Huntley battles past Jacobs
It was a back and forth kind of night between the wrestling teams from Huntley and Jacobs.
Several individual bouts featured dramatic endings and the team score came down to the penultimate match before the Red Raiders prevailed, 33-27, in Fox Valley Conference Valley action in Huntley Thursday.
At 106 pounds, Josh Stenger trailed 5-0 in the second period but came up with a takedown with 3 seconds left in the match to tie it and another takedown in overtime for the win.
At 126, Jacobs’ Chris Dranka trailed 6-2 in the third round before coming back for an 8-6 win. That gave Jacobs an 11-6 lead in the team score, but Huntley dominated the next 4 weight classes to pull ahead.
Chris Gamboa (132) and Brandon Meyer (138) scored major decisions, Matt Kitsis added a pin, and Trevor Symbal picked up a forfeit at 152 to give the home team a commanding lead.
Jacobs made things interesting with a major decision by Michael Ricks at 160 and a pin by Mike Bujacz at 170, but Huntley clinched the match with wins by Petros Mihalopoulos at 182 and Mike Walker at 195.
“Usually, when I’m put in a spot, I’m good under pressure,” said Walker, whose win proved to be the clincher.
Still, the final score was a little closer than Huntley coach B.J. Bertelsman would have liked.
“We didn’t show any type of real effort,” he said. “The guys that did win, they did real well. But the guys that lost tonight, they took so many steps back, it was really bad. I hope I can blame it on a bug, but Jacobs came to wrestle tonight and we didn’t.”
Jacobs coach Gary Conrad, by contrast, liked the effort of his squad, but just felt outmanned.
“We’ve got guys who are injured,” he said. “So we’ve got gaps. We’ve just got to get more kids out to wrestle at Jacobs.”
Jacobs got off to a solid start with a win by heavyweight Johnny Cienkewicz, and ended with a pin by Mark Mamola at 220. Cody Ferencz at 120 won by technical fall.
Nick Meyer also won for Huntley at 113 pounds, one of 3 wins by seniors, including Kitsis and Symbal, on Huntley’s senior night.