C-G’s Meyer, CLS’ Fontanetta win titles
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly wasn’t just the name of a famous Clint Eastwood movie, it also is a terrific way to describe the events seen on the second day of the Class 3A Barrington wrestling sectional.
The sweet smell of success was the good in which Cary-Grove senior Corey Meyer was taking a deep breath in after dispatching all the competition at 130 pounds to win an individual title to send the Trojans’ captain into the state tournament with a full head of steam as he looks to reach his goal of a state medal.
No. 1 rated Nick Fontanetta (39-0) would join his FVC rival as the only other titleholder when the day was over, winning his second-straight inside the spacious Barrington field house, this time in a hard-fought 3-2 victory, which came with a controversial ending that saw the Crystal Lake South junior prevail over a talented opponent from Machesney Park Harlem, Zac Denny.
Meyer (29-8) was clearly the star of stars on this night, after avenging two straight defeats to Wade Lardy of McHenry in the semifinals, then coming out, and putting together a herculion effort to defeat Libertyville senior Luke Gaeth (32-7) by an 8-5 decision.
“That was just a classic Corey Meyer effort and victory,” said an ecstatic Cary-Grove head coach Dan Cysewski.
“Corey just seems to have the perfect attitude to succeed, with that big smile, and ability to just go out there and wrestle and have fun, and oh, by the way, he is a terrific young man as well.”
“I knew if I had another chance to wrestle Lardy, that I would get him this time, and in my final, I just wrestled my match, and felt in control right from the start,” offered Meyer, whose lone two championship rings have come in the final 2 weeks of the season.
Against Gaeth, a cool and calm Meyer would slowly cut into a 5-0 deficit to finally go ahead for good at 6-5 with a 2-point near-fall at the buzzer to end the second period.
Teammate Trent Atkins (27-7) came through the consolation bracket to earn a trip downstate after finishing fourth overall at 125 pounds, using a fall at 1:10 over McHenry junior Nick Collins to seal his spot on the team bus downstate.
“That’s not the easiest way to get downstate, coming back in wrestlebacks, but after I got that first takedown against Collins, I could sense it took a lot out of him, and that the match could go my way,” said the sophomore.
Fontanetta, Kean Loupee and Tom Gerswinski will all be along for the ride to Champaign later next week as the Gators’ trio successfully navigated through some dangerous waters to seal the deal.
No. 6 Loupee (36-5) rebounded from a 4-1 loss in the semifinals to No. 1 Josh Anthony (Machesney Park Harlem) to win his last two matches of the tournament and earn a third-place medal and a second consecutive state appearance.
Gerszewski (38-7) would match his teammate with a third-place finish at 140 pounds, after he too met and lost to No. 1 Luke Smith (Wheeling, 40-0) in his semifinal.
“This is a great sectional, one of the best in the state, and for both Kean and Tom to pick themselves up and get out of their weight class says a lot about both of them,” offered Gators head coach Ross Ryan, who watched his best man, Fontanetta, overcome not only Denny in the finals, but Israel Santiago (Warren) in the semis to go on to win it all.
“Both those guys wrestled Nick extremely hard, and in the final, we had some calls that could have gone our way, and there were a couple which could have gone the other way, but Nick did what he had to do to win his title.”
Things went in a favorable way for Huntley junior Josh Symbal (34-10), who outfought the field at 171 pounds to grab a second-place finish, and his first appearance in Assembly Hall.
Returning state qualifier Lucas Rogers (33-5) won’t be joining his teammate for his second consecutive trip after the senior fell to another state qualifier, Ronnie Hauser of Fremd in the consolation rounds 5-3. Hauser would later be eliminated by Alex Nigro of Lake Zurich.
Cymbal outlasted Eddie Scanlon (Wheeling, 29-11) in his semifinal bout 6-3 to seal the deal, one day after nearly being sent into the consolation bracket by Libertyville’s David Allen, only to come back a pin the Wildcats senior.
“I just tried to stay composed in that match with Allen on Friday, and then do the same in my semifinal today with Scanlon,” said the affable Cymbal, who defended a well-struck shot by Scanlon late in the third period to keep his 4-3 lead.
Jacobs freshmen Aaron Ryan (32-7) competed like a veteran in his first sectional appearance, en route to a second-place medal at 103 pounds, and his initial trip downstate.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, I was really down about my finish at the Batavia Invite, but I have really worked hard since then, and I am very lucky to have a great coach (Chris Taylor) who has never stopped believing in me, and has helped me change my style of wrestling in order to get me ready for this weekend,” said Ryan, who beat Barrington sophomore Matt Sheehy 6-0 to reach the finals.
The news wasn’t as good for the regional champion Chargers from Dundee-Crown, who watched in disbelief as Travel Rounds (119, 27-13) and Cody Churkey were sent packing after each suffered heartbreaking losses in their state qualifying matches during wrestlebacks.
Rounds put himself into good shape after a hard-fought 10-9 victory over state ranked Jared Parvinmehr (Barrington) but the senior would see his prep career end when 2010 2A runner-up Brian Cullen (Prairie Ridge, 39-4) won with a 14-6 major decision.
Churkey (34-6) who came in as the favorite to win it all as the No. 5 ranked 215-pounder, was forced into the consolation bracket following a 3-0 loss to Luke Miller (32-10) of Libertyville in the semifinals, and eventually eliminated by Jacob Ramon (Waukegan, 23-7) by a fall at 5:29.