Regional crown for Chargers
The Dundee-Crown wrestling team had a little extra motivation heading into Saturday's Class AA South Elgin regional.
The Chargers had their streak of seven Fox Valley Conference championships ended last week.
That was bad news for the other teams at South Elgin.
D-C won four individual titles, finished second in three other weight classes and took third in three more to claim the team title with 197 points and advance to the Glenbard North team sectional.
"Winning the team title was a big plus after last week," said D-C 152-pounder regional champion Ryan Horcher. "We had to be aggressive and go after people."
The regional crown is D-C's first since 2005 and the 13th since Dundee and Crown merged in 1983.
St. Charles East finished second with 183 points. Batavia was third with 146.5.
Horcher, who won a sectional title last year at 135 pounds, took a 4-1 lead into the third period against St. Charles North's Lin Stacey and held on for a 7-6 decision to advance to next weekend's Naperville North individual sectional.
"I had confidence that I was going to advance. It was just a matter of what place I was going to advance in," Horcher said. "This kind of sets me up for next week."
Jeremy Lee (112), Jermaine Lee (119) and Jack Lewis (135) also won regional crowns. Jeremy Lee beat St. Charles East's Brandon Rubino by major decision, 11-2. Jermaine Lee pinned Batavia's Tyler Patton in 2:13. Lewis scored 3 back points in the final seconds to beat Streamwood's Joey Kubica by a 6-3 decision.
"I looked up and saw there was 15 seconds left and decided to just go for it," Lewis said. "He beat me earlier in the season so I just tried to go out there and work my hardest."
Frank Abitua (103), Austin Tanner (140) and Mike Lukowski (189) finished second. Lukowski, ranked No. 2 at 189 pounds by illinoismatmen.com, was surprised by St. Charles East's Adam Schaefer, 5-3, in the championship match.
Also going to Naperville North for the Chargers are third-place finishers Cody Muscat (130), Chris Rust (145) and Billy Cook (285).
Elgin's Terrell Walker, the Upstate Eight Conference champion, added a regional title at 160 pounds with a 5-2 decision over Batavia's Danny Watson.
"People seem to think Elgin can't make good wrestlers so I have to prove them wrong," said Walker, who will make his third trip to sectionals. "I have to make my name known."
The Maroons' Robert Hayes finished third at 215 and will join Walker at Naperville North.
Streamwood will send three wrestlers to sectionals. Kubica's second-place finish and Jeff Mason's and Chad McMahon's third-place finishes allowed them to advance.
"During the match, the whole time I was thinking this could be my last match ever," said Mason, a senior making his third trip to sectionals. "I gave it all I had and got a good result."
South Elgin had two wrestlers advance to sectionals for the first time. Nick Carlson (135) and Nick Gillespie (140) each won their third-place matches by falls to move on.
"It feels awesome," Gillespie said. "We're getting better (as a program)."
Larkin did not advance a wrestler out of the regional.