Naperville North overcomes Waubonsie Valley
The lighter weight classes for the Naperville North wrestling team had a big night, and that was crucial to beating host Waubonsie Valley on Friday, 44-28 in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Next for the squads is the DuPage Valley Conference championship Jan. 30 at Glenbard North.
“We felt pretty good. We knew we would bounce back at the lower weights. We were wrestling real hard in practice,” said Lucas Van Poucke, who won by fall at 113 pounds.
The meet began at 285 with Waubonsie senior Tyler Caldwell winning by fall. The Huskies won by forfeit at 106 and then proceeded to win seven of the next nine matches starting with Van Poucke.
“Lucas did a great job with that. His pin electrified us,” said Frankie Fisher, who followed Van Poucke at 120 with a technical fall. “I thought we did a great job.”
Fisher was leading 15-0 when the match was halted.
“I was focusing on my shots a lot,' he said.
Next win for the Huskies came from Aaron Kruk at 132 (decision) and he was followed by Quinn McKenna at 145 (fall), Phil Cameli at 152 (decision), Gabe Matar at 160 (fall) and Steve Schmult at 170 (decision).
Waubonsie's second win of the evening came at 126 where senior Jakob Beutler prevailed by a fall at 126. It was the Warriors' senior night.
“It felt really good. We were really pent up. We were really psyched. It was going to our last match at Waubonsie,” Beutler said. “We are all out there to support each other and it was great that every senior that competed won tonight.”
Mason Kroening won at 182 thanks to a fall, and senior Max Ihry prevailed by major decision at 195.
Going into the DVC meet, the Huskies have three wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in their respective classes in the illinoismatmen.com state rankings. Van Poucke is at No. 8, Kruk is at No. 7 and Schmult is at No. 10.
For Waubonsie, Ihry is No. 4 and Caldwell is 10th in his weight class.
The postseason is now upon these teams, starting with the DVC meet.
“I think we're better than our record shows. All of our losses were close,” Van Poucke said.