Wrestling: Scouting the MSL and ESCC tournaments
Mid-Suburban League meet
Where: Buffalo Grove
When: 5 p.m. today; 9 a.m. Saturday, with finals at 3 p.m.
2009 champion: Hoffman Estates
2010 East champion: Hersey
2010 West co-champions: Barrington, Schaumburg.
Storyline: Out in cyberspace, the wrestling bloggers are all amped up. Who's bumping up? Who's dropping down? What will the brackets look like? Which team will win it all?
A perfect storm last year produced a surprise tournament champion in Hoffman Estates, a club which finally was healthy for just one weekend of the year, which led to three individual champions and our second-place finishers to outduel Wheeling by 16 points.
This is unlikely to happen this weekend. Barrington, Hersey and Schaumburg are the definitive favorites. This group has too much firepower for the rest of the field, capable of landing 10-14 medals in a 14-division weight class.
However, this doesn't mean the podium will be filled with the aforementioned trio of colors from first through third.
"This might be the deepest, most competitive conference tournament that I've seen since taking over at Wheeling," said Wildcats coach Neal Weiner, quite a statement given this is his 24th year in the league. "Illinois Best Weekly recently had five teams from the MSL rated in their Top 20, and there are 4-5 great weight classes that will be fun to watch, and several others that have some really talented kids. It should be a terrific weekend of wrestling."
Weight Watchers
112 - Josh Boggess (Prospect, 30-4), Stephfon Scales (Hersey, 31-7), Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove, 27-5): Scales is 7-0 in the MSL, including a fall over Boggess, whom the freshman defeated 7-5.
140 - Mike Smith (Wheeling, 29-4), Dakota Wapotish (Barrington, 23-7), Travis LaShiava (Fremd, 22-4), Dennis Caravello (Rolling Meadows, 25-10), Leo Clark (Prospect, 18-10), Will Lang (Schaumburg, 22-13): Smith is a state qualifier, LaShiava, competing most of the year is undefeated in the league, with a win over Wapotish, and Lang has been coming on strong for the Saxons. 152 - Joey Caprio (Rolling Meadows, 31-5), Sean Bonner (Hersey, 35-8), Luke Miller (Barrington, 28-6), Brandon Thompson (Prospect, 26-8), Eddie Scanlon (Wheeling, 18-7): Miller and Caprio are Nos. 7 and 11 in the state, Bonner is just outside the top 12. Bonner lost to both Miller (3-2) and Caprio (8-7), but beat Thompson, who defeated Miller in OT.
171 - Dan Santoro (Barrington, 30-3), Danny Malik (Schaumburg, 20-1), Joel Rangel (Wheeling, 26-5): Much-anticipated Santoro vs. Malik bout didn't occur during dual to decide division championship two weeks ago.
189 - Chris Johnson (Wheeling, 32-2), Joe LaManna (Schaumburg, 28-2), Fred Scales (Hersey, 29-9), Kalvin Argueta (Barrington, 27-10): Only losses at 215 for Johnson, while Saxons LaManna is rated No. 6 in state.
Bears repeating: Patrick Scully (Schaumburg, 28-5), Luke Smith (Wheeling, 31-0), Wapotish, Miller and Santoro are returning MSL champions. Smith is after a third straight title.
They said it
Al Strobl (Barrington): "You never know how it will play out in a tournament. You like to think your success is solely due to how well you wrestle on a given day or weekend, but it also comes down to matchups as well."
Neal Weiner (Wheeling): "The top three teams could end up helping the other in head-to-head matches, but in the end, the team that can find a way to get themselves 12 placewinners is going to be in a good position to win (the) tournament, and conference championship as well."
Tom Whalen (Prospect): "The great thing about this time of the year and our tournament is that everyone comes in here 0-0, and a team that can find a way to get 3-4 individual champions might find themselves in the race for a top-3 finish."
East Suburban Catholic
Where: Joilet Catholic
When: 3 p.m. today
2009 champion: Marian Catholic.
2010 regular-season champion: Marist
Storyline
If a chokehold carries an automatic penalty point during a match, then Marist should have been penalized for 17 straight years after holding onto the ESCC championship trophy from 1991-2007 until Elias Larson and Marian Catholic broke free to win back-to-back titles.
However, Marist is back after winning the regular season championship outright, and this weekend it appears only Carmel or Notre Dame has enough in its lineup to stop the Redhawks.
St. Viator victory:
"I worked harder than ever during the off-season and made a commitment to improving every part of my game, nutrition and fitness, in order to make the best of my senior year," said Honehadel, a four-year starter.
Abrahamian, who finished fourth in the ESCC last season, wants to start the postseason on a high note.
"One of my goals is to advance into the state tournament, but my focus for now is on winning a conference title before anything else," said Abrahamian, who won 24 last year.