Wheaton North claims win against archrival WW South
Injuries and illness. Not a good combination for any high school wrestling program.
It also takes a little bit of the edge off a rivalry match, such as host Wheaton Warrenville South's DuKane Conference tilt against Wheaton North on Thursday.
The Falcons won 48-15 but took five matches due to forfeit. On the flip side they forfeited two matches.
"It's unfortunate," said Wheaton North coach Travis Cherry, whose squad improved to 7-6 overall in duals and 3-1 in league. "We're at a part of the season where guys are banged up and I usually tell my guys it's not where you start the season but how you finish. We're working to get healthy towards the end of January to get ready for the DuKane Conference (meet) and regionals, because it's going to be a battle."
His Wheaton Warrenville South counterpart, Matt Janosek, had a simple message for his wrestlers, even though they were immediately behind the injury and illness 8-ball, going down 25-0 through the first five matches.
"I just asked the boys to go out there and wrestle hard the entire six minutes, or however long the match is, and you've got to be ready to compete at the level that we can, regardless of who is in the lineup or out of the lineup," said Janosek, whose team fell to 8-11 in duals and 1-3 in conference.
The matches that did ultimately take place were intriguing. Take Wheaton North 195-pounder Antowon Tolbert's match against the Tigers' Jon Gonzalez.
Tolbert had a slight 3-1 edge heading into the final 10 seconds of the match, before scoring a 2-point takedown to set the 5-1 final score.
"Last year I lost to this kid, he's pretty good," Tolbert said of Gonzalez. "I wouldn't blame myself, I wasn't mentally ready last year. This year I came out and I was mentally focused and I had positive thoughts and not thinking back at all and working on my technique."
That put Wheaton North up 19-0, which increased to 25-0 with Cam'ron Harper's 220-pound forfeit victory. Then Wheaton Warrenville South struck back when Kevin Tochimani pinned Greg Antonik in 3:07.
But there was a long, long way to go for the Tigers.
"Half of our varsity team is out from injuries," Tochimani said. "It put a lot of weight on my shoulders knowing we were down by that much. I gained those points and (it was good) knowing that at least I did my part."
A Wheaton North forfeit at 113 set up another interesting match at 120, where the Falcons' Brice Balosky managed to slip past the Tigers' Aiden Waszak 6-4, after taking a 5-1 lead after two periods.
Wheaton Warrenville South got one back with a 7-4 win by Dominic Duve over Zach Lamp at 126, but back-to-back major decisions by the Falcons' Sam Chesney (132 pounds) and Buddy Evangelista (138) followed, then a pair of Tigers' forfeits, which set the final score.
Forget the injuries and illness, Balosky said. Getting the conference win is what matters in the end.
"Every dual counts here," Balosky said. "It's a tough conference. We're getting better and better as the season goes."