Carmel's ready for action, picks up 2 wins
Host Carmel's wrestling team was ready for action when the Corsairs met Prospect and Highland Park in a nonconference double-dual meet Friday night in Mundelein.
Carmel opened the night with an impressive 48-29 victory over Prospect before capturing a 42-30 victory over Highland Park in the second match. The Knights captured a narrow 33-31 victory over the Giants in their meet.
The dual meet was contested on two mats for the entire session with the Carmel-Prospect match beginning at 103 pounds and the Prospect-Highland Park meet starting at 145 pounds.
Carmel 160-pounder Ryan Williams (7-1) was one of the standouts for the Corsairs with 2 pins on the night while 152-pound teammate Ryan Unrein (6-2) also recorded 2 pins.
"I just need to get more conditioning in because last week I had a bad weekend (at Glenbrook South) and I didn't step up," said Unrein, who qualified for state last year along with Williams. "I'm going to work on more moves and keep focusing on February."
Carmel (6-2) built a 24-14 lead over Prospect (3-5) after the 140-pound match and never looked back after that point.
Besides Unrein and Wiliams, Nic Steinberg (119), Jeremy Schnur (130), Brandon Kowalke (215), and Steve Lester (285) all picked up two victories for the Corsairs in the double dual.
"I'm always looking for improvement and for the most part I'm pleased with how they are doing," said Carmel coach Joe Scordino. "Unrein and Williams wrestled well tonight and they both pinned both of their guys."
Carmel suffered losses to Highland Park elite wrestlers Ben Schwartz (21-3) at 103 and undefeated Joe Schwartz (20-0) at 112, but the Corsairs' depth ultimately proved to be the difference against the winless Giants (0-13).
Prospect top-ranked senior Peter Zintak improved to 14-0 as he moved up from 189 pounds to 215 pounds and pinned Carmel's Brandon Kowalke in 1:32. Zintak added a pin in 3:44 against Highland Park's Matt Black.
Prospect's Matt Boggess (14-0) remained undefeated at 140 with 1 victory on the night while teammates Mike Kraak (145) and Jeff Kissel joined Zintak with two victories on the night.
"Without Jonny Brennan and Tyler Rossdeutcher in the lineup, in a lot of cases it is like losing 12 to 24 points and we're struggling without them, but hopefully they will be back next week," said Prospect coach Gary McMorrow. "(Tim) Schweigel has been wrestling well (at 119) and we bumped him up to 125 against Highland Park and he ended up losing a close match."
Andrew Mercer was 1-0 on the night for Prospect with a key victory in the Knights' win over Highland Park.