Montini win worth the trip
Imagine for a moment the two bus rides. For Chicago Westinghouse it measured 54 miles one way to Antioch High School. So that gave that team plenty of time to reflect on its mission. Simply knock out that team from Lombard and earn a trip to Bloomington for the team wrestling state meet.
The good news for Westinghouse is it won a couple of matches - by forfeit. Montini won by all pins and coasted to a sectional win 60-12.
Montini sent Westinghouse home for the winter with a pin-filled conquest Tuesday night. Now certainly the ride for Montini (also 54 miles) went something like this. There was some talk of off-the-mat betting. As in how many pins this state power would chalk up on its way to another state meet.
Montini was fresh off getting nine of its team members in the finals at the state wrestling meet. Five went home champions.
One of those state champions, Vince Turk, was also successful Tuesday. He took down Cyrus Goines quickly and built up a quick 9-1 lead. Turk's pin was recorded at the 25-second mark of the first period.
"We wanted to get in here and get this done quickly,'' Turk said. "Every day we work hard and our coaches are great."
With Turk's win he's now an impressive 43-6 during this his junior campaign.
Weights 106, 113, 120 and 126 were wiped away by forfeits.
Back on the mat at 152, Chris Garcia chalked up another pin for the winners. He made his move on Sharaka Berry at the 59-second mark of period one.
Next up for Montini was junior Luke Fortuna. He built up a quick 6-0 lead and then registered a pin at 1:36 of the second period.
"We didn't even had a full lineup today,'' Fortuna said.
Now Fortuna admitted he's not exact known for pinning folks.
"I'm not usually a pinner,'' he said. "So this was fun to do."
Actually the drive to Antioch was nothing out of the ordinary for Fortuna and his teammates.
"We've been to Detroit, Ohio, Wisconsin and Rockford this year,'' Fortuna said.
With another season to go for Fortuna and Turk, there is going to be a change next year.
"We are moving from 2A to 3A next year,'' Fortuna said.
The pin-fest next moved to Xavier Montalvo at 170. He took his time battling Darius Humphrey. Montalvo's lead hit 13-3 before his pin ended the match at 53 seconds in the third.
Two more pins closed the match. Derrick Curry's pin took place at the 1:37 mark of period two. Heavyweight, or 285-pound Michael Johnson took care of business with a pin at 22 seconds of the first period.
With a 14-2 mark in dual meets this season, Montini will head to state bright and early on Saturday morning in Bloomington. It will take on a team from Washington High School that won the LaSalle-Peru sectional.