Dundee-Crown notches 2 wins
Dundee-Crown senior Dillon Muscat said Saturday’s meet against Hersey was just a normal one even with Al Zinke on the other bench.
The longtime D-C coach retired after last season after coaching for 32 years and now is an assistant with the Huskies.
D-C beat its former coach and Hersey, 36-33, in the final meet of a triangular in Carpentersville.
“It feels different when you hear his voice,” Muscat said of Zinke’s easily recognizable voice. “I saw him today and waved.”
The meet was supposed to be a quadrangular, but Foreman did not have enough healthy wrestlers to send a team. The Chargers also beat Larkin, 55-17. Hersey topped the Royals, 43-33.
Muscat had a technical fall victory in the 138-pound match against Hersey. The Chargers got falls from Elijah Velez-Kreamer (145), Tim Schanmier (152) and Raymond Griggle (285). David Campos had a major-decision victory at 120 to start the meet.
The meet was tied 30-30 heading into the 106-pound match. The Chargers were getting 6 points at 113, the final match, as Hersey was forfeiting the weight class. Hersey’s Anthony O’Brien needed to pin Diamond Flynn, a freshman who usually does not wrestle varsity, to earn 6 points and to make the meet a tie. O’Brien had Flynn on his back a couple times, earning back points, but Flynn fought out. O’Brien won by a 12-10 decision, earning 3 points for Hersey.
Both teams were standing at the edge of the mat, showing the meet did mean something.
“We have kind of come full circle,” said Hersey Jim Wormsley, who wrestled for Zinke at D-C. “I started my career with Al coaching here. It’s good having him. I’m always learning new things from him, even now.”
O’Brien, Stephon Scales (126), Conrad Bugay (132), Hunter Rollins (160), Keith Pederson (182) and Deon Rice (195) each went 2-0 on the day for the Huskies.
Campos, Muscat, Velez-Kreamer, Schanmier, Griggle (220 against Larkin) each won two matches on the mat. JeQuann Flynn (113) had a fall victory against the Royals and the forfeit against Hersey.
“We had a weird schedule this week. We wrestled Tuesday, Thursday and today. Today was the only day we really wrestled like ourselves,” said first-year Chargers coach Robert Skillman, who has been an assistant since 1988.
“That is very strange (seeing Zinke). Wormsley used to coach with us too. It’s fun seeing everybody.”
Larkin went 0-2 on the day, but coach Andre Allen was pleased, especially with the match against Hersey.
“I thought we had a good comeback, considering our first match against Dundee-Crown, which wasn’t our best match,” Allen said. “I was proud of our guys to have a turnaround in some of our matches and show a lot better effort.”
David Perez (170) and Devontate Joshua (285) had victories by fall against the Chargers. Brett Barry (160) had a technical fall win.