Glenbard North stays composed, advances to state
Glenbard North is an old hand at advancing to the dual team state finals, so the Panthers were predictably composed after topping Hinsdale Central 31-28 in a Class 3A sectional dual at Willowbrook.
But on the other half of the gym in Villa Park, Naperville Central lost its mind.
"First time in school history," said Redhawks coach Rob Porter, after heavyweight Joe Widman's pin gave his squad a 35-27 win over Leyden and secured the program's first downstate berth.
"Coach Porter has told us all year that we could do it," Widman said. "And every time he said we could, most of the time, we did."
A young Redhawks team that came on strong at the end of the year won its 15th dual by earning an 8-6 edge in matches won over Leyden, including a few monumentally important ones.
"Connor Marr (112 pounds) gets a pin, Matt Burns (189) gets a pin, and Joe (Widman) gets a pin," Porter said. "We hoped some of our guys would step up and be heroes, and they did."
The dual see-sawed back and forth throughout, with a pin at 171 from Leyden's Adam Schammert tying the score at 23-23 with three matches left to wrestle.
Burns' pin preceded a major decision at 215 from Leyden's Dan Kiebler, and the Redhawks led 29-27 with Widman lining up in the night's final match.
A loss would have sent the Redhawks home losers, but Widman was ready.
"Everything from practice just came back into my head," Widman said. "I had a few jitters, but I was relatively calm and ready to go."
The Redhawks will square off at the Class 3A Elite Eight on Saturday against the state's top-ranked team, Oak Park-River Forest. After graduating a horde of state placers from last year's team, Glenbard North (19-9) worked all season at acclimating newcomers to varsity wrestling.
The Panthers and Red Devils tied 7-7 in matches won on the night, and Glenbard North got pins from Wade Hazzard (112) and Dan Rios (119), a technical fall from Tony Ramos (135) and major decisions from Bryan Gonzalez (103) and Joe Gosinski (130). Rios, Ramos, Gosinski and Jimmy Chase (140) all bumped up in weight and won for coach Mark Hahn.
"We figured it would be close," Hahn said. "But the guys sucked it up and wrestled really tough."
The Panthers led 31-22 with two matches left to wrestle and Hinsdale Central state medalists Jack Allen (215) and Pat Clegg (285) on deck.
Glenbard North freshman Danny Eldridge - all 189 pounds of him - held Allen to a simple decision at 215, and Chris VanGundy did the same against Clegg to send the Panthers downstate for the ninth time in the last 12 years.