Shealy’s pin seals the deal for Barrington
Mark Shealy made his sectional nightmare go away, and in just under four minutes, the Barrington junior gave himself a new memory he will never forget.
Shealy, who for the last two weeks has had to think about how close he came to earning a trip downstate, became the man of the night for the Mid-Suburban League champs when he pinned Jonathan Wells of Grant to help settle a dual-team sectional thriller at Wheeling.
The 29-18 victory sends the Broncos to the dual-team state tournament. Barrington will face Naperville Central at 9 a.m. Saturday in a state quarterfinal dual at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington. The Redhawks defeated Maine West 40-24 Tuesday night in Aurora.
“These last two weeks have been kind of tough,” said Shealy (33-6) who lost his state qualifying match to Joey Welsh of Hononegah. “To get that close and not finish things off was very hard. But tonight, it wasn’t all about me, it was all about the team. When I realized it was going to come down to me in the last match of the night, I was ready to go, and at that point, everything that happened to me at (sectionals) wasn’t going to affect me at all.”
The 182-pounder recorded the lone fall on a night when both teams did their best to tactically avoid them. But both teams were also dealing with injuries, which complicated the strategic element.
“Earlier in the week, I was thinking we were in pretty good shape after (Barrington) lost their 95-pounder (Ryan Wilt) and then Jared (Parvinmehr) at the state tournament,” said Grant coach Ryan Geist. “But when we lost our heavyweight (Dan Haeffle) after he suffered a rib injury at the state tournament, then you begin to look at each weight class and know that it could very well be a tight match from start to finish.”
Geist proved to be right on in his predictions — so much so that this dual saw 7 lead changes. The Broncos won 8 of 14 bouts, including the last four to seal the deal and earn them a third consecutive state appearance.
“Grant is so tough, and (Ryan) does such a great job coaching over there, so we knew we would have to wrestle our best in order to win, plus make sure to stay away from giving (Grant) any bonus points along the way with majors, and tech-falls or pins, and we did,” said Barrington coach Ken Hoving, who was finally able to exhale after the Shealy pin.
The loss of Haeffle and his 35 wins not only took the important big man out of action for the Bulldogs big night, it also caused Geist and his staff to tweak their lineup at the top. That wiped away a potential Haeffle-Ben Calamari rematch from the sectional, and bumped Bulldogs state medalist Quinton Quarles (41-6) up to take on Calamari, whom he beat 7-6.
“Dan’s absence was key because we had to shift a few guys around, and we were not able to get the matchups we would have liked,” said Geist.
After Ryan Flores edged sophomore Luis Hernandez (in for Wilt, who was out with a torn oblique muscle) 8-7 to open the festivities. The teams split at 220 and 285 before the Broncos’ Adrian Gonzalez (35-5) recorded only the second major decision of the night, a 16-3 triumph.
Junior Matt Sheehy, a sectional qualifier last season but just behind Gonzalez and Parvinmehr on the depth chart this year, made his presence felt with a strong effort against Nick Kramer, which ended in a 2-0 victory and a 10-6 Barrington lead.
It would be short-lived however. Noah Drabek (25-11) and Ben Soumar (38-6) won back-to-back to put the Bulldogs back in front at 12-10.
Freshman Travis Cysewski, who won a big match for the Broncos at regionals before being sidelined by injury, delivered a 7-4 victory over Alfie Gutierrez at 132 to put Barrington back in front at 13-12.
“Just like regionals, Travis came through when we really needed him to, while turning around the momentum in our favor,” said Hoving.
Nick Fanella (27-12) recorded a 13-7 victory at 138 over Joe Thorn to put the Bulldogs up for the last time (15-13) before the middle of the Broncos’ lineup flexed its muscle to score the next 10 points. State medalist Coord Wiseman (145, 38-12), Nick Shealy (152, 28-13) and Michael Lurz (29-10) were the difference-makers.
Grant’s superb junior state qualifier at 170 pounds, Tony Cashmore (38-9), nearly pinned his counterpart, Cameron Thomson (38-4) after a throw and head-lock in the first 40 seconds. But Thomson was able to fight off Cashmore for the rest of the period, and keep the Bulldogs star from earning more than a 6-1 decision.
The 3-point win left the Bulldogs trailing 23-18 heading into the final bout of the night, where only a pin by Wells would have given the North Suburban Conference champs a trip downstate.
Mark Shealy opened the scoring with a takedown 18 seconds into the second period. His pin of the Bulldogs sophomore at 3:47 sent Barrington’s fans out of their seats with joy.
“I knew I had to (at) least get a win to send us downstate, but it felt pretty good to finish things up for us with a pin,” said Shealy.
“This has been a big turnaround year for us after going 15-10, finishing seventh in the NSC and way down the list at our regional last year,” said Cashmore.“I felt really good about tonight, but we lost some matches we shouldn’t have, and we really missed Dan at heavyweight. But it was a great season for this team.”
Ÿ In the other sectional dual at the site, Machesney Park Harlem (18-0), led by 113-pound champion Jordan Northrup (43-3), defeated New Trier 41-24 in a match which was not as close as the final score suggests.
Sage Hecox and Cam Baxter opened with consecutive pins, and McHenry went on to build a big lead as it advanced to state for a second straight season under coach Cal Ferry.