Boys wrestling regional roundup: Prospect holds off Fremd to claim regional crown

The wrestling postseason is officially underway with regional venues all over the state in full swing and ready to send the top three at each site forward and into sectionals in one week.

Class 3A Glenbrook South:

Prospect had enough in its tank to finish off league rival Fremd to win its fourth straight regional title with 175.5 overall points, seven more than the Vikings inside the Titans Dome at host Glenbrook South.

The Knights (12-8-0) will face No. 16 Libertyville (11-1-0) on Feb. 20 in a dual-team sectional at Hononegah.

No. 1 Jaxson Penovich (190, 39-3) led a contingent of four Knights atop the podium, joined by Giorgio DiFalco (138, 31-18), Connor Munn (165, 36-7) and Michael Matuszak (175, 26-12) while No. 3 Evan Gosz (144, 31-0) earned his third straight regional title.

Teammates Drew Fifield (126, 17-9) and No. 7 Ryan Muslimovic would join the Vikings celebration.

Muslimovic, 14-13 last season, is now 39-5 following his major decision victory over Henry Downing (Glenbrook South) in his 157-pound final.

"Ryan has come a long way from a year ago through a lot of work during the off-season, which he's continued this season as well," said Fremd coach Jeff Keske.

Class 3A Libertyville

Just two weeks ago, Warren would best Libertyville by just two points to win its second straight Lake County Invite title. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and Dale Eggerts' men from Libertyville lifted the championship trophy at its own regional by 14 points to advance into the Hononegah dual-team sectional.

The Wildcats faithful would celebrate five individual championships with the strength of its lineup once again coming through in fine fashion.

Upper weight stars Matt Kubas (175, 33-3), Caleb Baczek (190. 32-5) and Owen McGrory (39-2) at 215 pounds were too much to handle. They had a tourney-high 10 who advanced to the Barrington sectional.

The terrific trio from Warren -- Caleb Noble (106, 35-3), Aaron Stewart (157, 36-2) and sophomore Royce Lopez (165, 25-7) -- were once again unstoppable.

Stewart is the top-rated man at 157 pounds, Nobel No. 2, with Kubas also at No. 2, and McGrory third overall.

No. 5 William Cole (Round Lake, 38-1) won his second straight regional title, teammate Riley Kongkaeow (126, 34-11) his first.

Mundelein’s Erik Rodriguez (132, 31-12) and Ethan Banda (138, 31-7) are now regional champions, and have earned a top four seed, and first-round bye at Barrington next weekend at sectionals.

Class 3A South Elgin

Schaumburg (19-6-0) won its second consecutive regional title after outscoring host South Elgin (200.0-157.5) who would edge Hoffman Estates (151.5) when the final tally came in.

The Saxons would claim just two individual titles: Aidan Ploski (126) and Callen Kirchner (144, 29-7). But they were able to keep the regional hosts at arm’s length by advancing nine into the Conant sectional.

The marquee contest of the day was at 120 pounds with two-time state medalist, and current No. 2 man in the state, Brody Phelps (Schaumburg, 16-1) dealt his first defeat on the season from Demetrios Carrera (South Elgin, 36-2) during a 3-2 decision.

Carrera, a state qualifier a year ago, will earn a top four seed at sectionals.

Teammates Julius Avendano (106, 30-2) and Leo Rosas (150, 36-3) won easily.

Lake Park’s Vince Merola (138, 30-7) and Mathias Ewouso (215) are now first time regional champs as is Gabe Inorio (Streamwood, 175, 13-3) from Streamwood.

Two-time regional champs -- Elgin junior Fabian Ramirez (190, 17-4) and Conant senior and 2023 state qualifier Harley Stary (285, 25-6) -- advanced as will Tanner Cosgrove (157, 32-9), also from Conant.

Schaumburg will advance into the Addison Trail dual-team sectional.

Class 3A Stevenson

Anthony Cambria and his teammates from Hersey finally took hold of things to win the Stevenson regional crown, and avenge a disappointing result two weeks ago in the MSL tournament to second-place Barrington.

