Glenbard N. halts Sandburg's streak
The last time Sandburg's wrestling team lost a dual meet to an Illinois team, Glenbard North freshman Joe Gosinski was in the fifth grade.
On Saturday, Gosinski was a key part of the Panthers team that stopped a streak of 91 wins by the three-time defending state champion Eagles dating back to Feb. 24, 2004.
"It feels great," Panthers senior Vince Ramos said of his squad's 38-23 win in Orland Park. "We won the close ones, and we got most of the bonus points."
Gosinski, Ramos and Jamie Warczynski all won by pin, Danny Monaco won by technical fall and Geno Capezio won by major decision to help the Panthers win the battle for bonus points over Sandburg.
Every bit as importantly, the Panthers (13-1) got close decisions from Dan Rios, Justin Wahrman, Chris VanGundy and Jeff Jones in earning a 9-5 edge in matches won over the Eagles (10-1).
"This is the eighth time we've met them in the last three years, and we hadn't beaten them," said Panthers coach Mark Hahn. "Our kids knew that, and they came in here and wrestled tough."
"The better team won today, and hopefully we'll get a chance to wrestle them again," said Sandburg coach Mike Polz.
Monaco started the day with a tech fall at 140 pounds, but Sandburg's Jake Holler answered with a major decision at 145. Ramos' pin came next, followed by Wahrman's 5-4 decision over Juan Soliz.
Wahrman fought off a leg cramp and fatigue at 160 pounds, taking Soliz to the mat with a third-period headlock for the deciding takedown.
"I'm getting there, but I'm not in wrestling shape yet," said Wahrman, who has only wrestled 11 matches this year after an extended Panthers football season.
A tech fall by Conrad Polz at 171 and a 5-3 win by Joe Schneider at 189 cut the Panthers' lead to 14-12, before VanGundy won a 1-0 decision at 215 over Frank Pereiro and Jones won by 2-0 decision at heavyweight.
A pair of pins from Gosinski at 103 and Warczynski at 112 put the Panthers up 32-12, and Rios clinched the team win via 3-1 decision at 119 over Ryan Soraghan.
The Eagles got a tech fall from Jon Morrison at 125 and a pin from Kevin White at 130 before Capezio closed the deal with a 19-8 major decision over Tyler LePretre.
"We needed something like this, wrestling without Tony (Ramos) and Jimmy (Chase)," Capezio said. "Without them we still wrestled real tough."