Barrington flexes its muscles at Grant
After placing fourth in the state last winter in Class 3A, the Barrington wrestling team is off to another great start this season.
The Broncos were very impressive Saturday at the Grant triple-dual meet as they rolled to 3 lopsided victories to remain perfect with a 7-0 record this season.
The Broncos opened with a 70-6 victory over Waukegan and added a 51-7 win over the host Bulldogs in the second round. The Broncos closed out their day with a 59-8 victory over Stevenson, building a 30-3 advantage over the Patriots after six bouts thanks to five early pins.
Stevenson (5-1) went 2-1, defeating Waukegan 65-6 in the first round and capturing a 39-30 victory over Grant (2-4) in the second round behind an injury default win in the last match. Grant finished with a 41-25 win over Waukegan.
With a 61-14 victory over Wheeling on Thursday and a 56-6 triumph at Fremd on Friday, the Broncos went 5-0 in three days.
“These are obviously very tough teams and we're very happy with the way things are going,” said Broncos coach Alex Strobl. “There is always work to do, of course, but we're getting better each dual meet and the kids are starting to fix their mistakes.”
Starting at 160, the Grant-Stevenson meet went back and forth the entire way with Grant eventually building a 23-12 lead on junior Ben Soumar's technical fall at 112.
But the Patriots got a 10-7 decision by Joey Bauer at 119, a pin by Max Nolan at 125 and a pin by defending state champion Danny Sabatello (10-0) at 130 to take a 27-23 lead with four bouts left.
Grant sophomore Nick Fanella posted a 10-2 major decision at 135 to deadlock the score at 27-27 before 140-pound senior teammate Devon Monroy's 11-5 decision gave the Bulldogs a 30-27 edge.
Then Stevenson 145-pounder Justin Weber pinned his opponent in 5:09 to set the stage for the final match with the Pats leading 33-30.
Needing at least a major decision to win, Grant senior 152-pounder Jose Jimenez built an 8-2 lead and led 8-3 with one minute remaining.
But then Jimenez collapsed in pain because of a right knee injury. After Jimenez's injury time ran out, Stevenson's Mark Futterman was awarded an injury default victory and the Patriots prevailed by a 39-30 margin.
“The default injury to Jimenez is unfortunate and you never want to see a kid get injured, especially in the last match like that,” said Patriots coach Shane Cook. “Grant historically has been one of the top teams to beat in the conference and they're competitive year in and year out.”
Besides Sabatello, senior teammate Brandon Weber also has a 10-0 record this season after picking up 3 more wins Saturday. Weber is off to a great start after taking a title at the 32-team Barrington tourney last weekend and he knows what has been his key to success.
“I think just hard work in the room and I transitioned well from football to wrestling,” said Weber, who played right guard on the football team. “Coach Cook is just pushing us in the room to get better every day, not be satisfied and just keep working hard.”
Jimenez and 215-pound teammate Quinton Quarles were the only two Grant wrestlers to win their bouts against Barrington, but Jimenez did not wrestle against Waukegan after getting injured. After Jimenez's injury, Grant moved its wrestlers up a weight class against Waukegan.
“Jose (Jimenez) was doing what he could to try to get us there (against Stevenson), and I think he had a good chance of getting it if he didn't get hurt, but you never know,” said Grant coach Ryan Geist. “I thought our guys did a great job against Stevenson. We had a real good chance of winning that match, so we're making progress.”
Starting at 152, Grant led Barrington 4-0 after a 13-3 major decision by Jimenez. But the Broncos dominated the rest of the match behind pins from Ryan Wilt (189), Aaron Castagna (285), Coord Wiseman (130), and Dakota Wapotish (145).
Against Stevenson, the Broncos got a pin from 171-pound senior Erwin DelaRosa to begin the onslaught. Then teammates Wilt, Castagna, Matt Sheehy (103), Adrian Gonzalez (112), Steve Polasik (135) and Cameron Thomson (160) added pins en route to the 51-point victory.