Libertyville grabs 3rd at Barrington

The 19th annual Moore/Prettyman wrestling tournament turned out to feature a tense battle for second place Saturday at Barrington.

Plainfield Central rolled to the championship of the powerful 32-team tourney with 210 points while Neuqua Valley held off third-place Libertyville, 174 to 1701/2, for runner-up honors.

Grant held third place earlier in the day Saturday, but the Bulldogs settled for fourth place with 166 points.

The host Broncos placed sixth in the huge field with 132.5 points while Lake Zurich (81 points) and Wauconda (78.5 points) placed 13th and 14th, respectively.

With nine top-eight placewinners, Libertyville had plenty of bright spots this weekend starting with 125-pound champion Matt Bystol, who captured a hard-fought 2-1 decision over Stillman Valley's Nick Harrison for the title.

"He was a shorter, more compact guy and on the top he gave up a key reversal," said Bystol, who placed sixth in the state last year. "It was a good building experience against some good competition and this tough competition will definitely make me improve for later in the year."

The Wildcats also had four third-place finishers, including Luke Gaeth at 119, Josh Ronne at 160, Ryan Mertz at 171 and Luke Miller at 215. Libertyville's Sayad Banifazl added a fifth-place finish at 145 with an exciting, 10-9, overtime decision.

"It was a great tournament for us, we had a lot of guys get a bunch of wins obviously, and everybody but Bystol lost at least one match," said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert. "Bystol is very cool under pressure and the guy he beat (Harrison) was the Class A state champ last year."

While Wheeling's Luke Smith (140) was named the oustanding wrestler of the tournament, Grant senior Lee Munster (5-0) easily rolled to the 189-pound crown Saturday night with a technical fall in four minutes over Lakes' Phil Cappitelli.

Munster's tournament consisted of two technical falls early on before a 20-9 major decision over Zion-Benton's Alex Bolden in the semifinals.

Grant senior Jason Montemayor (5-0) is also off to a great start this season as he won the 130-pound title to become the only Montemayor brother to ever win a championship in the powerful Barrington tourney.

Lake Zurich's Cameron Shaffer (8-0) posted an 8-0 major decision over Grant's Chaz Alex for the 135-pound title while the Bulldogs received fourth-placer finishes from freshman Cameron Kennedy at 103 and junior Jose Jimenez at 125.

"We need some work and we've got to do our est to fill in some holes if we're going to do anything team-wise," coach Ryan Geist. "(Munsterr) wrestled well and his off-season training is paying off."

Besides Shaffer, Lake Zurich 152-pounder Anthony Pace also got to the championship match. But Pace dropped a 4-3 decision to Plainfield Central's Eric Oyster thanks to a controversial last-second takedown call by the referee.

The Bears also got a fourth-place finish from 130-pounder Alex Nigro, who dropped a 5-4 decision. The 152-pound weight class had four state-ranked wrestlers in it.

"I'm not going to argue with an official's call, but I didn't think there was control (on Pace) in a championship match of this magnitude," Lake Zurich coach Dan Strickler said. "(Shaffer) is off to a great start and as of today he's back to what we were seeing last season. He's moving fast and he's attacking."

Wauconda 285-pound senior Cody Smith made it to the finals with a 6-3 decision over St. Rita's Gonzalo Gonzales, but Smith had to settlle for second place after a pin by Plainfield Central's Lavelle Howard in 3:01.

The Bulldogs got fifth-place medals from Mike Brown at 119 and Brian Kent at 189. Pete Kootstra placed sixth for Wauconda at 152.

"We would like to have done a little better, but to have five place-winners we're happy with that," said Wauconda assistant coach Bob Kenison. "Smith has been wrestling smart, and at heavyweight you want to be mistake-free. He's kept his mistakes to a minimum."

Libertyville had seventh-place finishes from Charlie Meyer (130), Sam Shay (140) and Nick McDowell (152). Grant got sevenths from Jack Kramer (119), and Scott Ray (171). Lakes' Mike Divito (285) placed seventh.

Libertyville's Pat Fitzgerald (112), Wauconda's Tom Tyrrell (140) and Round Lake's Corey Weber (189) placed eighth.