Libertyville a dominant regional champ

People were anticipating a close meet Saturday when Libertyville hosted a nine-team IHSA Class 3A wrestling regional.

But with every possible individual you could imagine contributing from the top of their lineup to the bottom, the host Wildcats completely dominated the tournament en route to their 28th regional title in school history with 213 points.

With the decisive victory, Libertyville's squad also advances to the McHenry dual-team sectional Feb. 19.

Libertyville took a commanding 185 to 155 lead over Deerfield heading into the final round as the Warriors wound up capturing second place by a fairly comfortable 172.5 to 156.5 margin over Warren. A couple of upsets were devastating to the Blue Devils' dreams of a regional championship.

Fourth-place Grant (143 points) also had a good day with six individuals advancing to next weekend's Barrington sectional.

Libertyville had 12 of its 14 wrestlers make the final round with 132-pounder Danny Pucino (38-1), and 138-pound teammate Michael Gunther (36-3) winning crowns.

The Wildcats also got second-place finishes from Caelan Riley (106), Peter Kafkis (120), and Brandon Murphy (126).

Only the top three individuals in each weight class advance to the sectional round. Libertyville teammates Alec Goodman (145), Ryan Damenti (182), and Jordan Smith (220) all earned berths to that rugged tourney.

“It was a great day, it was really close in the semifinals, and in the consolation semifinals we lit it up,” said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert, who saw sophomore Adam Pressley (195) eliminate No. 2-seeded Armondo Barandey of Warren 12-4 in that round before falling in his third-place match.

“We won seven in a row, and this year we had a lot of unseeded guys winning in the consolation semifinals.”

Smith eliminated top-seeded Warren 220-pounder Christian Goeden 3-2 in an overtime tiebreaker in a second round consolation match.

But the Blue Devils still had a lot of success with 106-pounder Sawyer Nash (36-0), 113-pounder Austin Nash (22-1), 120-pounder Cam Domke (34-3), and 126-pounder Joel Vandervere (6-0) all winning titles.

“I'm 100 percent, I feel better than I ever have, and I think it is going to be a lot better than last year,” said Vandervere, who is just coming back from surgery in June from a torn ACL and MCL. “We gave a good team effort. Some things didn't go our way, but we still did pretty well.”

Warren got a second place from Isaiah Parker at 152, and a third from Adam Hergenreder at 132.

“Today didn't work out very well for our upper weights, and we have great lower weights,” said Warren coach Brad Janecek. “The guys moving on next week have a great shot of making state. And Joel can absolutely win it (state title) because he's put the time in, and he's placed at nationals before.”

Grant was led by first-place winner Justin Brown (32-8 at 182), Angel Martinez (second at 285), and third-place finishers Sean Rogan (106), Justin Warmowski (113), Ethan Geist (152), and Kyle Rainey (170).

“The regional was extremely deep this year, and we were really happy to see a lot of our younger guys step up and do some good things,” said Grant coach Lenny Grodoski. “For Geist to beat that Zion kid (Daniel Alaniz) was nice because there were four ranked guys at 152.”

Mundelein got a title from Jason Guadarrama (32-6 at 220) along with seconds from Geo Albavera (170), D.J. Preston (182), and Rudy Osornio (195).

Round Lake got a second from Ender Kongkaeow (132), and a third from Zach McCain (138).

Class 2A: Marian Central won the Harvard regional with 188 points while Wauconda (102.5) placed fifth.

The Bulldogs got second-place finishes from Evan Husko (126), and Nick Bennett (145) while teammates Jack Sullivan (106), and Colin Husko (120) also advanced to the Antioch individual sectional next weekend with third-place finishes.

At Lakes, perennial power Antioch completely rolled to the championship with 208.5 points to easily topple Grayslake Central (143) in second, and Carmel Catholic (140.5) in third.

The Sequoits were led by individual champions Drew Lehn (113), Alex Barbarise (120), Danny McPherson (126), and Xavier Sanchez (285).

Undefeated Grayslake Central teammates Alex Cramer (40-0 at 170), and Adrien Cramer (38-0 at 182) continued to roll as did Carmel defending state champ Riley Palm (25-1 at 138). Joey Murphy also placed first for the Rams at 145.

Vernon Hills got crowns from Will Ludolph (106), Casey Wood (195), and Faheem Mannan (220) while Carmel also got titles from Christian Valadez at 132, and Tommy Hoy at 160. Grayslake North's Adam Blonski took first at 152.

Antioch will also advance to the Wauconda dual-team sectional on Feb. 19.