Wheeling responds by winning tourney

Saturday's team victory for Wheeling wrestling at its own Wheeling Memorial Tournament erased some bad history for the Wildcats at the meet.

"This is the first time I've took first," Wheeling coach Neal Weiner said. "This is my 23rd year doing this tournament and it's nice we took first place."

The Wildcats scored 163.5 points, edging out Marmion Academy (159), Lake Zurich (158) and Carl Sandburg (157.5).

The Wildcats had seven wrestlers in championship matches, and two earned victories in those final matches to become individual champs.

Senior Dan Vargas completed a dominating day with a technical fall over Carl Sandburg's Joe Schneider at 189 pounds, and senior Leo Hicks defeated Lake Zurich's Andy Lynch 7-2 at 152 pounds.

"Danny Vargas is a very good wrestler and I knew he'd win it," Weiner said. "But Leo, he was a third or fourth seed, for him to win was a really nice surprise."

Hicks attributed his day to a dedicated work ethic.

"It all comes through hard practice," Hicks said. "I work hard in practice and it shows on the mat."

At the time of Hicks' match against Lynch, Wheeling led Lake Zurich by only a few points.

"I was just going to do everything in my power not to lose that match so we could win as a team," Hicks said. "Because we are a team, and that's what we needed."

In Vargas' three victories, he had the technical fall in the finals, a 12-3 win in the semifinals and a pin in his first-round match.

"I knew I was the No. 1 seed and I knew everyone had to come and wrestle me," Vargas said. "I didn't want to put a loss on my record, so I wrestled hard and did whatever I could."

Weiner and Vargas both mentioned the Wildcats were a little disappointed coming into the tournament after losing to Rolling Meadows on Friday night. Both said Friday's loss provided some motivation for Saturday.

"We came out today motivated because we at least wanted to do something positive this weekend," Vargas said. "Today was a pretty good day."