Brunner leads Dundee-Crown past Crystal Lake South

With his commitment to Purdue University already finalized, Dundee-Crown senior 195-pounder Christian Brunner can relax and enjoy his senior season on the wrestling mat for the Chargers.

Pinning Crystal Lake South's Dom Bolanos with 1:02 remaining in the first period, Brunner's effort helped Dundee-Crown to a 42-34 win over the Gators in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division action in Carpentersville Thursday night.

"Having made my college choice, I can just concentrate on wrestling my senior season," said Brunner. "It is good not to have to worry about college anymore. I want to pin my man every match as quickly as possible. We have a lot of young wrestlers. We should be good by the end of the season."

Aided by 4 forfeits from Crystal Lake South, the Chargers received pins from Brunner, Chase Raap (182) and Christian Rodriguez (220).

"We are very strong at 182, 195 and 220 with Chase, Christian and Christian," said Dundee-Crown first year coach Tim Hayes, a 2004 graduate of D-C. "They are experienced quality wrestlers. We are very young in the other weight classes with a lot of freshmen. We are trying to establish the fight and pride we had when I wrestled here and our team came in fourth in the state. That will take time."

Ricardo Zambrano (106), Nathan Cardinal (113), Ivan Gonzalez (138) and Justin Winkler (145) collected forfeits for the Chargers (1-1, 1-0).

The Gators (1-2, 0-1) actually won 7 of the 10 matches wrestled on the mat. South registered 4 pins in the 10 matches contested.

Joe Riess (120), Doug Cain (126), Tyler Gardner (138) and Frank Woods (152) picked up pins for the Gators.

"I am really pleased with the effort of the guys," said South coach Ross Ryan. "They are really working hard. Tyler Gardner really wrestled well and got us off to a very good start. Technically and actually we won the match. We are a very young and inexperienced team. We lost a lot of very good wrestlers to graduation. Once we get our full lineup we should do very well."

Gator 160-pounder Shahyan Malik registered the most exciting win of the evening outlasting the Chargers' Jaidan Borja 12-10 with 45 seconds elapsed in overtime.

Ethan Wienandy, at 170, dominated D-C's Mike McCorkle with a 16-3 decision. At 285, Duncan Pincombe outdueled Dundee-Crown's John Saucedo 6-4.