Boys wrestling: Batavia’s Enos claims a second straight championship at Arlis Invite
A slow start on Saturday didn’t deter Batavia’s Kai Enos from duplicating what he did a year ago at the Clint Arlis Invite.
For the second straight season, Enos won a title at his school’s home tournament, beating Rockton Hononegah’s Kristian DeClercq 9-5 at 120 pounds.
Last year, Enos won at 113.
Enos escaped Hersey’s Cole Anselmi 7-5 in his quarterfinal match before scoring a 14-0 major over Wheaton North’s Luke Edwards to earn a berth in the finals.
“My first match I started out a little slow,” Enos said. “I thought I could just get to my shots better. I got to my offense, but was slow in first match, but in my second and third match, I picked it up. I made a few mistakes but then really cleaned it up in the last match.”
Batavia sophomore Joey Calvillo suffered a technical fall to Hononegah senior Symon Woods in the semifinals at 106 pounds but bounced back, pinning Jacobs’ Travis Wilgosiewicz in the consolation semifinals and then scoring an 18-5 major decision over Lemont’s Alex Powers to take third. Woods won the title at 106, one of four champions for Rockton Hononegah.
“I was just keeping my head in it,” Calvillo said. “My mind was tough. I knew (Powers) was in the rankings as an honorable mention so I just kept my head up and kept fighting. I think I held control the whole match.”
It was the best high school finish for Calvillo.
“I’ve gotten better, for sure,” he said. “I practice hard every day and I feel different for sure. This is the highest I’ve taken at a tournament so far, and this is a pretty hard one so I’m proud of myself.”
Rockton Hononegah won the tournament for the second time. The Indians also won it in 2024. Marmion, which was busy winning the Chicago Catholic League championship on Saturday, won the Arlis last year and the inaugural tournament in 2023.
The Indians finished with 217 points, runner-up Lincoln-Way East had 187 and Washington was third with 150.5
Batavia took seventh place with 116 points. The Bulldogs will compete in the DuKane Conference meet next Saturday at Wheaton North.
“I mean, there’s definitely room for improvement so I guess at this point in the season we just got to keep training as hard as we have and just work on what we need to work on,” Enos said.
“We need to go back and look at our film, see where we’re making mistakes and just improve upon it and make sure we don’t do it again.”
Jack Brown (190 pounds) took third for the Bulldogs, Kyle Pasco (132) and Elias Chaney (138) placed fourth and Colin Peyton (165) was fifth.
“I just love to see my teammates succeed,” Enos said. “There’s nothing better than that because, I mean, like they all put in the work just as hard as me and deserve it just as much as me. It’s great. I love seeing my teammates do good.”
Wheaton North’s Ryan Bosch earned a 19-12 decision over Zvonar at 190 for the lone title for the Falcons.