South Elgin’s Pych headed to state

Cody Pych was the lone man standing for Fox Valley area contestants at the Class 3A Downers Grove North wrestling sectional on Saturday.

The South Elgin 160-pounder advanced to the semifinals with an 11-3 verdict over Neuqua Valley junior Drelyn Hunt and automatically qualified for the individual state wrestling tournament at the University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall this weekend by posting a 13-3 major-decision win over Metea Valley sophomore Breon Hoosier.

“Leading up to the final, I was very happy,” said Pych. “I was on a roll and taking it one match at a time.”

But Pych had a fearsome foe in the championship match: top-seeded Brother Rice senior Malik Taylor. Pych was competitive early against Taylor, but the Chicago senior caught Pych in a vulnerable position midway through the final period and pinned the Storm junior.

“I was very happy that (Pych) came at me,” said Taylor. “That’s what wrestling is all about. You don’t want guys running away from you.”

“He had a great weekend,” South Elgin coach Mark Cameron said of his lone state qualifier. “I told him going (into the championship match), ‘Let it fly and see what happens.’ It will allow us to put together a game plan if we see (Taylor) again.”

None of the six other local athletes made it past the quarterfinal round of consolation action to have a chance in the third-place match. Cory Pych, a South Elgin 103-pound freshman, and Ricky Garcia, a South Elgin 171-pounder, were eliminated.

“They had to wrestle better than they have all season (to advance) and it didn’t happen,” said Cameron.

Elgin senior heavyweight Toby Schimel had consecutive losses after winning his quarterfinal match to meet the same fate. Bartlett sophomore Sal Annoreno had his promising year end at 36-4 after back-to-back defeats. Brent Barry (Larkin) and Jeffrey Morrow (Elgin) were the final two local competitors.