Battling against the best
Neuqua Valley wrestling coach Mick Ruettiger returned to his roots, and the Wildcats' athletes responded by capping an impressive week of victories.
For the second consecutive year the Wildcats swept their three matches - as did Lockport - at the St. Charles East Mega Duals on Saturday afternoon to extend their season-opening winning streak to seven.
Neuqua Valley overturned a 25-0 deficit against highly-regarded Providence to win on the fourth criteria to begin its week, and the five-time defending Upstate Eight Conference champions doubled up St. Charles East on Friday night to continue its unblemished run.
"We were able to keep that consistent tempo all the way through the day," said Ruettiger, the onetime coach of St. Charles High School.
With half of the teams - Neuqua Valley, Lockport, Rockton Hononegah and West Aurora - in the field state ranked, brilliant individual performances and huge momentum swings flavored the day.
West Aurora had its designs of a flawless day end in a first-round loss to Lockport; the Porters' 43-22 victory snapped the Blackhawks' early-season run of dominance that included all 14 place-winners in capturing the WW South Invite last weekend.
"The Lockport guys came out ready to go, and we didn't," said Illinois-bound West Aurora two-time reigning state semifinalist Mario Gonzalez.
"We gave up too much in pins," added fellow senior Josh Zinzer.
The Blackhawks' two stalwarts could not have had more disparate rounds of matches.
Zinzer had three first-period falls to remain undefeated on the season at 9-0 at 125 pounds.
"I got, like, two minutes of wrestling in today," Zinzer said.
Gonzalez also secured a first-period fall against St. Charles East to ice the Blackhawks' 38-26 victory.
Gonzalez was featured in the two premier showdowns of the day.
Against Lockport (5-1), nationally-ranked Mark Stenberg moved up a class to face Gonzalez, who was also making his debut this year at 189 pounds.
Stenberg acquitted himself well, but Gonzalez prevailed 6-4.
The Blackhawks' four-year standout was not as fortunate against Hononegah junior Matt Dwyer.
West Aurora (5-1) ultimately prevailed against the Indians (5-4) 36-34, but Dwyer ended Gonzalez' quest for a perfect season with a last-second reversal in his stunning 4-3 victory.
"It's better to happen now than at the end (of the season)," Gonzalez said.
The Blackhawks' Vince Morris (145) was also undefeated in the three rounds; the senior had a critical fall in the razor-thin win over Hononegah.
"We were doing some shifting around (in the Hononegah match), and I knew we had to come up with some pins to stay atop the scoreboard," Morris said.
In the Blackhawks' win over St. Charles East, Nicholas Drendal (103), Miguel Venecia (119) and Zinzer had pins to give West Aurora a commanding 21-4 lead after four matches.
The day was not a complete loss for the hosts; the Saints derailed its third DuPage Valley foe of the afternoon, WW South, to improve to 2-3 overall.
"I like (the tournament) early in the year," said St. Charles East coach Steve Smerz. "It lets you know where you are, and what you need to work on."
Danny Mercadante (152) and Brandon Rubino (112) were the Saints' only wrestlers to taste victory in all three matches.
Naperville Central came back from a one-sided DuPage Valley Conference loss against West Aurora on Friday with a pair of wins over St. Charles East (34-29) and Oswego (55-21).
"To come into the Mega Duals with two wins is pretty good for us," Naperville Central coach Rob Porter said.
"I was surprised that we won (against St. Charles East). I still don't know how we did it."
The Redhawks (6-3) prevailed against the Saints on the basis of bonus points; Tyler Haines (103), Andy Kowalski (135), John Graeber (140) and Matt Burns (189) all had falls to engineer the comeback win.
Neuqua's all-junior quintet of Jackson Robinson (103 pounds), Matt Cavallaris (112), Andy Spangler (140), Alex Cizek (145) and Nick Proctor (3-0) carried the day for the Wildcats.
The five were all undefeated on the day; Neuqua Valley opened the morning session with a hard-fought 31-24 victory over Hononegah, exploited four forfeits by Oswego in a 64-10 victory in the middle match, and ended the day with a 40-16 win over Wheaton Warrenville South.
"I would say overall as a team we did (well)," said Proctor, the Wildcats' top-returning state place-winner from last season. "I'm not looking to peak yet. I had a 5-point (sequence in the final match against WW South) that was pretty good."
"You can't get too far ahead of yourselves," Ruettiger said. "Our emphasis is on development."
WW South turned back Oswego 51-16 to earn its sole victory on the day.
The Tigers' Mike Olp was undefeated on the day at 189 pounds to improve to 7-2 on the young season.