Smooth transition as Wheaton North handles Lake Park

Wrestling

Wheaton North d. Lake Park: The Wheaton North wrestling team wrapped up the 2017 portion of the current season successfully. It didn't miss a beat getting 2018 started Friday night at home against Lake Park.

Thanks to five falls and a technical fall, the Falcons cruised to a 56-15 victory.

"We're on our way to some good things, but there are some things that we need to work on in the (practice) room and as individuals," said Wheaton North coach Travis Cherry. "This was a team win. We're taking care of business and want to continue to that at conference and the postseason."

Lake Park had a brief 6-0 advantage after winning the first match of the evening, at 220 pounds, by forfeit. The Falcons took over from there.

Brice Balosky (113 pounds), Behrad Khamissi (120), Jaime Suarez (126), Collin Rosenberg (170) and Natan Jara (182) all won by fall. Suarez prevailed just 1:19 into his match. He is fifth at 126 in the illinoismatmen.com state rankings.

"I've been trying harder in matches and staying in good position, having good confidence has helped me," Suarez said.

The junior said the team has evolved from the beginning of the season.

"The team is coming together. At first, we were individuals. But now we're coming together as a team," he said.

Wheaton North also got points from a technical fall from Jeff Dowell (160) and decisions from Sam Chesney (138), Ben Lemp (145) and Lucas Royer (285).

The Falcons were getting right back into action Saturday morning at the Notre Dame quad in Niles. Cherry said it's the type of meet where the competition the team will face is beneficial with the DuPage Valley Conference meet just three weeks away.

"We'll see some state-caliber teams. Libertyville is full of potential and past state qualifiers. So is Notre Dame," he said.

Two Lake Park entries won their matches Friday. Senior Vince Liebach won by decision at 152. DeMarco Lee won by fall at 195.

"Vince was under the weather. I really liked how we stepped up and battled," said Lancers assistant coach Dave Pierce. "DeMarco has a lot of quality wins. He's still learning and raw. But he's tall and athletic. He's a competitor."

Lake Park heads to the Waubonsie Valley Mega Dual on Saturday.

"We'll face Crystal Lake Central, Deerfield, Marmion and New Trier. Beginning tonight (Friday), we'll be in a stretch of a our schedule where we see some quality teams and that's good for our kids as conference draws near," Pierce said.