Naperville North overcomes WW South
Naperville North and Wheaton Warrenville South took on each other Thursday night in Wheaton in the 2010 DuPage Valley Conference finale for both teams.
The Huskies prevailed 47-20 as each squad saw the good in their respective teams and what could be better as the holiday tournaments get started.
As for the meet, the Huskies dominated the start and the end and the Tigers the middle.
With the competition starting at 140 pounds, Naperville North won the first three bouts thanks to Frank McKeown (140 pounds), Garret Pano (145) and Porifio Gallegos (152).
WW South senior Sparty Chino, the owner of two fifth-place state medals earned the last two seasons, started off a string of four straight victories for the Tigers with his triumph at 160.
Add in victories from teammates Steve Franke (171), Vinny Lamontagna (189) and Joe Hall (215) and you have WW South's only lead of the night at 17-13.
“Our big guns, the kids that have been in the program for a while, our seniors and juniors did what we expect,” Tigers coach Ryan Ferguson said. “Otherwise, we are beat up a little bit, got some guys out of the lineup. So it's forcing some of the younger guys, who might need more experience, to step up. So they're thrown into the varsity lineup as sophomores and now is their time to get great experience and learn how to wrestle.”
The Huskies sped away with the win with victories from Jack Fissinger (285), Wayne Yuan (103), Blake Bougadis (112), Juan Ramirez (119), Max Obriecht (130) and Gerrick Lim (135) sandwiched around the Tigers' Ramond King's win at 125.
“I see a young team,” Naperville North coach Tom Champion said. “We're filling our lineup holes. Our veterans are carrying us and our young guys are starting to win matches.”
Champion had praise for several wrestlers but mentioned the efforts of Ramirez, a junior, first.
“He made the weight about 10 days ago. He's wrestled two ranked kids and lost to them. He's wrestling tough. Even in the matches he lost, he's wrestling tough,” the Naperville North coach said.
Ramirez said that getting to the weight helped toughen him for the biggest task now facing him continuing to improve.
“It showed me what it takes to be ranked and be among them (ranked wrestlers),” he said.
Naperville North gets right into holiday tournament action tonight with the start of the two-day Harvard Tournament, then competes in the DeKalb Tournament.
“I think (Harvard) will look a little tougher this year. I saw a couple of the teams in the mix at Harvard have more ranked kids this year,” Champion said. “They're smaller schools. But it doesn't matter what size a school is. A good kid is a good kid.”
Meanwhile, the Tigers head to Iowa on Saturday for the Waukee Wrestling Duals and then will be at the Bartlett Quadrangular on Dec. 28. It's the first time that WW South will be at Waukee High School, which is located near Des Moines. WW South will be the only Illinois team in the event.
“We're wrestling five dual meets,” Ferguson said. “It's going to be a new experience. It's going to be a team experience and hopefully we get some great competition there.”