Marmion punches its first ticket to state

Pat Greco set the tone, and the four freshmen led Marmion to yet another program first in a season of unprecedented achievements.

With Ben Whitford and Nico Jimenez garnering individual state championships over the weekend in Champaign, the Marmion wrestling team had one final threshold to cross: a trip to the team state finals.

The Cadets did just that, throttling defending Class 2A state runner-up Yorkville 39-19 in one of the two sectional finals held at Lemont High School Tuesday night.

By earning its first trip to the Elite Eight, Marmion (22-1) will meet Suburban Christian Conference rival Montini, the defending champion and holder of seven state championships since 2000, Saturday morning in Bloomington in the quarterfinals.

Montini (28-2), the only team to beat Marmion this year in dual action, annihilated Chicago Uplift at Oak Park.

Yorkville closed out its season at 16-5.

"We wrote down our goals last November and one of the ones we thought we could make was team state," Marmion coach Dean Branstetter said.

Greco, the Cadets' 145-pound Northwestern-bound trendsetter, finished third in state last Saturday night.

Yorkville coach Shane Darnell improvised his lineup to give his team the best chance of winning; the Foxes thus sent out Jed Lightfoot, third in state at 140, to tangle with Greco.

"I've known Jed for a long time," Greco said after securing a 10-5 victory to give Marmion a key 3-0 start. "I was definitely stronger than him. He's a tough wrestler. He's going to Illinois, so he must be good."

Then it was time for the Cadets' powerful quintet of freshmen to exert its will.

Jake Field would eventually drop a hard-fought 7-6 verdict to Yorkville state medal-winner Adam Wyeth at 103 pounds, but the other four put Marmion over the top.

Dan Rowland followed the Greco match with a second-period fall at 152 pounds to treble the Cadets' lead to 9-0.

The Foxes' Brant Corwin would bring Yorkville to within three with a fall at 160 pounds, but the reigning state runners-up would come no closer the rest of the way.

Jimenez and David Niels would record close decisions over back-to-back state-ranked Yorkville opponents at 171 and 189, respectively.

The Foxes once again closed the gap with a major decision at 215 pounds, but Fritz made quick work of his foe, also a freshman, at heavyweight.

"I don't get to wrestle too many freshmen," said Fritz, who had the quickest match of the night at a minute and 10 seconds. "I figured I would either win or be able to get some bonus points. I went for (a fall) and got it."

Yorkville followed the Fritz pin with consecutive simple decisions at 102 and 112 pounds to narrow its deficit to 21-16, but Whitford and George Fisher once again demonstrated the Cadets' willpower, agility and ferociousness in the freshmen class.

Whitford and Fisher essentially sealed the triumph with second-period falls at 119 and 125 pounds; the former continued his unbeaten ways (43-0), and Fisher was equally savvy on the mat.

"I was trying to get him tired out in the first period," Fisher said. "I felt like I did. He tried to roll through me, and I got him and stuck him."

The Marmion lead was more than doubled to 33-16 with the twin falls; Angelo Silvestro (130 pounds) and Mike York (140) accounted for the final Marmion victories.

"We knew what we were going against," Darnell said. "It was a team decision (to alter the lineup). We didn't come here to keep it close. We came here to win a dual meet."