South Elgin has strong day on mat going 2-1

South Elgin's Adam Lehnus' specialty is not getting pinned.

The Storm junior varsity wrestler has caught the eye of coach Mark Cameron in practice. And with South Elgin leading Burlington Central 35-30 entering the final match Saturday, Cameron was confident Lehnus could prevent Central's Tim Maroder from getting the pin at 189 pounds.

Maroder smoked through the match with a 14-6 major decision, but could never quite get Lehnus pinned down on the mat as South Elgin finished its own quad with a 35-34 victory over the Rockets. The Storm victory marks the first in program history over Central, with the teams meeting in the South Elgin quad every season.

"He's almost impossible to pin," Cameron said of Lehnus. "We looked at what they had when they weighed in. We saw their 215 and heavyweight weren't very big and though we could beat them."

The Storm capped off a 2-1 day with a tight 33-31 victory over Lake Zurich and a 58-9 loss to Sycamore. Central finished the day 1-2, defeating Lake Zurich 40-26 and falling to Sycamore 46-18. Sycamore and Lake Zurich did not face one another on Saturday.

Maroder scored a technical fall over Sycamore's Joe Dougherty and picked up a forfeit victory against Lake Zurich. He dominated the entire match against Lehnus, but just could not score the pin the Rockets (7-3) needed.

"That whole match, I worked for the pin," Maroder said. "His intention was to go out and not get pinned. I would make a move and he wasn't defending it."

Central set up the showdown as freshman Jake Turk pinned Frank Cintora in 5:50 at 160 pounds and Taylor Schuck scored a 4-2 decision over South Elgin's Tom Randich at 171. South Elgin's Zach Fraedrich pinned Central's Tim Vincent in 2:40, Xavier Salazar (119) pinned Armando Arreguin in 1:53 and Jens Tuin (152) pinned Ryan Metz in 1:22.

"We shouldn't have been in that position," Central coach Tony Rigitano said of his team's need for a pin in the final match. "We took too many pins. We have to stay off our backs."

Salazar also scored a 10-4 decision over Lake Zurich's Nick Mueller, but fell to Sycamore's Chris Kerwin with a technical fall. "It was a good wake up call," Salazar said of the Storm's victory against Central. "We got a little confident. Winning 2 out of 3 was good. Pulling someone up from junior varsity and having them help us win was pretty cool."

Even though it fell in both of its dual matches, Lake Zurich coach Dan Strickler was encouraged with the way his team came together on Saturday. The Bears (4-3) are wrestling with a predominantly underclass roster, gaining experience against some of the area's tougher teams.

"We had a good day wrestling-wise," Strickler said. "We lost both duals, but we wrestled well. I thought we were being aggressive. There was a lot of passion put into what we were doing."