Conant dominates South Elgin regional

Conant excelled Saturday at the Class 3A wrestling regional at South Elgin.

The Cougars qualified 10 competitors for next weekend's sectional, to be held on their home floor. They boasted champions in six weight classes and won the team title as well.

Conant's Sammy Santangelo (120 pounds), Peter Floyd (132), Ethan Stiles (152), Cody Sebo (170), AJ Hernandez (182), and Henry Chang (195) all finished the day as regional champs.

"I definitely thought we could take this one as a team today, and some of the guys exceeded expectations," said Cougars coach Andrew Guilde.

Conant finished first with 192 points, and Guilde saved some of his highest praise for senior Yordan Neykov, who rallied back to take third place (126) and move on.

The top three individuals in each weight class qualified for next weekend's sectional tournament. Conant also qualified for the dual-team sectional on Feb. 22, at South Elgin.

"He was down in both (of his final two) matches," said Guilde of Neykov, "and he battled back to take third. He believed in his conditioning and his training."

Schaumburg finished second in the team race with 132 points and got five wrestlers out, while Elk Grove was third (131.5) with eight of its squad squad qualifying.

Chance Guziec of the Grenadiers won at 220, just edging Harley Stary of Conant in a 7-6 decision.

"He was able to avenge a loss (to Stary) in conference," said Grens coach Daniel Vargas of Guziec. "There were a couple of reversals, and I felt like whoever was on top at the end was going to win."

Brady Phelps (106) was victorious for the Saxons, as was teammate Called Kirchner (113). Nico Clinite of host South Elgin won at 145, while Hoffman Estates had the heavyweight champ (285), Kehinde Akintunde.

Rolling Meadows had a ton of success in the third-place matches as five of its team earned advancement.

Lake Park won three titles - Dominik Mallinder at 126, Mike DiBenedetto at 138, and Joey Olalde at 160.

"I would say we wrestled pretty well today," said Lancers coach Mark Cameron. "We have some things to clean up, because getting out of sectionals is quite a bit different than getting our of regionals. Overall today, though, I was pleased with our performance."

Cameron added that he counts on Malinger and Olalde, both four-year varsity standouts, to be "leaders in the room and pave the way for the younger guys."

"It was exciting today, and a little nerve-wracking," said Olalde, who won in an 8-2 decision over CJ Gilbert of Conant.

"CJ is a tough kid, I've wrestled him before," said Olalde. "As a matter of fact that was my first match of the season. He's tough on top, you've got to watch out for those cradles, but as we went along I knew that if I got to my attack, I was golden."

Elk Grove had five second-place finishes, from Nicasio Ancient, Grant Madi, Ty Macina, Brady Tosterud, and Ramiro Valdivia.

More runners-up were Alan Velazquez of Meadows, Vincent Merola of Lake Park, Caden Kirchner from Schaumburg, Israel Vargas, Jalen Curtis and Julian Bonilla of Hoffman Estates, and Josh Morrison from the champion Cougars.

"I haven't seen the brackets yet," said Guilde of next week's sectional, "But I feel like all of our guys have a chance to make it downstate."