Barrington powers to invite title
With wrestlers such as Luke Smith and Danny Sabatello on the guest list for several years previous, the Moore-Prettyman Invitational always seemed to have enough individual star-power to illuminate the Barrington field house.
Those state champs are on the collegiate wrestling scene this year, but it turned out the 21st annual tournament wasn’t lacking in the energy department.
The host Broncos were electric Saturday afternoon, providing one amped-up performance after another en route to a record-setting team championship, the first in program history.
Seniors Adrian Gonzalez, Jared Parvinmehr and Cameron Thomson were three of five Broncos to win, and Barrington overwhelmed the field to score an astounding 273.5 points over two days. Runner-up Plainfield Central finished a distant 109.50 points behind the reigning Mid-Suburban League champs.
Neuqua Valley earned third place with 155, with Crystal Lake South finished fourth, thanks in part to superb work from champions Nick Fontanetta and Tom Gerszewski.
North Suburban Conference power Libertyville edged Hinsdale Central 135-132.50 to claim fifth place.
“When I wrestled at Conant, it was always about team first, and right from the first day I took over this year, I’ve been a strong advocate of the same thing here at Barrington,” said first-year Broncos head coach Ken Hoving. “And today you saw how much wrestling is a team sport — not only from the effort and terrific results, but also how each and every guy on this team was right there for their teammates during their matches.
“Tonight we’ll celebrate this amazing team victory. But on Monday, we go back to work.”
“This was a great win for all of us,” said Thomson, who won 40 bouts last season in his first full season with the varsity. “I look at guys like (Michael) Lurz and Cord (Wiseman) and both of them wrestling so hard to win their first tournament title of their careers, and how hard they’ve worked to make themselves better, and you can’t help but not be inspired by their effort and result in the final.”
Thomson defeated talented Wheeling senior Eddie Scanlon 8-5 in the 170-pound final to give the Broncos their fifth and final title of the tournament, just after Lurz outlasted top seed Kyle Ledbetter (7-5) from Plainfield Central. Lurz was relentless in his charge to his title, keeping the match close until measuring up his opponent for a key take-down with 30 seconds remaining in regulation.
Wiseman was nearly flawless during his 3-0 decision against Steve Meyers of Plainfield North at 145 pounds, taking a 1-0 lead late into his bout before recording a key takedown and riding out Meyers.
“I am very fortunate to have guys like Nick Shealy and Joe Thorne in the room each and every day, and they played a big part in this championship today,” said Wiseman, who won 20 matches last season.
The 1-2 punch of Gonzalez and Parvinmehr got things going for the Broncos just after the introductions, with Gonzales winning his second Moore-Prettyman crown after a 9-1 major decision victory over teammate Matt Sheehy, who was a sectional qualifier last year as a sophomore.
One match later, Parvinmehr thumped Steve Polawkski of Libertvyille 13-0 in the 113-pound final.
“On a scale of 1-10, I think I was at a (7), but it was still a big win for me and the team,” said Parvinmehr, whose 9-point explosion in the third period ended the hopes of the Wildcats’ sophomore.
Fontanetta, who has enjoyed one memorable match after another inside the Barrington field house during his sensational career, both at this tournament and in sectional competition, added one more after his 1-0 win over Ben Soutar of Grant at 120 pounds.
The two-time state medalist, who could have easily been awarded MVP honors instead of Hinsdale Central heavyweight Brian Allen after shutting out all four opponents, made a successful transision to the 120-pound weight class after starring at 112 last year.
“It’s a big jump — everyone is bigger and stronger — but all it means is sometimes you have to grind things out a little more in order to get the job done, and that’s what I did to win a tight match in the final,” said the Gators senior, who claimed his third tournament championship title.
Cary-Grove freshman Mike Cullen signaled his arrival on the scene with a third-place finish at 106 pounds, which included a superb six-minute match with the eventual champ (Gonzalez), who prevailed 1-0 over the impressive Trojans rookie.
“Mike has the makings of a future star because of his work rate and effort, and the terrific technical and tactical awareness he already owns,” said Cary-Grove first-year head coach Ryan Ludwig. “He has a lot of confidence, but he’s also very humble and extremely coachable, and we’re all anxious to see where he’s in January.”
Both Josh Symbal (Huntley) and Crystal Lake South’s Nick Peters fell just short of finishing atop the podium on Saturday. Peters, a junior, ended up on the short end of a 9-5 decision against two-time state qualifier Tim Corse of St. Rita in the 138-pound final, while Symbal saw his attempt to win at 182 pounds foiled by Neuqua Valley’s Connor Swier 7-3.
“If I had a do-over,” said Symbal, “I wouldn’t have come out so flat and gotten behind early. And for me — ‘Mr. Cradle’ — to have an opponent get me on a cradle just isn’t right. That might have been the difference in my match, who knows? But I’ll get back to work and hopefully see (Swier) again downstate.”
Swier was the lone champion for the Wildcats, who still managed to get themselves into the mix of things on the team side of things with nine place-winners.
“We’ve been struggling here ever since Nick Proctor won a title (in 2009, when Matt Cavalaris and Andy Spangler also were champions for the second-place Wildcats). So it felt good to win a title to help us out,” said Swier. “I had a good start in my final, and statistics say 89 percent of the time the wrestler who scores first (wins) his match. Getting that early takedown before adding to my lead to go up 5-1 after the first period was big for me.”
Waubonsie Valley finished 18th overall with 58 points.