Batavia dethrones St. Charles East in Upstate Eight

With St. Charles East the dominate conference wrestling force during the past four seasons, there have not been very many nights when any other team could dine at the top of the Upstate Eight table.

Until Saturday.

Batavia, which went back-and-forth with the four-time champion Saints during most of the two days of action inside West Chicago's Bishop Gym, slowly pulled away from Saints, courtesy of a stunning pin from Nick Benson followed by another from the Bulldogs' best, Dylan Uzumecki, to finish things off and help coach Scott Bayer's club lift its first championship trophy since joining the conference.

"We won the division last year, but this is so much better because it was a true team effort that saw all 14 guys medal, including three individual titles, to help us get past the defending and four-time champs," said a low-key Bayer, who watched his team celebrate when accepting the hardware.

"When everyone comes through like they did today, this is where wrestling truly is a team sport," said Uzumecki (33-2), who mashed the competition at 220 pounds to win his second consecutive championship ring and in doing so proved without a doubt he will be a force in the coming weeks leading up the state tournament.

The Bulldogs would outscore the Saints 248-233, as well as West Aurora (196.5), Glenbard East (143.5) and Geneva (111), which would round out the top five.

Streamwood, with its 111.5 overall points, finished with its highest ever place in recent memory, using four third-place medals to stay far ahead of tourney host West Chicago (83.5) for sixth-place.

"We knew Batavia was its strongest at the upper weights, but when we beat them in our dual last time, we competed well in order to neutralize their strength, But not today, and that's were they took off and ran away from us," said Saints head coach Jason Potter.

"We've got almost two weeks to clean up some things, and get some of our guys back up to speed if we expect to compete well at regionals, and in order to get as many guys through and into sectionals."

The Saints got off to a flying start to give Potter and his staff hope of catching the eventual champs, who opened the final session of the tournament with a slim 8-point advantage (208-200).

Joe Ruffino (106, 30-5), Justin Benjamin (113, 25-9) and one of the state's best, Anthony Rubino (126, 31-6), gave the Saints three gold medals in the first four finals matches, with Nolan Vincent (Glenbard East, 26-4) dashing the hopes of freshman Ben Anderson (25-12) at 120.

"It feels great to win a conference title, but a lot of the credit goes to my partner in the room (Justin Benjamin). We just go at each other day after day, and help make each other better," said Ruffino, following his pin of Honor Nguyen (21-13) from Geneva.

"It was all about attacking from the start, and just wearing my opponents down," began Rubino, who was later named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament by the UEC coaches.

Rubino would defeat Kolbe O'Brien (St. Charles North, 28-2) in a battle of 2015 state qualifiers, 7-3, after consecutive major decisions secured his place opposite his longtime rival.

"Kolbe and I know each other so well because we've been wrestling each other since sixth-grade, but you want to win, and get bonus points for your team at the same time and that's what I did over these past two days," Rubino said.

The rest of the league would shut the door on the Saints' individual title hopes after the Rubino victory, beginning with Mike Doranski (19-8) of Batavia, who himself had quite a day after knocking off No. 1 seed Sunny You (Streamwood, 24-1) in the semifinals, before dashing the hopes of No. 2 Alex Roldan of West Aurora with a fall at 5:10 to win top honors at 132.

"I knew when I went up 1-0 when he locked his hands, and after my escape in the second period I could ride it out for the win (against You) so when the final came around, I opened it up and felt really good all the way through," said the Bulldogs' senior, who was sixth here a year ago.

Scott Szabo (138, 28-9) would win his UEC crown with a 17-4 major over Niko Derain of St. Charles East before Erik Olson (23-10) claimed his second straight conference crown, and first of three for West Aurora when he pinned Nic Anastasia of Geneva.

"Erik is just a great kid who last year was the comeback kid for us, always finding a way to win matches. This year, he's the perfect example of hard work equals success, and he just goes and goes," offered West Aurora coach Charlie Curran, who would soon celebrate another individual championship when senior Alex Gonzalez (160) won by an injury default over Joe Posledni (Batavia), who suffered a broken thumb during the first period.

Gonzalez (7-0) who recently returned to the club after missing most of the regular season, appears to be in peak form despite his absence from the action.

"One thing for me is I am fresher than nearly everyone else, and I feel great both physically and mentally, and ready to go for the stretch run," said Gonzalez, who won 25 last season en route to a fifth-place finish at the Class 3A state tournament.

Teammate Devin Moore would garner a first-place medal after his hard-fought 7-5 decision over Larkin senior Aaron Marshall (17-6), who tilts the heavyweight scales at a 'paltry' 211 pounds but played big all weekend long against his behemoth counterparts.

DJ McDermott (28-8) was nearly unstoppable as he gave the Saints their last title of the day, his coming at 152 and setting up the most exciting final of the afternoon by the aforementioned Benson of Batavia.

Thrilled to be in the finals for the first time in his career and one year after not placing, Bartlett senior, Alex Montbriand (21-7) was nearly ready to be fitted for his championship ring when Benson, trailing 11-1 at the start of the third period, turned the tables on the Hawks' star, locking him up after a big throw, before dealing the knockout blow with a pin at 4:26, much to the delight of the Batavia faithful.

"I knew I was in big trouble, so when he kind of walked into my throw, I said to myself not to do anything stupid, and finish this chance with a pin," said Benson moments after being mobbed by his teammates.

Zach Crosby (195, 30-4) of South Elgin would give the Storm its first UEC title since Cory Pych and Cody Pych did so four years ago.

"It's nice to win here as a senior, but it's not the ultimate ending - that has to be on the podium in four weeks at Champaign," said the South Elgin captain.

Bradley University-bound Alex Crowe (21-8) would give Geneva its lone title on the day with a wonderful effort at 195, setting up Uzumecki's brilliant performance, to help put an exclamation point on the Bulldogs' triumphant day.

"I told you at the start of the day that I felt good about our chances, but you never know how things will turn out because of so many factors, but I am thrilled with the outcome and with the fact that we put all (14) of our guys on the podium in the end," Bayer said.

"It was a great day all the way around."