Hersey the class of Dundee-Crown quad

Coach Al Zinke's Dundee-Crown wrestling squad got a hard wake-up call from an old friend Saturday afternoon.

Hersey, coached by former Dundee-Crown wrestler and coach Jim Wormsley, downed the Chargers 42-12 in the final match of the Dundee-Crown quad. Both Hersey and D-C defeated Larkin and Plainfield East heading into the final showdown.

D-C downed the Royals (6-12) 54-18 and Plainfield East 53-21, while Hersey won a 71-3 victory over Larkin and beat Plainfield East 73-3 before wrestling the Chargers. Larkin also won a 47-30 victory over Plainfield East to end its day.

"We were excited to get here and get some good matchups," Wormsley said. "We had a lot of great efforts. It always feels good to come back home."

Kevin Snodgrass (125), Sean Bonner (152) and Mike Dragovich (HWT) all scored pins for Hersey (18-3) against Dundee-Crown (10-4).

"Hersey is a real good team," Zinke said. "They worked harder. They won all of the close bouts, the tough battles. It was a disappointing performance by most of the kids."

Zinke did credit Miko Villanueva (112) and Cody Churky (189) for their efforts as both took victories against Hersey. Villanueva finished his day 2-0, ending with a 3-1 decision over Hersey's Stephfon Scales.

Villanueva admitted that his move from 103 to 112 has proved much more difficult than he had originally anticipated.

"Last year at 103 they were smaller guys and I felt bigger," he said. "This year the guys are a little bit bigger."

Hersey had several wrestlers finish undefeated as Josh Simmons (130), Snodgrass (125), Jeff Koepke (160), Dragovich (hwt) and Demetrios Mitchell (145) all swept through the competition on Saturday, finishing off a weekend that included a 52-13 victory over Buffalo Grove on Friday night.

" It's a real confidence boost, " said Mitchell, who scored a 9-4 decision over Dundee-Crown's Francisco Abitua and pinned Larkin's Brett Barry in 1:13. "It's always nice to see the hard work pay off."

The hard work paid off for D-C's Churkey, who got a 7-1 decision over Hersey's Fredrick Scales and won a forfeit victory against Larkin.

After 2 tough matchups against Hersey and Dundee-Crown, the Royals bounced back against Plainfield East. Larkin scored 6 pins in its victory over Plainfield East. Patrick Lipscomb (119), Hugo Gonzalez (135), Tim Einhorn (130), Joey Rodriguez (140), Brett Barry (145) and Gilberto Zambrano (152) all pinned their opponents, while Jordan Perez scored a technical fall victory.

"We recovered well," Larkin coach Mike Mulhearn said of his team's finishing victory. "We got a little intimidated wrestling some better schools. I thought we could have done better against Dundee-Crown and Hersey."