Strong effort from Wildcats

MACHESNEY PARK -- Libertyville had quite a weekend here at the 20th annual Al Dvorak Memorial wrestling tournament hosted by Harlem.

The 32-team, two-day tournament attracts teams from all over Illinois and from as far away as Iowa, Colorado, Texas and California.

If you think the competition it tough, you'd be right.

To many this is tournament ranks with the state meet in terms of toughness.

Iowa City West scored 197.5 points and had four champs to win the tournament title. Montini (189.5), Neuqua Valley (161.5), Sandburg (154), Providence (153) and Bishop Lynch, Texas (142) rounded out the top six.

But Libertyville's ninth-place finish with 122 points was no small feat.

The Wildcats sent two wrestlers to the title match and when all was said and done, four of their athletes had placed.

"Getting one guy in a championship would be a thrill," said Wildcats coach Dale Eggert. "Overall, it was a great day for our team and a real accomplishment for all the guys that got into the finals.

"(We wanted) to get tougher. Last year we finished 26th, so we finished a lot better (as a team)."

At 103 pounds, Matt Bystol (19-3) lost a major decision 12-4 to Edwin Cooper of Providence.

"I think I had a pretty good place in the bracket -- it all worked out for me in the end," Bystol said. "I'm pretty happy. Sure, I would've liked to have had first, but second is good, too."

A late reversal by Tray Ayala at 135 forced his match with John Majka of St. Rita to go into overtime. There, Majka managed to score late in the bonus to win the 135-pound title.

"You get to that match, (you want to win)," said Ayala, who is now 21-2. "It was a battle and he came out on top this time. I'm going to keep working hard.

"Our slogan is 'addicted to scoring,' and that's finally starting to sink into my head. That's how I wrestle. I preach it to our team -- I just have to make sure I do it myself."

Two more Wildcats placed after wrestling in fifth-place matches.

Jake Hogan's 8-5 decision got him past Frank Pereiro of Sandburg to win fifth and improve to 21-5.

At heavyweight, Tom Nield (17-3) lost a 3-2 decision to Sycamore's Jason Schepler to finish sixth.

Cary-Grove's Paul Rands had a strong tournament and earned himself a spot in the title match at 215. He and Preston Poyner of Morton were pretty closely matched throughout. But an escape by Poyner with 20 second left meant Rands (16-2) would have to settle for a 3-2 loss and second place.

"It was close down to the very end -- it could've gone either way," Rands said. "It's tough. Anytime you go out on the mat, win or lose, there's something you can learn from it. I'm just trying to learn from what happened."

Cary-Grove finished with points 43 in 28th place.

"(Rands) is a competitor," said Trojans coach Dan Cysewski. "He knows what he has to work on. I have all the confidence in the world in him. If you're going to lose a match, you'd much rather have it happen here than at the state tournament."

"This is a great learning tool for us coaches. If you want to improve, you can learn a lot from this tournament."

Mike Lukowski lost a tough match for Dundee-Crown at 189 with a 5-4 double overtime decision to Dan Grimes of Montini to finish fourth.

"Same thing happened to me last year -- same kid," Lukowski said. "I got in my shots in and I didn't finish them. I'm glad it's now I lose instead of (the postseason). I'm going to work on my technique a little and work on my condition. I'll get there. I'll be better. This is the competition I'm going to see down state so this is good for me."

Lukowski is now 19-3 while his Chargers finished the meet 22nd with 57 points.

"It was a good match," said Chargers coach Al Zinke. "The outcome isn't what we wanted. They really fought hard, it was back and forth. It was a well fought match.

"This is the type of competitiveness and grind that the state tournament is. This is what it's about. It's a good tournament. This is a measuring tool to see where we are."

Hoffman Estates (24th place, 54 points) was led by seventh-place Patrick Scully at 112. In his final match, the Hawks' sophomore came back in overtime to beat Tom Ambrose of Providence 6-1.

"I lost to him earlier in the tournament in overtime," said Scully, who improved to 23-5. "I came back and wanted to beat him."

"He was a little more aggressive," said his dad, Hoffman Estates coach Bill Scully. "When he does that he takes kids out of their style of wrestling. He's a lot more effective that way.

"At a tournament like this, your better kids see better wrestlers and (the less experienced) see what it takes to get to that level."

Tommy Wadas placed eighth for the Hawks, but was unable to wrestle in his final match at 140.

Barrington, which finished with 28 points, placed one wrestler in Luke Miller. He lost his seventh-place match 3-0 to Anthony Miers of Hononegah.

"It's real exciting -- there's a lot of good guys here," Miller said. "I wanted to see where I stand with them. I lost my first match so I had to wrestle back and get over that. Eighth place I'm real happy with."

The sophomore won three decisions in the wrestle backs to improve to 9-6.

"This is kind of the tournament besides the state tournament," said Barrington coach Alex Strobl. "This is definitely a rebuilding year for us. We brought a lot of freshmen and sophomores to this tournament. We wanted them to see the level of wrestling we need to get to. I think they learned their lessons."

Hersey finished with 41 points. Demetrius Mitchell (140), Brad Carmody (171) Kyle Stortenbecker (189) and Steve Long (285) all won some matches for the Huskies but were eliminated before placing.