Gonzalez reaches semis
CHAMPAIGN -- West Aurora's Mario Gonzalez had to wrestle a trio of top-shelf 189-pounders on Friday, just to get to Saturday's semi-final round in this year's Class AA individual state tournament in Champaign.
It's a good thing Gonzalez is as good as he is.
The junior pinned Lincoln-Way Central's Joe Mahy, then used a pair of takedowns and a reversal to win 6-0 over Montini's Dan Grimes, setting up a quarterfinal match against Prospect's Peter Zintak.
"This was probably the worst draw I've had," said Gonzalez, who placed fourth last year as a sophomore at 171.
Tough draw or not, Gonzalez was dominant again, winning 7-0 over Zintak to reach today's semifinals in Assembly Hall. He'll square off against Dundee-Crown's Mike Lukowski for the right to wrestle for a state title.
"I'm a little surprised nobody scored a point on me today, but now I want to go the whole (tournament) without anyone getting a point on me," Gonzalez said.
Coach (Mike) DiNovo has been pushing me all week in practice to get ready for this."
Of the seven area wrestlers to advance to Champaign, only Gonzalez managed to reach Saturday's semifinal round, although three others remain alive in Saturday's wrestle-back round.
West Aurora's Dan Carey won his opening match 7-1 over Kenneth Clady of Corliss before losing by decision to Illinois' top-ranked 215-pounder, Downers Grove South's Ben Apland.
Carey will take on Cary-Grove's Paul Rands Saturday morning, when Batavia's Rocco Wade and Danny Watson will also attempt to wrestle their way back into medal contention.
Wade opened his tournament with a 6-2 decision over Yorkville's Derek Jones at 130, before losing by decision to Marian Catholic's Mark Marianovich, who won his quarterfinal match, thus keeping Wade alive in the tournament.
At 160, Watson gutted out a 1-0 decision over Bethalto's T.J. Wuellner to start his day, before losing by 3-1 decision to Montini's Dan Stelter, who also won in the quarterfinals to get Watson a spot in the wrestle-backs.
Not so lucky was Batavia's Logan Arlis, who was in control and held a 4-0 lead on Bloomington's Jake Bellis in his opening match, before getting caught and pinned. Bellis lost his next match, knocking the Batavia sophomore out of the tournament.
"It's too bad. Logan was up in that match," said Batavia coach Tom Arlis. "But I do think the (referee) called that pin too fast. I'm not sure his shoulders were on the mat."
St. Charles East's Billy Diamond and Geneva's Frank Boenzi lost their first matches and were ousted from the tournament. Diamond finished a strong senior year with a 33-6 record, Boenzi went 23-6, and Arlis finished at 34-3.