Mundelein sparkles for alumni

The first-ever alumni night proved to be a very successful one for the Mundelein wrestling team Friday night.

The fired-up Mustangs built a commanding 30-0 lead over Stevenson after five matches and they never looked back as they posted a 42-25 North Suburban Conference victory in Lake Division action.

Mundelein (15-2) improved to 4-1 in the division, but Libertyville (5-0) is closing in on another Lake crown after defeating Zion-Benton in its alumni night Friday.

Trailing 5-3 at 285, Dion Liuas started off the dual meet with a pin in 2:29 over Stevenson's Turron Washington to give the Mustangs an early 6-0 lead.

Then 4 more pins by Mundelein 103-pounder Matt Ornoff (25-5), 112-pounder Eduardo Dominguez (27-1), 119-pounder Tanis Arcos, and 125-pounder Juan Jaimes (25-5) made the score 30-0 before the Patriots knew what happened.

"I thought we were extraordinary, everyone can see our lower weight classes are our toughest weights, and the crowd was spectacular," said Jaimes. "Looking up at the scoreboard this was a big difference from last year (against Stevenson) and this shows how much our hard work has paid off."

Stevenson (8-6, 2-3) got an 8-5 decision when Mark Futterman defeated Alfredo Morales at 130. But Mundelein 135-pounder Jeff Thompson pinned Max O'Hara in 4:43 after a near pin by O'Hara in the second period.

Then a 9-3 decision by Mundelein 140-pounder Eric Arcos made the score 39-3 with six matches remaining.

"We had a tremendous turnout and as we try to build our program we want to include our alumni as much as possible," said Mundelein coach Tom Buenik. "Dion Liuas got a big pin for us in his first varsity match to get us going, we went on a great roll, and (Stevenson) never had an easy match."

Down 5-4, Stevenson's Nick Pagano pinned Brandon Aranda at 145 before Stevenson's Nathan Millman added a 4-3 decision over Pablo Mata at 152.

Mundelein's Mike Savage (22-6) posted a narrow 6-4 decision over Brandon Weber at 160 before Stevenson's Nate Rubenstein (171) won a 6-5 decision over Jake Hertel.

A pin by Stevenson's Dan Catlin (189) and a major decision by teammate David Woodstein (215) closed out the meet for the Patriots.

"To start they got a big win at heavyweight and then they just caught fire and it was tough to recover after that," said Stevenson coach Shane Cook. "We just had to move our guys around to fill some weights, but Mundelein has some really good kids."

Some of the prominent Mundelein wrestlers from the past in attendance were the Hamm family (late 1960's), and the Shae family (early 1970's). This is the 48th season of Mundelein wrestling.

At Libertyville's alumni night, 1971 state champion Dan Holm watched the Wildcats' impressive victory over the Zee-Bees.