Wheeling springs upset
Ever since breaking its first dual-team sectional mirror, it'd been seven years of bad luck. Whenever Wheeling would travel north to take on either one of the North Suburban Conference powers, Grant or Libertyville, in its quest to reach the Elite Eight, the results was not good.
Tuesday night Wheeling took delivery of a new mirror, and better luck followed.
The Mid-Suburban League champs stunned favored host Libertyville to book their first dual-state state tournament appearance after an impressive 33-22 victory over the NSC champs.
Wheeling (21-3) will face No. 7 Glenbard North (17-9) in a 9 a.m. quarterfinal dual meet at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington on Saturday.
No. 14 Grant (22-2), which defeated New Trier 39-24, moves on as well and will meet No. 2 Minooka (21-2) in another quarterfinal.
"Going into tonight we knew it would a very close match, and that it would come down to a couple of key match-ups to decide who would go downstate," said Wheeling coach Neal Weiner, who could hardly be heard above fans of thea team, who continued to celebrate the victory long after the final bout. "It would be impossible to single out one particular match, but I can tell you that I am so proud of everyone tonight in what is easily one of the most memorable wins for a lot of us."
Wheeling dominated large parts of the bout, especially in the middle of its lineup, where sectional qualifier Rob Desio defeated Josh Bricker 6-1 and state qualifiers David Aranda (140, 36-6) and Leo Hicks (152, 31-8) sandwiched E. Erdene-Ochir's hard-earned 5-4 decision against Nick McDowell to give Wheeling a 21-4 lead.
"I have to admit that I was really nervous at the start of my match, but once I found my rhythm and got a couple of takedowns, I began to settle down and wrestle the way I wanted to," said Desio.
The Aranda-Pat Callan (36-15) bout was a high-scoring affair, with each state qualifier having a chance to put the other away. Aranda appeared to be in the driver's seat after grabbing a deuce near the edge to go up 11-5 midway through the third period.
Credit Callan for not giving in as he roared back to send the match into overtime, where Aranda struck first to get the 13-11 win.
"We (all) wanted to win so bad tonight," said Aranda.
Libertyville (19-4) edged its way back a little closer when Josh Ronne (160, 41-10) defeated Joel Rangel 4-2 in OT and teammate Pat Kenny garnered a 8-5 win over Alex Mariscal to pull the home side within 21-10.
However, just as they had done back at the Dundee-Crown regional, rookies Chris Johnson (215) and heavyweight Tim Schalz rode the white horse onto the scene to put their opponents away for good, just as they did to give the Wildcats its come-from-behind victory over Hoffman Estates three weeks ago.
Fourth-place state medalist Dan Vargas (43-3) set the table for his mates by recording a fall at 4:08 over Michael Barbosa-Gomez to extend the Wheeling lead to 27-10 before Johnson scored a takedown in OT to beat Ryan Mertz (4-2) and Schalz rubber-stamped the win with a neat 3-2 decision at 285.
"Yes, I knew what was at stake before my match," said Vargas, "and to get that win in OT to seal the victory felt really great."
Aside from the Ronne-Kenny victories, 112-pound third-place state medalist Matt Bystol (45-6) earned the other win for coach Dale Eggert's club when he began the night with a 12-2 major decision over Joe Cacchione. That was the only time Libertyville led.
Luke Smith (125, 37-3) and cousin Mike Smith (130, 37-8) quickly erased the Bystol win with a fall and decision.
"We knew the way the draw (was) and how the evening might go for the first few matches that we would likely fall behind and force us to storm back," said Eggert. "Tonight we just didn't do that."