Boys wrestling roundup: Grant, Wheeling, Schaumburg among regional winners
The postseason began in earnest on Saturday all across the state of Illinois, with several area teams competing in regional venues all throughout.
Team champions will move on to dual-team sectionals on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at yet to be determined sites, while the top three from each weight class advance into individual sectionals which begin this Friday afternoon.
Grant regional
Mark Jolcover told his men way back in November his club from Grant had an opportunity to experience great things if they continued to put the extra work in and out of the room, and to wrestle for each other, and not themselves.
Two weeks ago the Bulldogs claimed the Lake County Invite title over 16 teams, which would include Stevenson, Wauconda and Warren, who most figured would be the team the Bulldogs would have to beat in order to claim their first regional title since 2016.
Before a raucous home crowd inside Benedetti Center in Fox Lake, the host Bulldogs — inspired by Vince Jasinski and Erik Rodriguez — would lift the championship trophy, much to the delight of Jolcover and his two stars.
"This is a terrific win for the guys, our program and the wrestling community of Grant Community High School," said Jolcover.
"To not only win an individual title, and team title here at home is just amazing," echoed both Jasinski (40-6) and Rodriguez (42-5), who won at 126 and 138, respectively.
Teammates Nathan Flores (150, 28-18) and Casey Gipson (190, 36-10) both would climb the podium well after the Bulldogs amassed 229.5 overall points, followed by Warren (195.5) and Libertyville (152.0).
Warren's nationally ranked duo of Caleb Noble (113, 37-2) and Aaron Stewart (175, 36-2) were unstoppable, while their teammates Jonathan Marquez (120, 31-9), Justice Humphreys (157, 21-5), Royce Lopez (165, 26-5) and Anthony Soto (40-5) gave the Blue Devils faithful plenty to celebrate.
No. 8 Soto, in particular, would be part of a marvelous story at 285 pounds when the senior would defeat No. 6 Abisai Hernandez (Mundelein, 36-4) in his semifinal before stunning No. 2 William Cole (Round Lake, 43-3) in their final.
"(William) is a good guy, a great wrestler, and someone I enjoy competing against, and today, in our match, I saw an opening, and went for it, and it proved to be enough to get a big win," said Soto after his 4-2 decision.
With things level at 1-1 at 5 1/2 minutes, Soto executed a sweet takedown for the win.
Around the rest of the weight divisions, No. 6 Caleb Baczek (Libertyville, 31-1) was unstoppable at 215 pounds, as were the duo from Mundelein: Christian Saucedo (106, 28-13) and Ethan Banda (144, 13-2) who missed just over a month with a chipped vertebrae.
The Mustangs' champions advance into the Barrington sectional where they, and the other individual champs, will receive a first round bye.
Deerfield regional
The rebuilding project Wheeling coach Charlie Curran has undertaken is beginning to pay dividends.
At a top heavy 2A regional in Deerfield, the No. 11 Wildcats held off Wauconda and the host Warriors to lift the championship trophy with 196.0 total points. No. 18 Wauconda was second at 189.5, with No. 12 Deerfield third with 165.5.
"It's great to be a part of a winning team, and to win a regional title," said Wildcats junior Pablo Morales (30-10) who with another pin on the day now leads his club with 25.
Teammates Frankie Katz (106, 30-7) and David Perez (113, 22-10) will join Morales next weekend at the Crystal Lake Central sectional where they earned first round byes after claiming their individual titles.
The Wauconda quartet of two-time state runner-up, No. 5 Gavin Rockey (120, 39-7), Brian Hart (144, 33-12), Christian Cendajez (175, 19-10) and No. 7 Mike Merevick (190, 38-8) all won their weight classes.
"I have great support from my coaching staff, and my partners in the room, helping push me harder than I have ever been pushed. So I feel like I am ready for these next three weeks," said Merevick, who is looking to wrestle at UW-Whitewater next fall.
Carmel Catholic senior David Farjado (17-1), who is looking into a career in professional boxing, used a pin and major decision victory to nab the 150-pound title.
