Conant wins this fight to the fin-ish
In the fifth annual "Fight for the Fin" it was Conant - hook, line and sinker - over division rival Schaumburg Friday night before a packed house inside the Saxons' wrestling gym.
The Cougars (4-0-0, 1-0-0) both started and ended well, first opening up a 17-0 advantage only to see Schaumburg roar back to take the lead 21-17 against the reigning MSL champs.
That's when Conant coach Chad Hay's team took over in securing a a hard-fought 38-28 victory.
"Schaumburg is well-coached, and they always come at us with everything they have, so we were expecting a fight (tonight) and we got one," said Hay. "So we're thrilled to come away with a big win, to help us keep the trophy for another year."
The traveling "trophy" - an awful looking fish atop a trophy base - was conceived by brothers-in-law Hay and Schaumburg head coach Mike Levanti to help decide family wrestling supremacy argument. It also is helping build a fun and healthy rivalry between the two MSL West teams. After Friday's win, the Cougars will now hold the trophy for a fifth consecutive year.
"It's an exciting night for all of us, and I'm glad we won it again, for the third straight (for me) and in my senior year," said Conant's Danny Madonia, who came up with a dominant performance in the final bout of the night at 132 pounds.
"We got a nice break with the coin flip to start at 138 with Kyle Peisker," Hay said. "And after both he and Nick Catalano plus Brian Smith (152) got us 17 points, we then had to fight off Schaumburg's big men, who put us in a ole, and made me nervous about the final outcome."
Schaumburg's Logan Gruszka (170) and Tony Vezzetti (182) turned up the heat with impressive efforts which led to pins for both seniors. And when Nolan Warner added another at 195, the Saxons' backers began to rock the tiny gym.
"Nolan was the hero (Thursday) night in our big win over Prospect, and he looked very strong again tonight. But a couple of tough losses in the next two matches helped turn things around, and Conant's lower weights went to work on us," said Levanti.
Steve Hanks (220) and teammate Tyler Hickerson (285) held off Andrew Ortiz and Jon Ortiz, respectively, with narrow victories, Hickerson in a 3-2 ultimate tie-breaker to give the visitors the lead for good at 23-21.
When Alex Giuliano (106) exploded out of the blocks to record a fall at 31 seconds, the end was soon near for the Saxons, who split the next two matches before Madonia closed things out for good with fall at 5:26.
"We wrestled hard tonight, but we needed a few things go our way, and they just didn't," said Levanti, who takes his team to the Lane Tech Quad today to face Chicago Kelly, Marian Catholic and the host Indians. Conant travels to Glenbard North to take on the Panthers along with Addison Trail and Notre Dame.