D-C throws its weight around at Carmel
The top of the lineup for Dundee-Crown showed its strength just when the Chargers needed it, winning 4 of the last 5 bouts against host Carmel and 3 of them by fall to defeat the host Corsairs on Tuesday night in the first of 2 matches in Mundelein.
The Chargers trailed by 18 points at one time, then slowly began to take a bite out of the big lead before using back-to-back pins from Tim Schanmier and Kyle Lamprecht at 152 and 160 to take the lead for good at 32-27 en route to a 44-27 victory.
A short time later, the Chargers rolled over East Aurora 61-11, recording 7 pins in 14 matches.
Carmel finished the late night on a positive step by defeating the Tomcats 43-27.
“This is almost a whole new team we have this year,” said talented D-C 182-pounder Jimmy Kuczynski, who along with Dillon Muscat and Ray Griggle are coach Bob Skillman’s most experienced competitors back from a club which won the Jacobs regional title in the final season for long-time coach Al Zinke.
“We have a great bunch of guys on this team, but we’re going to take our lumps here and there as we go about rebuilding our roster in a conference which has wrestling powers like Crystal Lake Central and North, as well as McHenry and Cary-Grove, who are going to be very good this season as well,” said Skillman, who was a long-time assistant to Zinke.
Kuczynski, who won 24 matches last year, helped finish off the Corsairs with a pin just 59 seconds into his match. He later earned a hard-fought 4-2 decision in OT over a stubborn Fernando Duran of East Aurora after Elijah Velez-Kraemer (145) and Kyle Lamprecht book-ended a 10-0 major from Schanmier at 152 at the tail end of a 21-point run.
Earlier, the same quartet accounted for 24 points to help break open a tightly contested dual with the Corsairs, who’ve moved down to Class 2A.
“Kyle and Tim are both at the same weight (152) so we’ve moved them around in order to keep them both in the lineup, and with (Kyle) a junior and Tim a sophomore, they’ll both be key figures for us in the future,” said Stillman, who also had plenty of praise for another sophomore, Velez-Kraemer.
Carmel coach Bob Kuykendall also is negotiating some growing after the terrific foursome of Evan Palmer, Bobbdy Dandino, Tim Hourihan and Brian Waldron all graduated, taking with them nearly 135 victories in last season alone. The loss of that experience is hard to replace quickly.
“That’s the biggest thing we’re lacking this season,” began Kuykendall, now in his fourth season as head coach. “From 106 to 126 it’s all freshmen and sophomores, and in fact, we have just one senior in our lineup, and that’s Hayden Roos.
“It’s obviously going to take us awhile to sort things out while many of our guys, who began wrestling when they came to high school and need to get more time on the mats and in matches before they all take a big step forward.”
One who is already have a positive effect is junior heavyweight Jake Cochrane. He’s the Corsairs’ lone returning sectional qualifier, and one who is considered to be a favorite to enjoy a long run in the postseason, especially now that the team has moved down a class.
Cochrane, who won 30 bouts last year and was second at the East Suburban Catholic Conference tourney, went 2-0 Tuesday, as did sophomore Dominic Panico at 113 and Marty Schwartz at 132 pounds.
It looked as if the Corsairs would make quick work of the Tomcats in its second dual of the night, racing out to a 25-3 lead only to see East Aurora stage an impressive rally and draw as close as 34-27 before Steve Alvarado recorded a fall at 220 and Cochrane a 10-3 decision a few minutes later.
“We’ve got Richmond-Burton, Antioch, both Grayslake schools, and others in our regional, which should be tough, but last year we had Libertyville, Harlem, and Hononegah, so we’re used to big-time competition in the postseason,” said Kuykendall.