Hampshire program on rise

In its first season back as a wrestling program, Hampshire has enjoyed a number of highlights.

Two of those bright spots have been the twin brother tag team of sophomore Nathan (215 pounds) and Tyler (285 pounds) Sorg.

"Tyler did very well at the Polo tournament until he had to injury default because of a shoulder injury," said Hampshire coach Terry Wilkinson. "He's doing very well in the heavyweight division. He's a very strong kid. It's been great having twin brothers in the practice room. They're never short of practice partners. I'm real happy with their progress."

Hampshire scored a win over fellow first-year Big Northern Conference program North Boone earlier this week. The Whip-Purs also lost to Belvidere North, which is in its second year of competition.

"I'm very happy with where we are at right now," said Wilkinson. "We're on par with a program like North Boone. There are a lot of positives for our team. Our program is going at a good pace. We're not where we would like to be yet, but we're probably where we should be at right now."

South Elgin update: The Storm was 13-13 in duals (3-1 Upstate Eight) to start this week.

Kevin Gianaris was leading the way for South Elgin with a 24-9 mark at 112 pounds.

"Kevin has shown steady improvement as the season has gone on and has learned how to push his pace and style of match in order to be successful," said South Elgin coach Mark Cameron.

Mike Schoening was 19-12 at 189 pounds.

"Mike is another kid who has just been improving every week," said Cameron. "He has wrestled some tough competition in the past few weeks and really stepped up his level. He is beginning to wrestle his matches of the season."

Dan Hoelting also had 19 wins at 152 pounds. Kyle Rodriguez (125; 16 wins), Nick Potts (140; 15 wins), Billy Scott (135; 14 wins) and John Parker (130; 13 wins) have also been key contributors.

Elgin update: Coach Anthony Genovesi has used a variety of different lineups this season.

"It's been tough putting a full lineup together and not everybody has wrestled in every dual," said Genovesi. "Hopefully, we'll get there and hopefully we'll be better by regionals. That's the goal."

Sophomore Nathan Andresen (103 pounds) was leading the team with 13 victories as of earlier this week.

Dundee-Crown update: The Chargers lost a dual to defending Fox Valley Conference champion Crystal Lake Central last week. D-C was winning a close contest before it had to forfeit the final 4 weight classes of the match.

"Their coach knew about it," said D-C coach Al Zinke. "We had to remove a couple of kids from the team for disciplinary actions and so forth. We don't have any JV kids at those weights. The cupboard was bare. If we had JV kids, we would have popped them in there."

D-C has also lost 112-pounder Frank Abitua who left the team.

"I'm sad to inform that Frank Abitua is no longer with the team," said Zinke. "He's burned out, he said. He had like a 22-3 record at 112, yeah, he's pretty good."

Miko Villanueva, Jeremy Lee, Josh Lee, Alex Laberd and Jack Lewis won matches at Crystal Lake Central. D-C dropped to 16-2 with the loss.

In light of the roster depth issues that have plagued the area's most celebrated high school wrestling program ever, Zinke again questioned the school's athletic user's fee ($150 per sport).

"I said it before and I'll say it again, in this economic time and climate, a $150 user fee is going to hurt numbers dramatically," said Zinke. "I've compiled some statistics on my own and it's unbelievable. Of the people I've talked to, only Harvard (High School) is anywhere near us at $125. All of the Elgin schools are $65. West Aurora is $50 and a second kid is $40. East Aurora is $45. (Geez). You wonder why numbers are down in a sport that's already hard to get kids to come out for."

D-C will host a 5-team event Saturday that includes the state's top-ranked Class 3A team in Oak Park-River Forest.

Streamwood update: Sophomore Joey Kubica sported a 15-1 mark at 145 pounds to start the week. Kubica won the Sterling tournament and will attempt to win his second-straight Batavia tournament title this weekend.

"Joey is real good at takedowns," said Huntley coach Bill Peach. "He takes guys down and lets them back up and takes them back down again. By far, he leads the team in takedowns. He's usually getting 6, 7, 8 takedowns a match. He's lightning quick. He's been wrestling all his life. He's good."

Cary-Grove update: Josh Nelson has come back from illness earlier in the year and was 16-2 at 140 earlier this week. Nelson recently won a title at the Sycamore tournament.

"Josh has come around," said Cary-Grove coach Dan Cysewski. "He's come around conditioning-wise. When he is in condition, he feels that he can out-condition his opponents."

Terrence Fox was closing in on 20 wins (19-9) at 135 pounds.

"Terrence is a bulldog," said Cysewski. "He's the ultimate competitor. He will you give you 6 minutes of intensity. He has that will to win. He doesn't like losing and he wrestles that way."

Jacobs update: The Golden Eagles wrestled in the Sycamore tournament recently. Junior Aaron Ryan took second and ran his record to 19-3. Senior Joe Diehl was also a second-place finisher and is 15-9. Junior Mike Krukowski took sixth, while junior John Cook was eighth (he was 9-3 earlier in the week).

Larkin update: The Royals had a number of wrestlers who were either over the 20-win barrier or approaching it. Senior Tony Feliciano was 27-3 at 130 pounds after taking third at the Geneva tournament. Fellow senior Cameron Tanner was 20-9 at 140 pounds.

Senior Edir Nevarez (285) had 19 wins and junior Tim Einhorn (135) had 18 victories.

Huntley update: Both Colt Claudio (22-7) and Lucas Rogers (20-3) have hit the 20-win barrier for the Red Raiders. Matt Zeis (11 wins) and Josh Symbol (9 wins) have also helped the squad.

Symbol (160 pounds) is only a freshman.

"Josh started off slow. He didn't place at the Harvard tournament," noted Huntley coach Kevin Summerville. "He just beat a kid from Woodstock by a score of 15-0 who took fifth at the Harvard tournament at his weight."

Summerville also praised the work of junior Claudio (119).

"He had lost 5 in a row at one point in the beginning and lost to a kid from Wauconda at the first tournament of the season (Barrington) and just beat him last week (2-0)," said Summerville.

Despite a 3-9 dual record to start the week, Summerville has been pleased with what he's seen this season.

"They are always working hard in the practice room," said Summerville. "They never question what you tell them. They run hard during our conditioning and they never quit during a match. They are starting to believe in themselves and what we are doing in the room. We have others working this hard, too, but these two (Symbol and Claudio) have really started to turn the corner."