Boys wrestling: St. Charles East defends DuKane crown
St. Charles East, the 2023 Class 3A state champion, put defending last year’s success out its collective mind and just concentrated on winning matches in Saturday’s DuKane Conference meet.
The strategy worked as the Fighting Saints took first in eight of the 14 weight classes to repeat as meet champions with 325 points on their home mats.
With the exception of Wheaton North and Batavia, who swapped places, the team standings were the same as last year. Glenbard North, which captured two first place medals, finished second again, tallying 219.5 points.
Wheaton North (201), which also took top honors in two classes, finished third and Batavia (165), winner of the 190-pound weight class, came in fourth.
“In the beginning of the year, we talked about pressure. You can either focus on that or you can just focus on doing your job. A lot of our guys are the top dogs, so people are coming for you,” St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said. “When you wrestle with pressure, you wrestle tight and bad things happen. We just wrestle loose. We told the guys, score some points and win some matches. This thing will take care of itself.”
Returning Saints state champions Dom Munaretto, Ben Davino and Jayden Colon took top honors in the 113, 132 and 144 weight classes, respectively.
Last year’s state qualifiers Tyler Guerra (138), Anthony Guiterrez (165) and Brody Murray (175) also took home first place medals for the Saints.
Gavin Connolly (150) and Matt Medina (285) also ascended to the top step of the winners’ podium for St. Charles East.
Medina’s win over Wheaton Warrenville South’s Ashton Kibbe on a pin at the 1:21 mark of the match was the most satisfying, according to Potter.
“That was a revenge match. He lost to that kid earlier in the year in a dual (meet) so that was a big one,” said Potter.
“Earlier in the season, it didn't go exactly my way. Today I came out with a game plan — stick to my basic offense,” Medina said. “But I ended up having to hold my defense and it worked.”
Kalani Khiev (120) and Christian Chaves (126) earned top honors for Glenbard North.
Khiev also turned the tables on his opponent — Batavia’s Ino Garcia. The last two years, Garcia, a senior, has beaten Khiev in the championship match.
“I made many adjustments,” Khiev said about his 6-3 decision. “It wasn't the prettiest match, but it's about winning.”
Rocco Magellaio (106) and Thomas Fulton (157) were Wheaton North’s medalists.
Batavia senior Ben Brown won the 190-pound title with a 3-1 sudden victory in the first overtime period over St. Charles East’s Cooper Murray.
“I knew it was going to be a slow-paced match, but I just had to stay solid with my feet, not getting bad position and just kind of wear him down,” Brown said. “I could start to feel him going down in overtime and I eventually won.”
Geneva’s Joe Petit earned top honors at 215.