Mid-Suburban League meet preview
Mid-Suburban League meet
Where: Barrington High School
When: Starts at 5 p.m. Friday; semifinals at 10 a.m. and finals at 4 p.m. Saturday
Defending champion: Wheeling
The lowdown: Perhaps the most wide-open race for the top prize in the last 3-4 years awaits because there is no clear-cut favorite. Rolling Meadows (5-0), by virtue of its early season win at home against Wheeling, captured the MSL East title, while Barrington and Schaumburg shared the West crown at 4-1.
Group of granite: With all due respect to some very talented wrestlers, if the trio of Pat Scully (Hoffman Estates, 28-6, 119 pounds), Luke Smith (Wheeling, 22-2, 125) and Matt Boggess (Prospect, 25-0, 140) fail to come away with first-place medals, then a state of emergency will need to be declared.
Many other weight classes will offer highly competitive matches, with the outcome in doubt because of the depth of talent and how the brackets break down after tournament officials manufacture each division.
"I've found that it's difficult to win a conference title without having a few of your guys win individual championships, unless you're one of those Conant teams of old that did such a great job of having everyone come away with a medal," said Meadows coach Dave Froehlich, who has seen this movie before during his 30 years as coach.
Wheeling coach Neal Weiner agrees: "There is no (one) team that really dominated this season, and a team that didn't win (their) division could actually win the whole thing on Saturday. That's why I think a team like Hoffman Estates, which is finally healthy and has 3-4 guys who could win individual titles might be the team to watch out for."
Weight classes to watch
103: Tom Laskowske (Palatine, 22-3), Adrian Gonzales (Barrington, 23-4), Stephfon Scales (Hersey, 31-10) Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove, 23-6). Laskowske, the lone senior in this quartet, is rated No. 3 in the state.
145: Demetrios Mitchell (Hersey) and Tommy Wadas (Hoffman Estates, 19-2). Nos. 5 and 7 in the state. Enough said.
160: Kyle Czarnecki (27-1) and Jamey Zabrin (28-2) of Buffalo Grove, Jeff Koepke (Hersey, 31-10), Andrew Petit (Hoffman Estates, 27-8), Danny Malek (Schaumburg, 20-3). A recent move to 160 in anticipation of the state tournament vaulted Bison star (Czarnecki) into the No. 3 spot in state polls. But BG coach Dave Durlacher may choose to keep his 1-2 punch in place this weekend.
171: If Czarnecki stays at this weight, he'll look at Jake Prestia (Conant, 21-4) and Dan Santoro (Barrington, 26-4) as his chief rivals.
189: Danny Vargas (Wheeling, 30-1), Thomas Davidson (Rolling Meadows, 29-4) and Joe Patricelli (Conant, 18-5), Brett Opitz (Fremd), Josh Marchok (Schaumburg, 26-6). Should Patricelli, who has been at 189 and 215 this season drop down, this weight becomes that much tougher for anyone else to break into the top 3. No. 6 (Vargas) edged Davidson 2-0 early on, and the Meadows faithful have been pointing toward a rematch ever since.
215: Patricelli, Jose Flores (Hoffman Estates, 26-6), Mike Dallas (Fremd), Kevin Alvarez (Buffalo Grove, 23-5). Both Dallas and Alvarez are quite capable of surprising here.
East Suburban Catholic Conference meet
Where: Joliet Catholic
When: Saturday
Defending champion: Marian Catholic.
The lowdown: Last season, Marian Catholic broke Marist's string of 28 straight ESCC titles, and nothing should stop the No. 11-rated Class AAA team from repeating this time. Marist is built for power behind the likes of the No. 1-rated duo of Damonte Riley (119) and Elias Larson (145), plus No. 2 Mark Marianovich (140). At 112, St. Viator junior Danny Sabatello (26-3) appears to be on a collision course with Marist sophomore Sean Raddatz in what would be the third meeting between No. 10 (Sabatello) and No. 12 in the state. The season series is 1-1, with Raddatz getting the upper hand in bout No. 2 after falling to Sabatello 11-10 in the first weekend of the season at the Moore-Prettyman. The last St. Viator wrestlers to win ESCC titles were Bobby Joyce and Sabatello's brother Vince in 2006. Marist and St. Patrick, both ranked in the top 20, will give Marian some concern at a few selected weights, with the best bets for individual titles coming from the St. Patrick trio of Anthony Sciaccotta (103), Alex Ortiz (160) and Matt Ortega (215) and from Marist senior AJ Smith at 189. Marist senior Diontae Brown goes for his fourth straight ESCC title, which would tie three Marist alums.
- Mike Garofola