WW South finally upends Naperville North
Wheaton Warrenville South 140-pounder Spartak Chino has done many things as a high school wrestler, but Thursday night was a first for him and the Tigers.
For the first time in the last three years, WW South defeated Naperville North. Chino was instrumental in the win, clinching the victory for the Tigers with an 18-3 technical fall over Matt Feldmier as WW South beat the Huskies 30-24.
With the Tigers leading 25-18, Chino had a chance to put the meet out of reach for the Tigers, and he wasted little time. Chino scored takedown after takedown and scored back points on all of his takedowns as he won 18-3 in the second period. The only points that he allowed were by escapes.
"People don't usually get to see me on my feet all that often, so I thought that I would show people a different side of me," Chino said. "This was just awesome. We have never beat North since I have been here. We lost a nailbiter last time against them so it is good to finally get this monkey off of our backs."'
Tyler Kalb (119 pounds) helped get the Tigers back on track earlier in the meet when he scored a 10-7 victory over Juan Ramirez to end a streak where the Huskies won four of six matches. After the Kalb win, the Tigers won three of the next five matches, with one by pinfall and the other by technical fall to put the meet out of reach.
"I just went out there and put the pressure on," Kalb said. "I really wanted to get a major decision, but I was happy just getting the win. I just got a little impatient in the end and ended allowing him to score some points on me. But I was able to get the win and give us back the momentum."
Naperville North won seven matches, but only one of those matches was not by a decision. Adam Hankin (145) had a dominating match against Dylan Derrickson for the Huskies as he won by pin at the 5:06 mark. Had Hankin not gotten the pin, the match would have been stopped anyway because Hankin was up by 15 points.
But Hankin had an idea on why the meet turned out the way that it did.
"When we lost that first match to start things off, that hurt us," Hankin said. "We started off really slow. When you lose the first match you really have to concentrate so the next wrestler doesn't come out flat and lose that one. It was a rough start and it kept us down tonight."