No surprises for Lake County competitors on first day of state
CHAMPAIGN - All went well for the top wrestlers from Lake County Thursday on the first day of the IHSA state wrestling tournament here on the campus of the University of Illinois.
Adrien Cramer (Grayslake Central, 182 pounds, 38-1), E'lan Heard Libertyville, 152, 28-1) and Joel Vandervere (Warren, 138,) all advanced and are strong favorites to advance into the finals Saturday night.
The trio easily went past their first round opponents inside the State Farm Center to advance into quarterfinal action Friday morning.
Seniors Kurtis Smith (Lakes, 170, 40-8) and Ethan Geist (Grant, 182), friends since their early days at the Lakland Predators wrestling club out of Antioch, are both hoping to end their prep careers by bringing home a state medal.
For Smith, the road to Champaign has been paved with plenty of medical bills prior to this season, his first at 100%.
Smith would tear his meniscus freshman year, sustain fractured ribs the next season before missing nearly all of 2019 and two months of school with a fracture to his C2 and C4 in his vertebrae.
Despite all this, the two-sport star (soccer) managed to get himself back in action on all three occasions and is now one victory away from a chance of lifting a state championship trophy.
"Since day one of this season, Kurtis has been on a mission, and nothing will stop him from achieving his goal of standing on the podium at state," said his head coach John Troesch.
"There's still a lot of unfinished business that I have in this sport and I feel strongly that I can compete for the top spot this weekend," said Smith, who lost 9-6 to No. 1 Dylan Connell (Marian Central Catholic) in his 2A sectional semifinal last weekend.
Smith, who has several career interests in mind, whether it be a commercial pilot, firefighter or even a physical therapist, opened Thursday with a pin over Chris Nowicki (Oak Forest) before using a big first period to hold off No. 4 Caleb Grau (39-4) from Mascoutah.
"I noticed his cadence in previous matches, and just took advantage of it to get that first period takedown, and near fall," said Smith after his 8-4 victory over Grau, fifth here a year ago.
Joey Jens (Grayslake Central, 170, 41-6), second a week ago at sectionals to No. 1 Dylan Connell (Marian Central Catholic), will meet Smith Friday in the semifinals after two terrific efforts on Thursday.
It was a tough first day of play for No. 4 Antioch, who has just Caleb Nobling (106, 42-4) and No. 5 Niall Schoenfelder (42-3) remaining in the front draw at 195 pounds following their quarterfinal victories.
Day No. 2 will begin at 8:30 a.m. with Class 3A quarterfinal action, followed by a series of wrestleback matches across all three classes, followed later by the semifinal round scheduled to start at 7 p.m.