PC title shows progress Rockets have made

Burlington Central's success as a wrestling program can easily be quantified by its recent performance at the Prairie Central tournament.

The Rockets won the 14-team tournament this year after taking eighth 2 years ago and fourth last season. It was Central's first-ever title at Prairie Central.

"That's progress," said Central coach Tony Rigitano.

Shane Burke (112 pounds), Curt Mastio (140), Tim Maroder (152) and Taylor Schuck (160) all won individual titles. Schuck was named the upper-weights MVP.

Six other Central grapplers placed in the tournament. Kevin Marshall was second at 103, Drew Hallstead was fourth at 171. Zach Kein was fifth at 130, while Zach Schreiber (125), Demetrius Phillips (135) and Tim Vincent (215) all took sixth.

"As a program, the progress we've made is tremendous," said Rigitano. "We had four champions and five guys in the finals. We asked kids to score points and score pins."

Mastio's title upped his mark to an area-best 24-0 this season.

"Curt continues to roll," said Rigitano. "He's got a nice mid-season record. All of the guys are working hard."

Central heads to Kaneland Saturday and then will compete in the Big Northern Conference tournament in 2 weeks at Oregon. Central lost by a point recently to Oregon (30-29) and also dropped a dual to Stillman Valley.

South Elgin update: South Elgin has already obliterated the school record for wins in a season.

As a first-year varsity program last year, the Storm went 2-19. South Elgin was 11-19 overall to start the week and had three conference victories.

"We're getting there," said South Elgin coach Mark Cameron. "We're young. We still only have four seniors in the lineup. We've got two juniors and the rest of the 15 weight classes are all sophomores. We've got 6 dual meets left. If we can go .500, I'd be really happy. We've come a long way from being 2-19 last year."

Two of those seniors who have led the way are Nick Carlson and Nick Gillespie. Carlson was 24-8 at 135 to start the week, while Gillespie was 22-8 at 140.

Crystal Lake South update: The Gators had two place-finishers at the recent Sycamore tournament. J.D. Barchard (189) took sixth place, while Kean Loupee (140) took seventh place. South took 15th as a team.

"In our dual meets head-to-bead we match up with people well," said South coach Ross Ryan. "With the tournaments, we're still very young. But the kids are making the turn and showing we have potential in the future."

Huntley update: The Red Raiders recently went 3-0 in a quad at Marengo to improve to 9-6 in dual action. Huntley also took fourth at the Wauconda tournament.

At Wauconda, Tony Benning (189), Jordan Bakley (171) and Joel Mayhew (135) won individual titles.

"We would have liked to do a little bit better, but fourth was pretty good," said Huntley coach Kurt Rohlwing. "Overall, I'm pretty happy. Our underclass guys are wrestling well on the varsity level and our seniors have been good as well."

Rohlwing has especially been pleased with the development of sophomore Coty Claudio at 112.

"Coty continues to call out the tough matches," said Rohlwing. "He's really wrestling well."

Dundee-Crown update: The Chargers were 13-2 overall in duals and 4-1 in Fox Valley Conference action to start the week.

D-C, which has not fielded its top lineup yet this season, took 22nd at the prestigious Dvorak tournament over the holiday break. Mike Lukowski led the way for the Chargers with a fourth-place finish.

"We're beat up," said D-C coach Al Zinke. "We've got a couple of broken fingers and a bad shoulder and some illness. We've got people working through stuff. But I like the progress we made over the holidays."

Zinke lauded the recent efforts of Lukowski, Ryan Horcher, Chris Rust and Cody Muscat.

"Those guys have really turned it up," said Zinke.

Zinke is looking forward to D-C's five-team meet with Lane Tech, Oak Park-River Forest, Prospect and Wheaton North Saturday in Carpentersville.

"Mike Lukowski is going to face the No. 1 ranked 189-pounder in the state," said Zinke. "Mike's already wrestled the top 215-pounder. He's wrestled the best of them. Mike doesn't shy away from anybody."

St. Edward update: St. Edward ended a long layoff with a quad against Elgin, Larkin and West Chicago and the Geneva tournament.

"We won some matches. The kids did pretty well," said St. Edward coach Shane Kottkamp. "Those were our first matches since December 19. We were able to see a lot of double-A teams at Geneva. There were 18 teams there and we were 14th. That was better than we did last year. Will Lytle made it to the finals. We had eight kids there and five of them won matches. It was an improvement against good competition."

Sophomore heavyweight Shane Finnane lost his first match at Geneva and then won his final three.

"He's a first-year wrestler up to the varsity and he's doing pretty well," said Kottkamp.

Elgin update: Elgin standout Terrell Walker is approaching the longstanding school record for takedowns in a season.

Elgin coach Anthony Genovesi said Walker was in the 170 takedown neighborhood to start the week. The record of 203 (held by Ramiro Avendano) has stood since the late 1980s.

"Terrell has really been working on his takedowns," said Genovesi. "He's really gotten after it. That's something he's wanted since his freshman year."

Walker had 149 takedowns last season.

Elgin was 4-12 overall in duals to start the week. Two of those losses were by under 10 points each to conference foes Larkin (9-point loss) and St. Charles North (4-point loss).

Robert Hayes (15-3) and Ivan Ceballos (8-2) have also been wrestling well.

"Robert has had a lot of tough matches," said Genovesi. "Ivan was injured and just came back."

Streamwood update: Streamwood senior Jeff Mason had won 7 of his last 8 matches to start the week to improve to 19-7 overall at 119 pounds.

"For his weight, he's one of the older guys," said Streamwood coach Bill Peach. "He's sticking to the basics and getting legs in and turning guys."

Streamwood will host the Upstate Eight Conference meet in 2 weeks.

Elgin-Bartlett remembrance match: Bartlett and Elgin will hold their annual remembrance/alumni match tonight at Elgin at 6 p.m. (varsity match at 7 p.m.) Past wrestlers from both programs are encouraged to attend and will be recognized before the start of the varsity match.

The remembrance part of the meet is a traveling plaque that honors former Elgin wrestlers Devon Cotie (1996) and Jeff Mirabella (1991) and Elgin teacher and coach Gary Everett who have passed away. Mirabella was also a coach at Bartlett (1998). Prior to Bartlett opening, Bartlett residents attended Elgin High School.

Cary-Grove update: Cary-Grove sported a 5-1 record in Fox Valley Conference action to start the week.

"If you told me at the beginning of the year that we would be 5-1 I would say I would be surprised," said Cary-Grove coach Dan Cysewski. "But nothing surprises me anymore with this group. These guys love to compete and they wrestle hard. Our kids have a great attitude. I see us getting nothing but better."

Cary-Grove will be tested with conference meets against Woodstock, Crystal Lake Central, McHenry and Crystal Lake South over the next 2 weeks.

"It will be fun competition," said Cysewski.