West Aurora, BC come up short
The Class AA Naperville North individual wrestling sectional had a lasting influence on the team sectional Tuesday night in Carol Stream.
"The (individual) sectional was brutal, physically and psychologically," West Aurora coach Mike DiNovo said.
The Blackhawks lost five sectional qualifiers to season-ending injuries at the two-day tournament, and Neuqua Valley showed little mercy at the Glenbard North team sectional.
There was little suspense after Neuqua Valley took command with seven consecutive wins, including five falls, following Tanner Andrews' match-opening win at 125 pounds.
The Wildcats (21-5) steamrolled the Blackhawks 47-16 in semifinal action, winning 10 of the 14 matches in the teams' second dual meet of the year.
West Aurora, which won a program-first third consecutive regional title, ended its season at 19-7.
Glenbard North (25-4) captured the final five matches against Neuqua Valley in the championship match to qualify for the Elite Eight this Saturday in Moline.
Against West Aurora, Neuqua's Matt Walters, Brian Epp, Nick Proctor and Jimmy Duffy all recorded first-period pins in succession between 135 and 152 pounds; Mike Zozulia followed with a one-sided verdict at 160, and Chris Spangler recorded another fall to extend the Wildcats' unanswered run to 37 points.
"That's the heart of our lineup," Neuqua Valley coach Mick Ruettiger said. "It didn't matter who (West Aurora) had in there. We came here to dominate."
The Blackhawks' back-to-back state-place winner, 189-pounder Mario Gonzalez, finally stopped the bleeding with a decisive 16-6 victory.
"I started off wrestling pretty conservatively," Gonzalez said. "I hurt my shoulder at the state meet and didn't want to go all out and hurt it again."
"He's a classy kid, first of all," Ruettiger said of Gonzalez. "You can't make any mistakes when you wrestle him."
The other West Aurora state qualifier, Dan Carey, had a trio of takedowns at 215 pounds for a 9-2 win at 215, and Sam McKinney had the final win on the year for the Blackhawks with a second-period fall at 112.
"We wrestled to win," DiNovo said. "It just didn't happen."
At Rochelle:ŒBurlington Central's wrestling team is on the brink of the level it wants to be at.
Rockton Hononegah is already there.
In their first Class AA dual team sectional appearance, the young Rockets ran up a very deep, experienced Indians team which was looking for its fourth straight trip to the state meet.
Despite some great individual performances, Hononegah was just too much, downing the Rockets 50-16 in semifinal action at the Class AA Rochelle sectional.
Central, which finished its most successful season under third-year coach Tony Rigitano, ended the year with a 16-8 mark.
"We're talking about building a tradition," Rigitano said. "I'm losing five seniors, it's a great five. No one believed in us but us. The next group of seniors has to build on what this group did."
Senior Drew Halstead (171) ended the Rockets' season on a pretty high note.
Halstead, wrestling in the Rockets final match of the year, quickly pinned the Indians' Tyler Gilles in 1 minute, 3 seconds to finish out his career with a victory. The senior finished his career with a 24-16 mark with the victory.
"I wanted to end it on a high note," Halstead said. "It was great to represent our school. We were in a hole. It was for pride."
Central found itself down quickly.
Hononegah recorded 3 pins and a major decision in the first four matches of the meet to take a 22-0 victory by the time sophomore Shane Burke took the mat at 112 pounds.
Burke put the Rockets on the board with his 12-0 major decision over the Indians' Brett Hedrington (28-6) to bring Central back to 22-4.
Burke's victory gives him some momentum going into the Rockets' off-season, which begins this Saturday.
"It's huge to build off of," Burke said. "We want to be as good or better that (Hononegah). We have to wrestle better next year."
Seniors Garrett Fiorito (119) and Zac Schrieber (125) followed Burke's victory with a pair of decisions. Fiorito (19-19) scored a 7-1 win over Mark Holland (3-11) to bring Central to 22-7. Schrieber the gave the Rockets their closest margin when his 15-12 decision over Tim Pearson (11-5) brought Central within 22-10.
Central then dropped its next six matches, including allowing 3 Hononegah pins.
With six sophomores, 2 freshmen and a junior in the lineup Tuesday night, the Rockets are positive about building the type of success Hononegah has enjoyed in recent seasons.
-- Matt Stacionis