Conant comes through against Meadows
Conant started fast and finished strong in a 41-22 victory over Rolling Meadows on Thursday night in Mid-Suburban League divisional crossover action in Hoffman Estates.
Ricky Stanton and Brendan Penny got the Cougars (9-3) headed in the right direction against the visiting Mustangs. Later, Mitch Alexander (138) and Travis Sylvester, among Conant’s top competitors, put the finishing touches on the triumph.
“You always know Rolling Meadows is going to come after you, so this was good, solid win for us tonight,” said Conant coach Chad Hay, who has watched his team lose duals only to state-ranked teams Oak Park-River Forest, Notre Dame, and Barrington, which is clearly tops in the MSL this season. “The guys came out and competed right from the start, beginning with both Ricky and Brendan to help us get out in front, and hopefully we will keep it going as we head toward the postseason.”
The Cougars built an 18-point lead at 22-4 using a major decision from Penny and a fall at 182 by Tyler LaBarbera, coupled with a hard-earned 6-1 decision from Dan Schram over Luke Perkins at 220.
The lone points for the Mustangs (5-8-0) during the opening barrage came from senior Joe Caprio, who enters this weekend rated No. 6 in the state.
“We’re really young this season — in fact, we have a lot of guys who just last season were on the freshman team, and this year they have to kind of learn under fire on the varsity level,” said Caprio, who had already earned a trio of championship trophies in weekend tournaments. “For me, I feel like the season is progressing at a nice pace, and with a lot of extra work on improving my (shots), I feel like I’ll be ready when the postseason begins.”
Caprio was impressed with the strength shown by his opponent Thursday night, Gino Prestia. He kept the 2010 state qualifier, and three-time sectional qualifier at bay during the second period with some serious riding time in the first minute of the period, only to give up a late takedown which led to an eventual 11-3 major decision.
“Out of all our matches tonight, I was most pleased with the effort from Gino,” said Hay. “Caprio is an elite wrestler in the state, and for (Gino), he saw he could compete with a wrestler of that level. So even in defeat, he could take something positive from that match and go forward from there.”
Heavyweight Jordan Diaz needed little time to record a fall in 31 seconds to end the Cougars’ 15-point run. After a dominant performance by Aaron Kohlberg at 112 which resulted in a fall at 1:07, followed by a major decision win by Zach Davis (13-2), the visitors had pulled within 16 (32-16).
Rolling Meadows’ Lamart Burress held off Chistian Cuevas by riding him for the entire third period to secure a 3-2 victory, and Carl Beranek outlasted Gus Karapanos 8-4 at 132 to draw the Mustangs even closer at 32-22. But Alexander, out since the Lake Park Invite in mid-December, produced an 8-2 win, and Sylvester won by pin at 5:50.
“We’ve had a rough go of injuries this season, and we’re still learning on the job with so many new guys, but Conant was the better team tonight and deserved its victory,” said Rolling Meadows coach Dave Froehlich. “We won five matches, and were hoping to get seven — but Conant is one of the better teams in our league this year, and we just didn’t have enough of what it takes to beat a team like them.”