No. 2 Ilia Dvoryiannikov (Vernon Hills, 37-4), the 2024 state runner-up, cruised to victory at 165 pounds.
Dundee-Crown regional
Barrington and Stevenson would not give an inch with nary a point or two separating these two long-time rivals all day.
Barrington would trail the Patriots by 4.5 points as the noon hour arrived, then took the lead for good (179.0-177.0) shortly thereafter and never looked back en route to its 218.0-202.0 victory.
The two sides found themselves in five head-to-head championship matches, with the Broncos taking three home.
Ryan Dorn (120, 34-7), Saul Ramirez (126, 21-18) and sophomore Daniel Blanke (150, 26-9) would defeat their Stevenson rivals in their respective weight divisions while Daniel Bernich and No. 5 Shawn Kogan (132, 37-4) was successful against Barrington foes.
Teammates Everett Ciezak (190, 30-15) and Andrew Timmons (285, 16-6) earned their first regional crown of their career as did Palatine senior Trey Widlowski (32-5) at 175.
Buffalo Grove freshman No. 7 Sasha Havrylkiv (Buffalo Grove, 28-1) won at 113 over No. 5 Kaleb Pratt (Barrington, 18-3) with a medical forfeit with Pratt just returning after a long bout on the injured list.
Third place Fremd (138.5 points) would ride the continued hot hand of No. 4 Drew Fifield (138, 31-3), No. 1 Evan Gosz (144, 40-2) and No. 7 Lucas Nance (165, 34-7) who each crushed the competition on their way to victory.
Gosz' 27th pin of the season led to him collecting his fourth regional title of his superb career.
Silas Oberholtzer (157, 23-16) and junior Clarence Jackson (215, 34-7) would help the Broncos’ cause with their regional titles.
Glenbrook South regional
MSL champion Hersey would parlay seven No. 1 seeds, and six more top four seeds, into a blowout victory on Saturday in Glenview on its way to the regional team title.
No. 2 Max Mukhamedaliyev (144, 38-6) would be a part of eight consecutive individual championships starting with Daniel Lehman (113, 16-10) and ending with junior Frank Tagoe (157, 27-14) to help the Huskies dominate the scoring on the day with 271.5 points.
Prospect was runner-up at 144.5, and Loyola Academy third with 110.0.
Junior Joseph Quirk (Prospect, 18-10) would slow the Huskies’ streak at 165 pounds, before junior Jonathan Slump added one more to the Huskies’ title count at 190.
Lake Park regional
Seniors Brady Phelps (120, 36-3) and Callen Kirchner (150, 40-5) have been at the forefront of postseason success for Schaumburg during their terrific four-year careers under coach Mike Levanti.
The Saxons’ dynamic duo were two of six who would celebrate individual titles to help their club win a third consecutive regional team championship.
The Saxons tallied 209.5 overall points to claim the Lake Park crown, with the host Lancers second with 152.0, nine points better than Conant.
"(Cal) has had a pretty good season with his 40 wins, and 28 pins, and right now he's wrestling with a tremendous amount of confidence," said Levanti.
Kirchner, No. 4 in the state at 144, bumped up a class and showed he belonged with a magnificent performance.
The aforementioned Phelps, his brother Austin (106) as well as AJ (126) and Aiden Quevedo (132) added championship efforts on the day.
Nichols Dilallo (South Elgin) stayed undefeated (32-0) at 113, with Lake Park junior Nick Merola (23-8) taking home a title at 138.
Diliallo's teammate Deremit Zamora (32-8) won at 215, while Jeffrey Rustemi (285, 15-11) will join Merola at sectionals.
Victor Chevganov (Conant, 144, 34-8), Dmytro Patykovskyi (Hoffman Estates, 157, 19-4) and Jackson Spizziri (Conant, 165, 25-19) will all receive first round byes at the Conant sectional next weekend thanks to winning their weight divisions.
No. 6 Fabian Ramirez from Elgin beat league rival Gabe Inorio (Streamwood, 22-6) for the second time in three weeks; however Inorio's teammate Jace Wolf (25-2) would claim the 190-pound title.