Watson wows 'em at Batavia

Augie Watson left his gym with an O.W. alongside his name after being annointed Outstanding Wrestler.

The letters could have just as easily stood for ‘Oh, Wow!' following his performance at the Batavia Tournament on Saturday.

The Batavia senior capped a superb day of work in dramatic style by recording a pin at 5:44 in his final over Steve Dewitt of Sterling to capture the 152-pound title, helping the Bulldogs to a sixth-place finish at its 16-team tourney.

Lincoln-Way Central outlasted Downers Grove North (161-148) in the race for the team championship, with Central Suburban League power Maine South edging defending champ Lemont (140.5-140) to grab third place.

Wheaton North (124) and Buffalo Grove (89.5) claimed eighth- and ninth-place honors, while Bartlett, on the strength of a terrific effort from sophomore Sal Annoreno at 119 pounds finished 11th with 74.5 points.

Watson, who entered the competition as the No. 5 ranked wrestler in the state in his weight class, pinned his way into the final after putting down Jake Meeder of Plainfield South just 71 seconds into his semifinal. That set up his championship bout with Dewitt, who won 34 bouts last season and came into the action ranked No. 6 in 2A.

“He was a tough opponent, but I went in with the mindset to wrestle smart, control the pace and to take my points when the opportunity was (there) to,” said Watson, who was sporting a good-sized cut over his eyebrow.

“Augie is so smart and savvy, which is something you cannot teach,” said Batavia coach Ben Morris, “and you can see how much more relaxed he has become as this season has gone along.”

Watson secured his second invididual title of the year (he won earlier at Glenbrook South) after building a 5-2 second-period lead, which featured plenty of hand-fighting, and some blood time for the eventual champ, who put away his opponent for good with a late fall.

“It's feels really great to win a title at home, and in my senior year,” said Watson, who is now 22-2.

Annoreno (29-1), who saw his season end for good here last season with a back injury, won his second straight title on the Bulldogs' mats with an impressive three-match effort that finished with an 8-1 victory over Andrew Mason (25-3) of Lemont.

The Hawks star won his opener with a technical fall, followed by a major in his semifinal, before racing out to a quick lead with a take-down just moments into his bout with Mason. Annoreno then methodically built an insurmountable cushion.

“I wanted to be the aggressor right from the start of (my) final, and then take control of the match after that takedown,” said Annoreno, who defeated Mason 5-0 at 112-pounds one year ago.

“Sal has a lot of energy and stays real busy in his matches, making it nearly impossible for his opponents to do much against him,” said Bartlett coach Gary Cotie, who credits an intense off-season training regimen for Annoreno's success. Bartlett's Jake Joiner put up a valiant effort before falling 7-5 to Jake Kaminsky in the 145-pound final, while his teammate Tom Gbean overcame a disappointing 10-8 loss in his semifinal to fight back and earn a third-place medal at 171 pounds.

“Last year (here) I went 0-2 and was eliminated right away; this year I made it into the finals,” said Joiner, who was down 7-3 late in his match with Kaminsky and had a chance to draw even as time expired.

Wheaton North junior XXXX Swider handed Chris Giatras (Lemont) a 3-0 shutout loss in the 189-pound final to collect another championship trophy to go along with the hardware earned at Fenton early this season. Swider, ranked No. 7 in the state, improved to 24-2.

“It was really good match for me to compete in,” said Swider, who said he was wary of Giatras' upper body strength and obvious desire to get a few throws in to help turn the match in his favor.

“I thought I did well to push the pace for most of the match, work my Russians and to keep him on the defensive.”

“Mike has really come on during the past couple of weeks, and you can tell he really enjoys being in a match like the final, where it's kind of like 1 on 1, which totally works to his advantage,” said Falcons coach Steve Holland.

Swider's two losses this season have been against No. 1 Brad Johnson (Lockport) and Gage Harrah of Crystal Lake Central, who is currently the top-rated 189-pounder in Class 2A.

Holland had another champion, as Usman Lutfiyev topped Mickey Watson at 171 pounds by default.

North's Joel Henley fell to 2A star George Canales, as the 215-pounder from Sterling looks to be in peak form in an effort to better his third-place finish one year ago while at Dixon.

The area had plenty of top-three medalists, including Joe Shump of Batavia at 112 pounds, and Brian Egan (Buffalo Grove), who for the second consecutive day managed to rise to the occasion in the late going.

On Friday night, the sophomore had conjured up some magic in OT to give the Bison a key victory in an important MSL East victory on the road at Prospect. And on Saturday, her recorded a takedown near the edge to defeat Hector Ruiz of East Aurora 5-4 in a semifinal to earn a spot in the finals against state-ranked Tyler Schneider of Lincoln-Way Central.

Once there, it was all Schneider, but the efforts of Egan did not go unnoticed.

“Brian was a real bright spot for us in an otherwise dreary afternoon session, as he continues to get better each week, while showing some hard-nosed wrestling in tight matches for us,” said Bison coach Dave Durlacher, who watched Eugene Blackmon (112) and Jordan Rathje (130) both finish third after each missed nearly a month of wrestling.

“I am more of a defensive wrestler, but we've been working a lot on my takedowns of late, and near the end of my semifinal the chance was there, and I took it,” said Egan (16-8).

BG freshman Chase Ori (20-2) fell short in his bid for a third-place medal when Jacobs freshmen Austin Ryan survived a 3-1 decision to give the Golden Eagles their best finish of the day.

“Obviously I was disappointed that I couldn't have done better, but for now, all I will focus on is what's ahead this week, and not anything past that,” said Ryan.

The Bulldogs' Shump came close to giving his club another title. Only a late surge from Jake Latanski of Lemont, who needed 3 OT periods, kept him from winning.

Shump used a reversal after starting in the down position at the beginning of the third period to go ahead 2-0, but Latanski, who was fourth at the 2A state tournament last February, answered with a reversal of his own moments later and eventually won it all with a takedown as the buzzer sounded.

“Joe was kind of waiting for something to happen, instead of (making) something happen instead,” said Morris.

Downers Grove North senior Jimmy Nehls (28-1) was in the conversation for MVP honors after yet another fantastic day of wrestling, ending with a dominant six minutes in his 6-0 victory over Wade Lardy of McHenry to win it all at 130 pounds and push his record at North to a stunning 130-23.

“All I want to do is to get better each time that I am out, and not to peak too soon,” said Nehls, who is a three-time state qualifier and was third at 125 pounds in Champaign last season.

Dave Tessiatore, who went downstate along with Nehls last season, snared a championship belt as well at 140 pounds after defeating state-ranked Tyler Balsley from 2A Sterling 12-6.

The Trojans, who at were fifth after the semifinals, put 25 points on the board surpass McHenry, Lemont and Sterling to earn its runner-up trophy.