Schaumburg stands tall as MSL champions
Schaumburg's ascent to the top of the standings after a terrific semifinal effort Saturday at the Mid-Suburban League wrestling meet appeared to put enough distance between the Saxons and rivals Hersey and Barrington to conjure up thoughts of where to place the extra-large hardware back at school on Monday.
However, the Saxons' commanding 21-point lead didn't look so big a little later on, when a hard-charging Barrington team pulled close enough to force Schaumburg coach Matt Gruszka to begin some serious number-crunching as the Broncos came closer.
In the end, the pendulum swung back in favor of the Saxons, who closed out both Barrington and Hersey to win their first tournament championship trophy since 1974, and the program's first overall MSL title.
The Saxons outdistanced Barrington 1991/2-1911/2 and MSL East champ Hersey by 141/2 (185.0), with Wheeling (157.0) and Conant (129.5) rounding out the top five.
"Your darn right I was getting nervous," said Gruszka, who as the Math Department Chair had calculated several scenarios nervously after his club dropped three finals in a row (from 160 to 189), including a big head-to-head at 171 pounds with Barrington senior captain Dan Santoro (33-3) defeating Danny Malik (27-2) in one of the most anticipated bouts of the weekend after the two state ranked seniors failed to meet in a MSL dual nearly three weeks ago.
"It looked like Barrington got as close as 5-7 points, and with us unable to close either Barrington and Hersey out in the finals, and (Barrington) doing a great job of making up points in the wrestleback, things were getting to be a bit nerve-wracking for us," said Gruszka, who finally could breathe a sigh of relief when Josh Marchok (32-2) wrapped things up with a fall at 26 seconds over Troy Morrison (Barrington) in the 215-pound final.
"We've all been pointing toward the tournament all week long, and to finally win a conference championship is a great accomplishment for all of us," said Marchok, who marked the start of his title run on Friday with a pin 1:42 into his bout.
The sophomore was joined by senior Patrick Scully (31-5 at 119) high atop the podium. Scully won his second straight MSL crown in dominant fashion.
Santoro and teammate Adrian Gonzalez (103, 31-2) both repeated on this day, Gonzalez with a technical fall (4:59) over Conant's talented Ben Clifford (27-4) to start the championship session at host Buffalo Grove.
Santoro, who came in No. 4 in state polls, scored the lone point of his bout with Malik off an escape at 31/2 minutes, before riding out his terrific attacking opponent the entire third period to frustrate a disappointed Malik.
"I wasn't sure what to expect in our match, especially after missing out on the chance to wrestle at our dual," said Santoro. "But not to downplay this victory, but it is what it is, and it's really just a starting point to the state series, beginning next weekend at the Fremd regional."
Hersey, which was poised to make its move in the last session after sending five into the finals and another three in the third-place matches, came away with two champions (Demetrios Mitchell and Jeff Koepke) but was unable to secure any third-place medals.
"It was important for us to win as many matches in the end, and to get as many extra points either with majors, tech-falls or fall, but we just didn't get enough of those to help us," said Mitchell (42-0), who majored Gino Castiglione (22-12) of Conant in the 140-pound final.
Conant senior heavyweight Nate Benedetti (26-8) won with a fall over Tim Schalz (Wheeling) to become a first-time MSL champ, along with Joey Carpio (Rolling Meadows), Josh Boggess (Prospect), Leshon Majias (Palatine) and the Fremd duo of Travis LaSchiava (140, 25-4) and Ron Hauser (16-9), who defeated top-seed Tim Schweigel (Prospect) 6-3 in the 130-pound final.
LaSchiava, who missed nearly all of last year due to a broken ankle, defeated Mike Smith (Wheeling, 31-5) in a wild 12-10 battle.
"Mike and I have been wrestling since we were 6 years old, so it was really hard to compete against someone that's been your friend for so long in such an intense match," said the Vikings senior.
Smith's teammate Chris Johnson was superb all weekend long to win his first championship belt in what was a highly competitive and thrilling 189-pound bracket, which was easily the most-viewed of all 14 flights.
Earlier in the day, No. 2 Jon LaManna (30-3), ranked No. 6 in the state, and semifinal opponent Kalvin Argueta (30-11) brought the big crowd to its feet in a match which saw the underdog Argueta take a 4-0 lead in the first half before LaManna struck back and eventually defeated the Barrington senior 11-6.
LaManna found himself in for a rough ride from Wheeling junior Chris Johnson, who dominated from the early stages and never let up en route to his first MSL title.
"I am not surprised by what Chris did today, or has been doing all season long," said Wheeling junior, and captain Luke Smith, who led the cheering section for Johnson after he earned his third straight MSL crown with a fall at 3:33 over Schaumburg senior John Lombardo (24-11) to run his overall record to 34-0, and put an extra stamp on his No. 1 ranking in the state at 135 pounds.
Caprio (34-5) held his No. 1 seed at 152 pounds with a 6-5 win over No. 2 Sean Bonner (37-9) in OT, while the freshman Boggess (33-4) impressed at 112 with after his 5-1 victory over Stephfon Scales (Hersey, 33-8) to avenge an fall at the hands of the Huskies sophomore earlier in the season.
The conference title is obviously the first for Boggess, but it's a fifth consecutive for the Boggess family name. The most recent champion followed his older brother Matt (now wrestling at Harper) who won four straight, in advance of 3 state apperances, capped by a 2009 state championship.