Lake Park ends Neuqua Valley's Upstate Eight run
None now.
That was the answer Neuqua Valley wrestling coach Mick Ruettiger gave when asked how many consecutive years his program had owned the top spot in the Upstate Eight Conference.
That's because Lake Park snapped the Wildcats' six-year reign by winning four weight classes at Saturday's league meet at Waubonsie Valley and also adding a pair of seconds and three third-place efforts to surprise Neuqua 222-211.5.
The Lancers took advantage of the Wildcats' subpar first round at the meet and clinched their first league crown in more than 20 years when heavyweight Devon Smith (26-4) pinned St. Charles East's Rafael Flores in 2:17 to earn his first UEC crown and the school's first team title since the 1980s.
"This is sweet," Smith said after getting a congratulatory hug from his grandmother. "We had to do this. It's been about 25 years and we all had to do what we needed to do."
The final round started well for Lake Park as sophomore Jonny Verlotta defeated South Elgin's 6-1 in the title bout at 103, and Austin Schoen followed with a major decision over South Elgin's Kevin Gianaris at 112. Joe Kubica claimed a hard-earned crown at 152 for Lake Park after edging Neuqua's Luke Pigott 3-2 in the semis and then outlasting St. Charles East's Nick Scimeca 7-5 in overtime in the championship bout.
"This is some pretty fun stuff," said Lake Park coach Todd Raymond, who turned to junior varsity wrestlers at 189 and 215 after losing a pair of wrestlers to injury just last week. "It was a total team effort and it's a great accomplishment for Lake Park wrestling, it really is."
Neuqua fared well in the final round where Matthew Cavallaris (119), Alex Cizek (145), Nick Proctor (160) and Andy Spangler - now 35-2 after pinning South Elgin's Tom Randich - each claimed titles. But the Wildcats dug themselves too deep a hole to the Lancers after Saturday morning's first round.
"My hats off to Lake Park. They did a nice job today," Ruettiger said. "We had a terrible first round and I was not real happy. We had four champs and I was real pleased with how they dominated their weight classes, but we just didn't wrestle the first round."
South Elgin (183.5), St. Charles East (169) and Waubonsie Valley (120.5) each had a pair of conference champs and placed 3-4-5, respectively, in the team standings. The Warriors' Max Garbis improved to 23-10 after winning the 125 crown despite practicing just once this week due to illness. The youngest of eight brothers - some of whom wrestled for Waubonsie Valley back in the 1990s - Garbis used a major decision and two pins to claim his first league title.
"I was sick all week, but I feel great today," Garbis said. "This is my first varsity first place and it's nice to win it at Waubonsie."
The Warriors' other crown came at 189, where Daniel Kelly (33-6) followed a pair of pins with a 1-0 win over Bartlett's Eduardo Ruiz in the finals.