The No. 10 Huskies (12-5-0) will face No. 9 Hononegah in a dual-team sectional on Feb. 20 after its 38.5-point victory over the Broncos who won the MSL crown by 10 points.

The host Patriots finished a strong third place with 185.5 points.

"We left a lot of points out there at conference, and it came back and cost us the championship. So we all knew we had to come out today, get bonus points where we could, and just do our jobs in order to win here and advance to dual-team sectionals," said Cambria, who will attend the University of Colorado and major in aerospace engineering.

Cambria (190, 26-10) would be joined by five others from Hersey atop the podium, all of which were at the lower half of the Hersey lineup.

The No. 4 rated duo of Abdullokh Khakimov (126, 26-6) and Maxsim Mukhamedaliyev (132, 30-2) impressed on their way to victory for the Huskies, as did No. 3 Rhenzo Augusto (150, 35-5) who was one of three Barrington men to capture individual titles.

Broncos freshmen Kaleb Pratt (106, 30-10) and Ryan Dorn (120, 22-15) joined their veteran teammate in victory as did first time regional champ Silas Oberholtzer (28-10) at 157 pounds.

Stevenson senior Themba Sitshela (33-15) earned a top four seed next weekend at the Barrington sectional following his superb effort at 175 pounds.

Buffalo Grove senior Cadon Watson (36-7), the top seed here, pinned his way to his title at 215 pounds to advance, with No. 2 seed Andrew Timmons (21-13) earning the 285 crown after his pin of top seed Clarence Jackson (27-11) of Barrington.

Class 2A Antioch

Class 2A state power Wauconda (8-1-0) left little doubt as the Bulldogs overpowered the field to easily win their second consecutive 2A regional crown.

The Bulldogs collected 245.0 points, nearly 80 more than Grayslake Central (166.5) who easily outscored third-place Antioch (145.0).

The Bulldogs would claim four of its five individual titles from 138: Cooper Daun (138, 34-8), Logan Andrews (144, 32-10), Cole Porten (150, 38-7) and Nick Cheshier (157, 25-4) before adding its fifth on the day when Michael Merevick (29-9) won at 190 pounds with a pin.

Vince DeMarco (106, 38-6) and Matty Jens (175, 34-1), both ranked No. 1 in the state at their respective weight class, were champions, as was teammate Tyler Weidman (35-3), now a three-time regional champ, and No. 7 in the state polls.

Lucas Burton (19-6) pinned his way to the 285-pound title for Cary-Grove, while the trio from Antioch: Gavin Hanrahan (120, 35-6), Edgar Albino (132, 35-4) and Ben Vaquez (165, 34-10), all won also.

Wauconda will advance to the dual-team sectional in three weeks at Wauconda, while the qualifiers from here move on to the Grayslake Central sectional which begins this Friday.

At Wheeling

No. 2 IC Catholic Prep left its rivals fighting for second place after lifting the Wheeling 2A regional trophy in Arlington Heights at the Forest View Educational Center.

The Knights amassed an amazing 268.5 overall points (107.0) more than runner-up Deerfield (161.5) who would edge host Wheeling which tallied 158.5 points.

"We have a really balanced lineup from top-to-bottom, a great coaching staff, and a fantastic atmosphere in our room that inspired all of us to work harder everyday we come into the room," said Knights senior Michael Calcagno (215, 44-4), No. 1 in the state, and one of 11 Knights that carried off championship plaques.

Deven Casey (120, 27-4) and Foley Calcagno (190, 29-6), both ranked second in the state, won easily, as did sophomore Brody Kelly (150, 29-6) who came over from Marmion Academy after earning a spot in the state tournament a year ago.

Bryson Spaulding (28-10) won a hard-fought contest against No. 2 Jordan Rasof (Deerfield, 33-6) to win at 138, while at 165, it was No. 2 Joe Gliatta (IC Catholic, 34-6) recording a pin over No. 5 Ilya Dvoryannikov (Vernon Hills, 26-5) in the 165-pound final.

The Knights advance into the Wauconda dual-team sectional.