Libertyville claims NSC Lake championship
Many wrestlers in the Libertyville program have been seen wearing T-shirts that say, “addicted to scoring” on their backs.
Next year the Wildcats should consider changing that slogan to “addicted to winning” after they captured their fourth straight North Suburban Conference Lake Division championship with a 39-12 victory over Zion-Benton on Friday night.
The upset-minded Zee-Bees were hoping to claim a piece of a potential three-way tie in the Lake Division with Warren (5-1) and Libertyville (14-5, 6-0).
But after falling behind 27-3 eight matches in, Zion Benton (4-2) had to settle for third place in the division.
It was the 10th time in the 11-year history of the Lake Division that the Wildcats captured the title, and next Saturday at Lakes they will be shooting for their third straight NSC crown.
While 13 seniors were recognized Friday on senior night, it was 135-pound sophomore Austin Pettinato who got Libertyville rolling with a 5-3 decision over Adrian Collier to start the dual meet.
The Cats’ Pat Regan dropped a 5-1 decision at 140, but Libertyville 145-pounder Kevin Tavakoli started a streak of six straight Libertyville wins with a 4-0 decision at 145.
Senior Sayad Banifazl added a 9-2 decision at 152 before one of the two best bouts of the night for the Wildcats followed.
Freshman 160-pounder Kayne MacCallum was the first hero to have his arm raised in victory. MacCallum fell behind Thomas Hiley 4-1 early before going to overtime deadlocked at 5-5.
Hiley had a good chance to end the match with a 2-point takedown late in overtime. But MacCallum held him off, and turned the tables on Hiley with a takedown with only two seconds left in overtime for a 7-5 victory and a 12-3 Libertyville lead.
“Zion-Benton has had a great season so they got ready for these guys, but a lot of these matches came down to guts,” said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert, who recorded career win No. 450. “MacCallum was just about taken down and he just didn’t quit. That final takedown came right out of the scramble and he caught (Hiley) off guard.”
The Wildcats’ big surge continued with a pin in 1:55 by 171-pounder David Allen, and a 5-0 decision by 189-pounder Luke Miller, putting the Zee-Bees in a 21-3 deficit.
But then came hero No. 2 of the night, as 215-pound senior Richard Vachula came through with a victory in what might have been one of the most exciting matches of the season.
Vachula was struggling against Chauncey Johnson, although he did keep the match close, trailing 7-5 late in the third period.
But all of a sudden, when people least expected it, Vachula put Johnson on his back and recorded a pin with 37 seconds left in the bout to give the Cats their commanding 27-3 lead with six matches left.
“I could tell that he (Johnson) was getting a little tired in the second period,” said Vachula, who was named wrestler of the meet. “It was a great turn around of events, we needed the bonus points, and that gave us a good lead at that point of the meet.”
The rest of the meet was pretty uneventful as an 8-3 decision by Libertyville 112-pounder Kyle May made the score 30-9 and officially clinched the Lake Division crown.
Pat Fitzgerald dropped a 5-3 decision at 119, before 125-pound teammate Charlie Meyer posted a hard-fought 4-2 decision. Senior Luke Gaeth won by forfeit at 130 to close out the meet.