Dundee-Crown sends 4 to state meet in Champaign
At the end of the day, after watching the Mid-Suburban League and the North Suburban Conference take the bulk of the top 4 place finishers home from the Barrington sectional and into the state tournament next weekend, five Fox Valley area wrestlers emerged to find a spot in Champaign when the Class 3A state tournament begins next Friday.
Fox Valley Conference runner-up Dundee-Crown fans will have four wrestlers to cheer inside Assembly Hall with the senior trio of Jack Lewis (152, 38-6), Jeremy Lee (119, 37-7) and Jermaine Lee (125, 33-12) joining 103-pound junior Miko Villanueva (33-6) for their first state appearance ever as all were top 4 finishers in their respective weight classes.
Cary-Grove junior Josh Nelson (140) will also make the trip to Champaign.
"We've got three seniors and one junior heading downstate, and the great thing about (that) is all of them can look ahead to a new week and their last of the season with newfound hope for better things ahead," said retiring D-C coach Al Zinke.
Lewis appeared to be on the fast track to the final before being derailed by eventual division champ, Barrington junior Luke Miller, in the semifinals (2-1), forcing the 3-time sectional finalist out of the championship bracket and into the back draw.
"Miller was a very strong opponent, and I didn't really get into (the) way I wanted to wrestle after he got the first takedown," admitted Lewis, who would comeback to defeat Nick McDowell of Libertyville before walking over Wheeling's Leo Hicks with a default to grab a third-place medal.
"After that loss to (Miller) the coaching staff helped give me a good game plan (for) McDowell and coach Zinke told me to go out and wrestle like it was a state championship match, and I did."
Senior Jermaine Lee was unable to stop two-time sectional champ Luke Smith (32-2) in the final at 125 pounds as the Wheeling sophomore broke open the match with a first-period explosion, which led to a fall at 2:56.
"I was able to get plenty of shots (in) but couldn't finish, and he was just too much for me after not scoring off of any of those shots," said Lee, who advanced into the final after fending off a hard-charging Kyle Manolovic (Libertyville) 10-7 in the morning semifinal rounds.
Villanueva shook off a bitter loss on Friday night to eventual champ Matt Ornoff (Mundelein) and wrestled back into medal contention with an exciting 8-7 decision over Nick Fontanetta (Crystal Lake South) before going past Adrian Gonzalez 6-3 in his third-place bout.
"My teammates and our coaching staff got behind me and really helped support me when I needed it the most," said Villanueva.
With his back to the wall, the aforementioned Nelson (37-7) revived his hope of getting downstate after defeating Josh Bricker (Libertyville) in his state qualifying bout via a fall at 5:02.
"I was maybe a little (too) nervous in my semifinal match with (David) Aranda (Wheeling) in the morning and he was so quick that I didn't really react as I should," said Nelson. "But against (Bricker) I could feel the momentum shift my way after (that) takedown, which would give me a 3-2 lead in the second period and after that the match was mine."