Mundelein gets good marks in Bad Mark triumph

The Mundelein Mustang Bad Mark Invitational turned into a showdown between two teams for the championship of the six team tournament Saturday.

And after leading by 35 points over Deerfield heading into the fifth and final round of the round robin tourney, it was the host Mustangs that captured the crown 340 to 294.5 over the Warriors.

Riverside-Brookfield held off Grayslake Central 164.5 to 134.5 for third place in the final standings despite the Rams' only fielding seven wrestlers for the tournament. Waukegan toppled Lake Forest 122.5 to 102 for fifth place.

Mundelein sophomore Matt Ornoff (17-0) kept his perfect season alive with a 5-0 record Saturday as did senior teammate Juan Jaimes (17-0) at 135.

"Being one of the undefeated wrestlers on our team just shows that all of my dedication has paid off," said Jaimes, who had two pins on the day. "I just need hard work and conditioning and I need my teammates to push me in the practice room because that is the only way I'm going to get better."

Besides Ornoff and Jaimes, Mundelein also got 5-0 marks from Nick Dudzinski at 103, Jake Pickering at 112, Payton Cruz at 130, and Dion Livas at 285. Livas also had 3 pins in the least amount of time in the meet.

"Even though some of the schools didn't have full lineups, they had really tough kids and everybody had some tough weight classes," said Mundelein coach Tom Buenik, whose team won six of the 14 weight classes. "Our lower weights are doing really well for us today and all season, and those guys will be around for a long time."

Grayslake Central was led by junior Kevin Hein (17-4) who went 5-0 with 3 pins and 2 decisions on the day for the individual title.

Dylan Hay took runner-up honors for the Rams at 130 with a 4-1 record overall.

"We brought seven kids and the rest of our lineup is at the Antioch JV tournament because they're all sophomores," said first-year Grayslake Central coach Dan Catanzaro. "Hein's win over the Mundelein kid (Jake Hertel) was a big win for him and he wrestled well against the Riverside-Brookfield kid."

Mundelein 125-pounder Dan Winberg, 145-pounder Brandon Aranda, 152-pounder Pablo Mata, 160-pounder Max Infanti, and 171-pounder Ben Hertel all had 4-1 records for second place. Eric Arcos went 3-2 for the Mustangs at 140.

Grayslake Central 103-pounder Bobby Raines also posted a 3-2 record Saturday along with 119-pound teammate Tom Browne.