Wrestling/Fox Valley regional roundup

Burlington Central had two champions and Hampshire one Saturday at separate Class 2A wrestling regionals.

Rockets’ seniors Buddy Toth and Omar Awad each had their hands raised in victory at the DeKalb sectional, while Hampshire senior Tyler Espino brought home the hardware from the Marengo regional.

Toth defeated Rockford Boylan’s Ryan Johnson 7-5 to win the DeKalb 160-pound title and run his season record to 31-0, while Awad downed Boylan’s Sam McGuire with a fall at 5:07 to win the title at 170.

Burlington Central also advanced Johnny Major (2nd, 145), Deshon Rambo (2nd, 152) and Andrew Yarwood (3rd, 182) to next weekend’s Sterling sectional. The Rockets placed fourth as a team Saturday, with Sycamore claiming the team championship.

At Marengo, Hampshire’s Espino pinned Woodstock’s Jordan Powers in 1:35 to win the 113-pound championship. The Whip-Purs also had three second-place finishes and will send Nick Brown (138), Trabis Keeling (160) and Zach Oranger (285) to the Grayslake Central sectional along with Espino. Hampshire finished fifth in the team standings, as state power Crystal Lake Central easily won the team title.

Class 1A at Harvard: St. Edward senior Evan Finnane will compete at the Byron sectional next weekend after taking second at 285 pounds Saturday in the Harvard regional. Finnane (17-3) lost the championship match to North Boone sophomore Gus Eisele in a fall at 1:35.

Class 3A at West Chicago: The 132-pound collision between Bartlett’s Sal Annoreno and Glenbard West’s Zak Hassan proved to be the highlight for the Hawks at West Chicago. Annoreno, a junior, had three takedowns and a reversal to turn back the top seed 8-3.

Defending dual-team state champion Glenbard North had seven champions and 12 total qualifiers to dominate the nine-team championship.

It marked the 12th straight regional team title for the DuPage Valley Conference behemoth.

“My overall thought is that I’m very happy with Sal Annoreno,” Bartlett coach Karl Bratland said. “I keep telling him that he’s going to be a state champion.”

“I had to keep a positive mindset,” said Annoreno, now 32-3. “The same thing that I have been doing all year. That’s what got me here.”

The first regional championship in his standout career with the Hawks provided the senior with his third major individual title this season after previous wins at Buffalo Grove and the Upstate Eight Conference championship.

Unfortunately for Bartlett, though, Annoreno was the lone athlete to make the sectional cut to Glenbard North next weekend.

Tom Gbean had his Bartlett career come to a stunning halt when the senior 182-pounder was caught in a move and pinned in the third-place match against Glenbard East junior Matt Chlebek.

The Hawks’ third possible hope, sophomore Antony Zipparro, failed to score against Geneva junior Brad Martens in the top consolation match at 113 pounds.

“As a team we fell a little bit short,” Bratland said. “This is my first year as head coach. We were hoping to get some more guys out. They’re still learning to compete at the (varsity) level.”

Class 3A at Stevenson: Champions in the Mid-Suburban League and now in a Class 3A regional, Barrington remains on course for a serious run at a team wrestling state trophy after shattering the hopes of like-minded Deerfield on Saturday in Lincolnshire at the Stevenson regional.

The Broncos, 16-2 in duals this season, survived some nervous moments in the early stages before overpowering the competition with a surge from their big men to open up a lead that was too much for state power Deerfield to match. Barrington ended up with a 78-point winning margin (233.5-155.5) to ensure safe passage into its third consecutive 3A dual team sectional later this month against Grant.

Lake Zurich, with sophomore Sean Lynch leading the way, earned the third-place team trophy with 123 points. That was 20 more than Cary-Grove, which qualified four wrestlers to Friday’s Barrington sectional.

“Things were a little tight for awhile,” said Barrington coach Ken Hoving. “We knew that Deerfield would be right there with us, as well as Lake Zurich, which is a team that we were always worried about because they are usually so dangerous in the second half of the season after they get all of their guys back from football.”

Things got started in a big way with the 106-pound final between Adrian Gonzalez (31-2) of Barrington and freshman standout Mike Cullen (36-2) of Cary-Grove.

During the first week of the season, Gonzalez beat Cullen 1-0 on his way to a championship belt at the Moore-Prettyman tournament. But since then, Cullen has been superb — and Gonzalez had been too, before slipping up last weekend in the MSL final against Conant’s Bobby Alexander.

Many thought Cullen might send his counterpart to a second consecutive defeat. But the Barrington senior had other ideas.

Gonzalez put Cullen to his back with a quick move after starting the second period down, then built a 4-0 lead before holding off a late rally to get the 4-3 victory.

“Mike is so good on his feet, and such a great wrestler, but when I felt the opportunity to surprise him, I went for it,” said Gonzalez, who won his second straight regional title. “We’re going to meet next week, and likely again at the state tournament, and I can tell you each match will be different from the other.”

“We would have liked to have seen Mike push the tempo more,” said Cary-Grove coach Ryan Ludwig, “and definitely go for the tilt a little earlier than he did when he got close at the end. Adrian is a great wrestler, with a lot of experience, but will get back at it, watch some film and get ourselves ready for next weekend.”

What looked like a bright day for the Trojans ended up turning a little cloudy for them after Mike Underwood (30-10) fell in the 126-pound final to Brian Egan (Buffalo Grove). And Matt Fina (26-15) was unable to stop the Sean Lynch (Lake Zurich); Lynch ran roughshod over all three of his opponents to win it all.

The Trojans’ lone survivor after the aforementioned trio was Max Kersten (24-15) at 182.

“We’ll regroup and get ourselves together for Barrington,” Ludwig said.

John Radtke, Kevin McGavin and Mike Garofola contributed to this report