Montini in control at sectional
No doubt about it, the Montini wrestling team dominated Saturday’s Class 2A Lemont individual sectional.
The Broncos had wrestlers advance into nine of the 14 championship bouts and won eight of them.
“We worked on some things and made some adjustments this week and then put them on the line today,” Montini coach Israel Martinez said. “I think we did a good job, but we still have a lot of work to do before we get down to state.”
Montini could not have gotten off to a better start in the championship round when Tommy Pawelski upset Rich Central’s Nkosi Moody at 106 pounds.
“Tommy is not even ranked at all in the country and isn’t even No. 1 in the state and he squeaks it out against a Top 10 kid in the country,” Martinez said. “He’s not a big leg tackler, but he has a game plan and the right frame of mind and when you have that then the sky is the limit.”
Pawelski started a stretch of seven straight victories for the Broncos, winning at 106 through 145 pounds.
One of those victories came from Jordan Laster, who defeated Chicago Bowen’s Rozel Darling at 113 pounds.
“I’ve been working on dominating my opponents and think I did that today,” Laster said. “Last year I was a bit more timid, but I’ve been working hard and was able to get the pin and the (technical fall) and then went out and got revenge in a big way.”
While the Broncos have an incredible amount of talent, they also follow a great game plan and do their homework. Such was certainly the case at 132 pounds, where Chris Garcia defeated Fenton’s Ray Bunker.
“I wrestled him last year at state so I knew what his style was and tried to work with what I knew,” Garcia said. “I have the best coach I’ve ever known. Having that along with my knowledge of the sport allows me to figure out what I need to do and then I just go out and try to do it.”
The Broncos’ lone loss in the championship round occurred in Jake Turk’s bout against Lemont’s Chris Giatras at 182 pounds. It was cut short after Turk took a blow to the head and neck area.
“He bumped his neck a little bit so you just have to move on, ice it and get ready for next week,” Martinez said. “He made great adjustments for this week, so it’s unfortunate it happened but better now than next week.”
Anthony Ferraro picked up the final championship round victory for the Broncos when he patiently took care of Oak Forest’s Alec Brown.
He made some careless mistakes and didn’t keep his composure and that’s how I won,” Ferraro said. “He was a tough kid but he tried to take me down in the second period and when he did I ducked under and got my quick two.”
KeVon Powell (120 pounds), Michael Sepke (126), Drew Vrbenec (138) and Xavier Montalvo (145) were also sectional champions for the Broncos. Vrbenec beat Fenton’s Sean Havlovic for the title.