Glenbard North rolls past South Elgin
Making its wrestling dual-team postseason debut, South Elgin faced a daunting task trying to neutralize the powerful lineup defending Class 3A champion Glenbard North assembled.
Storm senior Cody Pych gave South Elgin an early 4-0 lead with his major-decision win at 182 pounds at the West Aurora sectional Tuesday night.
Unfortunately for the Storm, the opening win for South Elgin only awoke the sleeping giant.
The Panthers (16-4) responded by capturing the final 13 weight classes in succession to throttle the Storm 72-4.
South Elgin had its season close at 7-12.
Glenbard North advances to the Elite Eight for the fourth straight year and will face Minooka, which outlasted Edwardsville in Springfield, in a rematch of the state championship from a year ago.
“We did what we had to do,” Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn said. “South Elgin did a nice job of getting here. Obviously, we’re at a different level than them.”
Reigning state medal-winner Dan Eldridge began the Panthers’ onslaught with a first-period fall at 195 pounds, and Cesar Vega continued the unanswered burst with a technical fall at 220 pounds.
Dan McHale took out his frustrations of being the only Glenbard North participant among nine sectional qualifiers who failed to make the state grade by securing a fall at heavyweight.
When South Elgin could not answer the bell at either 106 or 113 pounds, the resulting 12 forfeited points extended the Panthers’ run to 29 straight.
Cody Pych, who along with his older brother Cory constituted the sum total of Storm state qualifiers.
The younger Pych wrestled a weight up, but Chris Gonzalez did not allow his fellow state qualifier to score.
“I wanted to see my kids come out and wrestle hard,” Storm coach Mark Cameron said. “I give my kids a lot of credit.”
Even with Glenbard North tweaking its lineup in preparation for three potential showdowns Saturday in Bloomington, South Elgin could not find an answer.
State-hardened veterans Jered Cortez, an undefeated state champion, and Bryan Murphy, a once-denied state runner-up, each won by fall for Glenbard North.
Danny Johnson returned to the Panthers’ fold to earn a win at 145 pounds, the lone Glenbard North triumph who failed to elicit any bonus points.
“Everything is coming back,” Johnson said of his regular-season-ending injury at the DuPage Valley Conference meet. “We need to come out with bonus points (at Bloomington).”
Colton Wagner, in his varsity debut, had a fall to close out the one-sided affair.
“I didn’t think (the team score) was going to be that far apart, but I thought we had the advantage,” Wagner said. “It was a pretty intense match all the way through.”
South Elgin was without the services of sectional qualifiers D.J. Greene and Adrian Gardono.
“That didn’t help,” Cameron said.
“Today was all about the team for my final match,” Cody Pych said. “I’m kind of disappointed we came out and got beat this bad.”