Powerful Libertyville upends Chargers
Wrestling quadrangulars usually have a little bit of fun and a little bit of competitiveness.
Saturday's meet at Dundee-Crown was no exception.
There was former Dundee-Crown star wrestler Jim Wormsley on the bench as the Hersey coach. And there was a matchup of two of the top teams in Class 3A with Libertyville facing the host Chargers.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 12 by illinoismatmen.com, defeated D-C, ranked No. 16, 42-24, in the team's opening match of the meet.
"It was nice to go out there and win by such a large margin against a team that is only a couple rankings below us," said Libertyville's Sam Shay, who helped out in the victory with a pin 1:57 into his match against D-C's Josh Lee.
Libertyville also beat Belevidere, 66-0, and Hersey, 54-6. The Chargers topped Belvidere, 54-15, and Hersey, 44-23. Hersey's lone win came against Belvidere, 70-10.
The Wildcats won six matches against D-C. The Chargers won five. The difference was Libertyville had three pins, a technical fall and a major decision. Shay (135), Pat Callan (140) and Sean Tavakoli (heavyweight) all had pins for the Wildcats.
The Chargers had only one pin, coming from Miko Villanueva at 103 pounds, and four decisions.
"Dundee-Crown has some really tough guys," Libertyville coach Dale Eggert said. "They took out some our big guys, but where we needed to win, we generally won big."
Shay won all three matches - one by pin, one by technical fall and one by decision. Shane Michelson, Matt Bystol, Kyle Manolovic, Ryan Mertz, Luke Miller and Tavakoli each went 3-0 but had at least one forfeit victory.
"You want to go 3-0, but obviously you want some tough matches and have to suck it up and do well," Eggert said. "I think we did."
Villanueva went 3-0 for the Chargers with two pins and a decision. Jeremy Lee also went 3-0 with one forfeit victory. Frankie Abitua, Jack Lewis and Cody Churkey were all 2-0 for D-C.
"It's a good indicator of what we need to work on and improve on," Chargers coach Al Zinke said. "All the kids wrestled hard. We just have to wrestle smarter."