Glenbard North collects third-place trophy
BLOOMINGTON - After having its 15-match winning streak come to a shocking halt in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, the Glenbard North wrestling team had little time to mourn.
"It was kind of heartbreaking," Glenbard North 113-pound individual state champion Austin Gomez said of the 34-24 defeat to Sandburg. "We all wanted to be in the finals."
But the Panthers more than regrouped in the third-place match of the Class 3A dual-team tournament.
Using three falls in succession against Lockport, the Panthers won the major-consolation championship for the eighth time since the 2002 Class AA tournament with a 42-24 victory.
"It's nice to win a trophy," Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn said. "It was a very disappointing loss to Sandburg; you're not going to beat Oak Park."
Oak Park-River Forest completed a perfect season as the top-rated team in the nation by defeating Sandburg 39-16 to defend its team title.
Bumped up a weight, Colton Wegner had a second-period fall to give Glenbard North (27-2) a quick lead on Lockport (23-8).
The Porters' Tyler Johnson stunned Luke Greenberg, the state runner-up at 195 pounds, with a first-period fall.
But the momentum was firmly in the Panthers' hands when Kyle Neal, Kirk Johansen and Gomez had pins in a row from heavyweight to 113 pounds.
"I just wanted to finish my last match with a pin," Neal said. "I wanted to finish out my career on a good note."
"We had to come back (from the semifinal loss) - and that's exactly what we did," Gomez said.
Patrick Augustyn, Michael Milan and Phillip Partipilo extended the Panthers' unanswered run of victories to give Glenbard North an insurmountable 42-6 lead.
The Porters responded with the final 19 points of the match - one would later be deducted on a misconduct penalty - but it proved to be academic.
Glenbard North began its day with a second one-sided defeat of Prospect this season in the quarterfinals.
Johansen, Gomez, Milan and 138-pounder Anthony Marre all had falls against Prospect in the 42-19 win.
Glenbard North defeated Sandburg by 20 points in the schools' January dual meet, but it was an entirely different affair in the rematch.
Greenberg, Gomez and Milan were the only Glenbard North winners in the 12 contested matches.
The 34-24 final was deceiving as Sandburg forfeited the final two matches after building a 34-12 advantage.
"We didn't wrestle very well against (Sandburg)," Hahn said.
"We have a lot of respect for their program," Sandburg coach Eric Siebert said. "The bottom line was, us and Glenbard North are very even. If we wrestled 10 times, we may each win five (times)."
"The kids worked really hard this season," Hahn said.