Yorkville wins competitive WSC finale
The resilience of the Class 2A wrestling programs was front and center once again Saturday in the swan song for the Western Sun Conference.
Boasting three of the top-10 middle-tier programs in the state, the rankings were justified as host Yorkville denied Sycamore a flawless season on Saturday afternoon. The reigning Class 2A state runner-up Foxes had four champions and six more athletes place second or third to turn back Sycamore, the undefeated dual-meet regular-season champion, 171-163.5 at the league tournament.
Kaneland, which boasted its lone champion in freshman Esai Ponce at 103 pounds, had four more runners-up to place third (129 points). The Knights are ranked No. 10 in Class 2A. Batavia had two champions to place fourth, while Geneva edged DeKalb for fifth.
All eight schools had at least one champion; Glenbard South heavyweight Austin Teitsma defended his crown for the Raiders, who were seventh; Rochelle completed the field.
The climatic day for the conference in wrestling left several coaches bittersweet.
"I think we're all agreed that in wrestling that it was a really competitive league," Batavia coach Tom Arlis said. "I hate to see it go. I know it wasn't the same in all sports. It wasn't meant to be, but it was fun while it lasted."
The Bulldogs were the two-time defending tournament champions. Ponce began the finals by taking down Yorkville junior Adam Wyeth in overtime to claim a 6-4 decision.
"I just wanted to up my intensity and bring my 'A' game to the conference tournament," Ponce said. "I just pushed through the initial tiredness to pick (Wyeth) up (in overtime). I didn't really expect (a conference title going into the season), but I knew it was a possibility."
The Knights' other standout freshman, 112-pounder Dan Goress, was looking for his first win against Yorkville sophomore Connor Bass in the finals.
"Everyone kept telling me that I was a freshman and had nothing to lose," Goress said. "I was pretty confident I could take (Bass), but it didn't come out that way. One of my goals was to be a conference champion."
Bass allowed a mere escape in posting an 8-1 triumph.
At the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweight title had Tietsma and Kaneland junior Jimmy Boyle as the marquee match of the day. Tietsma has not lost in the regular season since a semifinal defeat in the conference tournament two years ago, and the senior extended his season-long unbeaten streak to 19 matches with a 1-0 victory.
Boyle fell to 32-3 on the year. The Knights' Deven Scholl and Dennis Brettman had their championship hopes denied at 125 and 130 pounds.
Logan Arlis, the Batavia senior looking for a second straight undefeated regular season, improved to 30-0 with two more dominant performances. On a day with an inordinate number of quarterfinal byes, Arlis eased to the 119-pound title with a second-period fall in the finals.
The Bulldogs' Tyler Patton also claimed a major title with his 8-5 victory over Yorkville senior Sean Anderson at 135 pounds.
The formidable Geneva senior duo of Ryan Ward and Will Duerr continued their winning ways for the Vikings. Ward prevailed 5-4 for the title at 189 pounds, and Duerr made it back-to-back titles with his one-sided major decision at 215.
"I knew I could get my takedowns," said Ward. "I was going in there trying to take more shots. I wasn't expecting a high-scoring match."
"The key was just going out there and wrestling like I have all season," said Duerr, undefeated in the conference this winter. "I just did that and came out on top."
Andrew Hiller, Alex Keep and Marcus Rokosh were the other place-winners for Glenbard South.
"We had a decent day," Crenshaw said. "We had a couple of matches we didn't pull out. We were about 50 percent today. We took 10 guys and four of them made it to the placing round."