Montini, Glenbard North shine at Conant sectional

Montini, Glenbard North, and DeKalb combined for nearly half of the 56 qualifying spots that came out of Saturday's Class 3A Conant individual wrestling sectional in Hoffman Estates.

Coach Israel Martinez's Montini unit placed one grappler in each of the 14 weight classes coming out on top in half of them.

It began with junior Nick Gonzalez at the 113-pound class as he beat Taft's Julian Valtierrez 9-4. Fellow junior Nain Vazquez took the baton and triumphed at 120 with a dominant 20-5 win over Glenbard North's Ronan Schuelke. Senior Dylan Ragusin made it three straight for Montini when he bested St. Charles East's Jake Penzato 19-4 in the 126-pound bracket.

Another run of titles came for Montini when senior Joe Roberts downed Addison Trail's Jake Matthews 17-6 for the 152-pound title, sophomore Connor Wettig scored a second-period technical fall over Conant's Jack Hominac for the 170-pound crown and senior Trevor Swier triumphed over Glenbard North's Alonzo Smiley 11-5 in the 182-pound final.

Josh LaBarbera's 11-4 win over South Elgin's Mike Roath in the 220-pound weight class capped off Montini's day.

Perhaps key to the Broncos' success was the approach taken by their mentor as it being a regularly scheduled tournament.

"You don't look at it as a sectional. If you look at it as a sectional, you put too much pressure on yourself," Martinez said. "You look at it as another event that we've scheduled that's in the process to get to the next level."

Gonzalez likes to direct the focus on his teammate's collective effort at getting everyone qualified.

"We eventually ended up doing that," Gonzalez said. "Because we all want each other down there to have some fun. It feels really good, but there is still a lot of work to be done."

Despite only winning one title when sophomore Paulie Robertson grinded out a 7-2 win over York's Josh Mathiasen in the 285-pound class, Glenbard North will send seven to Champaign next weekend.

Robertson paid homage to his teammates for encouraging him to do his best.

"That's what will keep you going," Robertson said. "When you've got great teammates in Gold Dot Nation we stick together like one. When one guy's wrestling, the rest of us are cheering that one person on."

DuPage Valley champion DeKalb will send six members of its team to next weekend's state finals at the University of Illinois' State Farm Center. The Barbs featured four winners, highlighted by junior Ben Arnada's first period fall over Glenbard East's Miguel Garcia.

"We had a good tournament," DeKalb coach Sam Hiatt said. "You get excited for the kids who accomplished their goals and hurt for the kids who fell short."