Boys wrestling roundup: Three MSL schools win regional championships; Grant, Maine South also take titles

It was a marvelous day of wrestling for the MSL.

Barrington, Conant and Wheeling all won regional team championship trophies Saturday afternoon, and will now advance into dual team sectional action Thursday.

League champion Barrington won a thriller at host Harper Community College before a big crowd inside Foglia Center with a strong final session to defeat Stevenson by 22 points. Theyand will now face Loyola Academy in its team sectional at Grant Community High School.

The Ramblers were first at the Rolling Meadows regional, thanks in part to the No.1 duo of Niko Odiotti (106) and Kai Calcutt (215) who led the champs to 213 points. Hersey was second at 187.

"We knew once we saw that Stevenson was in our regional that it would be a battle right up until the very end. And hats off to (Stevenson), they are well coached, and have a great team," said Barrington coach Dan Keller.

"All of the hard work our guys have put in, and having a really difficult nonconference and tournament schedule really helped us have the success we had today."

The Patriots’ dynamic duo of Stefan Vihrov (106, 36-8) and Daniel Berdich (113, 31-4) would get their club up and running with their individual titles, but that would be it for the NSC powerhouse.

The Broncos would celebrate victories from Kaleb Pratt (120, 40-5), Saul Ramirez (126, 27-12), Ryan Dorn (132, 34-5), Jimmy Whitaker (144, 38-7), Daniel Blanke (37-9) and Sam Cushman (175, 31-10) to slowly pull away from the Patriots.

The Dorn-Shawn Kogan (Stevenson, 30-5) match likely proved to be the turning point on this day as No. 3 Dorn opened a big lead over the No. 5 Kogan after one period (7-2) before a late third period tilt added four more points in an eventual 12-4 major decision.

"To get the win and bonus points was really important to the team cause," said Dorn.

"We all needed to pull our weight today," added Blanke, No. 7 in the state at 150.

Cushman would defeat No. 7 Phil Boyko (Stevenson) with a tech-fall at 3:50 to earn his first regional crown of his career.

"We all knew beforehand to get the win, then bonus points, and that's how we won the tournament today," said Cushman.

No. 2 Lucas Nance (Fremd, 33-5) was unstoppable at 190 pounds, as was Mikey Polyakov (Stevenson, 20-4) at 138.

Dundee-Crown senior Teigen Moreno (37-2) won his first regional title of his terrific career to advance into the Barrington sectional in two weeks.

"I've finished second twice at regionals and third. This is the year I finally was able to win it all. Now the next step is sectionals, and a trip downstate," said Moreno.

Wheeling won its second consecutive Class 2A regional team title and will now take on No. 7 Deerfield on Thursday in its team sectional semifinal at St. Ignatius.

"We all wanted to win here at home to get another chance of making dual-team state, so that's been our focus from the very first day of practice," said Wildcats senior Pablo Morales (29-4), now a two-time regional champ.

Teammates Frankie Katz (113), David Perez (120) and Nicholas Montesinos (165) would all climb atop the podium, as would the St. Viator trio of Thomas Emery (106, 37-8), Jaxon Penovich (190, 41-5) and Colton Schneider (33-14) at 215.

Wheeling outscored second-place Wauconda 193.5-173, with St. Viator third overall with 120.5 points.

Wauconda junior Brian Hart (38-6), No. 6 in Class 2A, won his second consecutive regional title at 157 pounds.

At Deerfield, it would be the CSL champion Warriors (197) that the field would chase all day, including second-place Grayslake Central (168.5) and Antioch with 147.5 points.

Central led everyone with five individual championships: Dominic (106, 28-2) and Vince DeMarco (113, 34-7), Krish Sahu (126, 36-7), Warren Nash (157, 34-9) and William Lyle (14-5) at 175.

"We have a young team, with some older guys to give us the experience we need, and I really feel like the team made a commitment to be better than last year by putting in the extra work during the offseason," said Vince DeMarco, two-time state medal winner, second a year ago at state.

This top three from this regional, along with Wheeling, will advance into the Antioch sectional in two weeks.

Carmel Catholic senior Anthony Hinojosa (150, 32-2) continued his fine form with an 11-5 decision over No. 3 Dominic Garcia (29-4) from Antioch.

Regional champ Conant stayed close all throughout the day to league rival Schaumburg before finishing atop the leaderboard.

The Cougars received individual titles from Damian Ramos (126) and Jackson Spizzirri (175) to help their team finish with 199 points, just ahead of Schaumburg (190.5) who was after its fourth consecutive regional title.

Next up for the Cougars will be Oak Park-River Forest on Thursday in its team sectional semifinal in Oak Park.

No. 5 Grant overwhelmed its rival at Benedetti filed house in Fox Lake Saturday, running out to big lead, before coasting to its second straight regional title before an appreciative home audience.

"It was a great bounce back week for us after finishing second at the Lake County Invite last weekend," said Grant coach Mark Jolcover.

"I am really proud of our guys. Postseason wrestling is what we work for, and to put 10 in the final, and advance 11 into the Barrington sectional is exciting, and a box is checked for one of our team goals. The work is not over, but we look forward to a really fun month of February."

The Bulldogs will host No. 19 Hononegah this Thursday in its Class 3A team sectional semifinal.

Jolcover would watch eight of his men win individual titles: Brady Myatt (106), Jace Glauser (120), Breiyden Hoffman (126), Erik Rodriguez (138), Vince Jasinski (144), John Von Hoene (150), Matthew Longabuagh (215) and Ajani Williams at 285.

In between the Bulldogs weight class domination, third place Warren would claim four titles: Caleb Noble (113), Royce Lopez, Ilya Dvoriannikov and Aaron Stewart at 190.

Noble and Stewart are both No. 1 in the state, Lopez and Dvoriannikov are No. 2 at 165, and 175.

Ethan Banda (Mundelein) won a title at 157, and Alexander Osborne (Libertyville) at 132.

After watching its long streak of team championships snapped a year ago by Lane Tech, Maine South was back on top Saturday in Park Ridge, winning its own regional with a 37.5 point margin (240.5-203) over runner-up Notre Dame.

Maine West was a distant third at 126.0.

The champion Hawks’ big four of Brett Harman (132, 36-4), Jake Colleran (144, 13-1), Gavin Hoerr (150, 23-3) and Caden Ljubenko (157, 31-4) are all two-time regional champs, and on their way to the Conant sectional in two weeks.

Before that, this quartet will lead the Hawks to its dual-team sectional semifinal against No. 4 St. Charles East this Thursday at Oak Park-River Forest.

Teammates Erle Rosete (106), George Georgiev (113), Emmett Mazukelli (138) and Marty Greif (175) were all first place medals winner, as was Leyden senior Erick Worwa (27-3) at 190 pounds.