Boys wrestling: Prospect pulls away from field at Mudge-McMorrow
Prospect put on a stunning display of offensive firepower, pulling away from its closest rivals, Libertyville and Hersey, to claim the championship trophy at the 61st annual Mudge-McMorrow wrestling invitational Saturday afternoon on its home mats inside Jean Walker Field House.
The Knights held a slim lead (187.50-185.00) over Libertyville before the start of place matches began, then finished with a flurry to outscore the Wildcats 33-15 and lift the trophy with 220.50 overall points.
The Wildcats would claim second place honors with 200 points, followed closely by Hersey (197), then McHenry (168) and Fremd (158.50) to round out the top five at this high profile tournament.
"We received solid performances from our three individual winners and four others who were top three medalists, but we have to be better all across the board in order to be contenders when it really counts," said Prospect coach Tom Whalen.
The Knights' faithful would celebrate another major title from Will Baysingar (132, 15-0) in addition to first-time champions Connor Munn (8-1, 152) and heavyweight Sean Michel (8-0), who would pin top seed Caleb Christensen of Libertyville at 1:52.
"It was a pretty good day for us, but we ran into some tough competition in our finals, and that's something we'll have to continue to work on," said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert, who praised Caelan Riley (120) and Josh Knudten (182) for their superb efforts at their respective weight classes, as well as Cole Matulenko, who claimed the third title on the day for his club at 195 pounds.
"We had a bit of a rough go of it early on but the team is coming around of late, so I am feeling confident we'll be ready to compete at a higher level in the last half of this season," offered the aforementioned Caelan Riley, who will wrestle next fall at The Citadel.
Hersey, coming off its thrilling team championship last weekend at the inaugural McLaughlin Classic at Joliet Central, continues to show signs of being a force in the Mid-Suburban League with its strong overall performance, which included a title at 220 pounds from senior Manny Mejia.
"The success of this team, and our program, has a lot to do with our coaching staff, and especially our head coach Joe Rupslauk, who has made our room into a real family," said Mejia.
The dynamic lower weight and state ranked duo from Fremd, Wiley Jessup (106) and freshman Evan Gosz (113), proved too much for their opponents on their way to the top of the podium, as were Chris Moore and Brady Hallin from McHenry, who each left little doubt as to why both will be considered favorites at the Class 3A state tournament in late February.
Moore, the No. 1 rated wrestler in the state at 160, demolished a trio of opponents on Saturday, while his teammate Hallin, No. 3 at 170, pinned his way into the final, where he meant plenty of resistance from Austin Gomez, before recording a hard-fought 4-3 decision over the Libertyville junior.