Stunners rule on spooky night
It was a spooky night of wrestling ... after all, it WAS Friday the 13th.
Up and down and all around the brackets, it wasn't safe for many during the first day of the Class 3A Barrington sectional, even the victors.
Today at 11 a.m., the state qualifying semifinal matches begin, with the winners officially able to book their place in Champaign next weekend. Those who fall short will find themselves sent into the drop zone to start their quest to advance downstate in the back draw.
Finals are 4 p.m. today, and the top four in each weight class will advance to next weekend's state finals.
Several upstarts plucked a miracle out of the air Friday night to stay alive in the championship round, while a few favorites got the added strain of waiting to compete in the back draw.
Barrington freshman Adrian Gonzalez (34-5) at 103 pounds stunned Robby Schultheir (28-4) of Warren with a 12-4 major decision in their 103-pound quarterfinal. Gonzalez will meet No. 1 Tommy Laskowske (Palatine, 38-3) this morning. On the other side of the bracket, freshman Matt Ornoff (35-5) shocked Miko Villanueva (Dundee-Crown) 6-4 in overtime. Ornoff will take on Nick Fonanetta of Crystal Lake South.
"Tommy tore me up at the MSL tournament, and since then I had been hoping to (meet) him again," Gonzalez said.
"Matt's win was a real gutty effort by a freshman against an experienced wrestler like Villanueva," said Mundelein coach Tom Buenik, who, while watching Ornoff's victory could only wince when the state's No. 3-rated 112-pounder, Eduardo Dominguez (36-3) of the Mustangs, was bumped off by No. 8 Danny Sabatello (36-3) of St. Viator 4-2 in overtime.
"I had kind of a slow start," said Sabatello, who quickly fell behind 2-0. "But I knew when we got to the third period that my conditioning would be the difference."
The Viator junior rode Dominguez hard for nearly the rest of regulation before scoring the winner 33 seconds into the extra period.
Other surprises? Pick a weight, any weight.
• Conant's Vince Gottardo pinned 2008 state qualifier Aaron Ryan of Jacobs.
• Wheeling's Leo Hicks (29-5) stunned No. 11-ranked NSC and regional champion Tyler Becker of Grant 4-3 with a defensive stand down the stretch.
Or how about Carmel junior Frankie Swindell, who in back-to-back bouts burst out of the shadows and into 145-pound semifinals, a class which was broke open earlier by the absence of top seed and potential state medalist Tommy Wadas of Hoffman Estates.
Wadas and teammates Nico and Rocco Silvestri were in street clothes and not in the Hawks' lineup because of school-related matters.
Junior Swindell (33-9) upended the top half of the bracket when he defeated Tyler Dempsey of Grant 13-8 in his opener, then followed with a fall (4:38) over Tim Gavin of Notre Dame to move him ahead against Demetrios Mitchell (44-5) of Hersey.
"In that first match with (Dempsey), I thought I defended well and did a good job of scrambling, which we've been working real hard on lately," said Swindell, who broke a 8-8 draw with 10 seconds left to take the lead.
State qualifiers last year, Buffalo Grove's Kyle Czarnecki (160), Grant's Lee Munster (171) and Wheeling's Danny Vargas (189), as were Libertyville's Matt Bystol (112) and Luke Smith (125), plus Wheeling's David Aranda (140), 2008 state runner-up Matt Boggess of Prospect (140) and the 1-2 punch of the Lake Zurich duo of Cameron Shaffer (130, 36-3) and Kevin Fanta (36-2) at 135.