Barrington, Schaumburg’s Marchok keep rolling
Barrington put the finishing touches on its Mid-Suurban West wrestling crown by thumping visiting Schaumburg 62-9 Friday night in their division finale.
The Broncos (15-2) — perhaps inspired by a 37-15 loss to state power Glenbard North last weekend at the Neuqua Valley mega-duals — unleashed all of their fury and firepower on a young Saxons (13-5-0) club.
The Saxons feature reigning state champion Josh Marchok (28-0), as well as several promising newcomers, but on this night they were unable to slow the homeside on its annual Senior Night.
“Our loss to Glenbard North is kind of a wake-up call for all of us, and although (you) never want to lose, especially to another state-ranked team, I think all of us are anxious to use (the) loss to our advantage as we prepare for the most important part of the season which is about to begin,” echoed seniors Adrian Gonzalez (27-1 at 106 pounds) and Cameron Thomson (28-0 at 170), both ranked No. 3 in their weight divisions heading into the weekend.
“Expectations are really high, and we all realize that everyone is gunning for us next weekend at the MSL tournament, and in regionals, but it’s a good thing for all of us because it (helps) keep us stay focused, and working harder,” offered Thomson, who ended the rout with a 12-2 decision over junior Austin Manetta, one of five non-seniors in the lineup with double-digit victories thus far for first-year Schaumburg coach Mike LeVanti.
It was quickly 15-6 in the early going, with the Broncos using a fall from Mark Shealy (182) in the opening bout, and another pin from heavyweight Ben Calamari, sandwiched in between a hard-earned 6-5 decision at 195 from Ryan Wilt over the Saxons Mike Baumhart (24-6).
Then the Stanford-bound Marchok used just 1:32 minutes to pin Daniel Davidson. Marchok, who now has 25 pins on the season, was the lone Saxons’ bright spot to this point.
The Broncos went on a 28-0 run, using pins from Matt Sheehy (113) and technical falls from Gonzalez and Jared Parvinmehr (25-2), who all flexed their collective muscle to show one of the real strengths of a team that will be anointed the favorite to win the team title next weekend when the MSL tourney begins at Elk Grove.
“Top to bottom, Barrington is a very good team, and with so much inexperience in our own lineup, a team like (that) can take advantage of mental letdowns, and a mistake (here-and-there) and make you pay for it — and you saw that tonight,” said LeVanti, whose club travels to York today to face the hosts, Stevenson and Hinsdale South to finish up the regular season.
After the Broncos ran away and hid from their opponent following the 28-point outburst, Schaumburg senior Tim Ferguson (20-8) stopped the bleeding momentarily with an 8-4 decision at 138 pounds, which left two of the more competitive matches of the night still on the card.
Barrington’s Nick Shealy and Schaumburg’s Sadarriss Patterson (20-4) met in a bout at 152 with the extra incentive of seeding ramifications at the MSL tourney. They put on a terrific display for the big crowd, with the sophomore Patterson building a 4-1 lead one minute in — which he extended to 6-3 at 3½ minutes. Shealy fought back to draw even at 6-6, before going up 8-7 with a takedown in front of the Saxons’ bench.
With Shealy pushing the pace on a now tiring Patterson, the Broncos’ senior finished off his talented opponent with a pin at 4:38.
Barrington teammate Michael Lurz would follow at 160, and he too found himself in a real battle with Matt Stephens (17-7). Lurz came back from a 3-0 deficit to pull even at 4-4 and then used consecutive takedowns to record a 9-5 victory.
“Obviously those were two matches we would have liked to seen a different result, but we’ll get back in the room and work on a few things, and get those guys (and) others, ready for the conference tournament, where everyone starts over with a clean slate,” said LeVanti.
Barrington’s Kevin Conrad earned the fastest pin of the night, needing just 30 seconds at 126.