match technical fall at 125 pounds to lead his squad to its fourth consecutive tournament title in Bensenville. Schaumburg's Evan Hafner battled well through two periods before Fitzenreider broke it open in the third.

"That kid is a goer, for six minutes," Schaumburg coach Matt Gruzska said of Fitzenreider. "He deserves the outstanding wrestler award."

Schaumburg got second-place finishes from Hafner (125 pounds) and P.J. Starnes (145), with Starnes battling to a 1-0 decision loss for the title against Illinois' third-place finisher at 145, Wheaton North's Eric Terrazas.

"P.J. is right there," Gruszka said. "I think his confidence is going to soar now."

"It lets me know that I can handle anybody in the state," Starnes said. "It just further cements it in my mind. I'll just go back to practice and work on the things I did wrong."

Starnes won a 3-2 decision over Milton's (Wis.) Shaun O'Neill in his semifinal match, and Hafner won a pair of decisions over Lake Park's Marco Sanchez and DeKalb's Jake Lemay in reaching the finals against Fitzenreider.

"It was great for Evan to experience that. That's why we come here to wrestle with a team like Wheaton North," Gruszka said. "Evan stayed with him for two periods, and he'll learn from that match."

The Falcons had six individual titlists and two runners-up in outpointing second-place DeKalb 172.5-117.5, with Milton, Wis., third, Lake Park fourth and host Fenton fifth.

Falcons champs included Jake Denhof (130), Ryan Early (140), Terrazas (145), Dominick Schmit (160) and Mark Hane (189), with Hane limping through his semifinal and finals match on one trick knee, which interrupted both matches as a trainer tended to it.

"Mark risks a little bit of injury with that knee, but he's willing to take that risk because he loves the sport," said Falcons coach Steve Holland. "He and (Schmit) did a real nice job today."

Lake Park had a trio of champs in Mike DeSario (112), Dan Kowalski (152) and Mike Dziedzic (215), with Dziedzic avenging last year's sectional loss to Fenton's Alex Mroz with a first-period pin for the title.

Fenton got a pair of titles from Kevin Larsen (119) and Josh Castellano (135) and seconds from Mroz and heavyweight Francisco Ochoa, as Fenton showed well with only eight wrestlers entered.

-- Gary Larsen