Oak Park too much for Glenbard North
Following a tradition more than a decade old, most Glenbard North wrestlers arrived with their hair dyed blond for the Class 3A dual team sectional Tuesday at Larkin.
"I think the blond hair kind of unifies us in a way, the camaraderie that we get that we're one team," senior Joe Czernek said. "Right before our (DuPage Valley Conference meet we did it). Some of us did it in a group. Some of us do it on our own."
The Panthers' hopes of returning downstate as a team, however, were thwarted by the team favored to again capture the gold.
Glenbard North, third in Class 3A in 2015, lost to two-time defending team champion and top-rated Oak Park-River Forest 73-0 in Elgin. The Panthers (21-6) lost eight matches by pin, two by technical fall, three by major decision and one decision, Czernek's 8-2 loss to Michael Ordonez at 145 pounds.
"Sometimes you've got to do some hard things," Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn said. "We knew we were probably going to get beaten and we had to go out and wrestle and that's what these guys did so I'm proud of them for that. They've accomplished a lot this year. Oak Park's just in a different league."
The Panthers chose wisely not to use their best chance for a dual victory - junior Austin Gomez (41-1), who won the 3A individual title at 126 Saturday. Gomez won his title match 8-7 over Oak Park sophomore Anthony Madrigal (38-2), who won Tuesday's opening match by technical fall 15-0.
"(Gomez) was a little beaten, little injured from the state meet," Hahn said. "We kind of knew what the outcome was going to be so there's no reason (to jeopardize him)."
The Huskies (23-3) had their lineup at full strength with eight top-six, individual all-staters from Saturday and three state champions -senior and Ohio State-bound Isaiah White (27-0 at 160 pounds), senior Allen Stallings (33-3 at 220) and junior Jason Renteria (20-0 at 120), who won by pin Tuesday at 132. White, the only three-time state champion in program history, and Stallings also won by pin in their usual weight classes.
"We had an unbelievable showing at (individual) state," Oak Park coach Paul Collins said. "We still have another level to get to because as a team these guys wrestle unbelievably hard for each other."
Even with a relatively inexperienced lineup, the Panthers won their 18th straight DVC title and 16th straight regional title.
Nine seniors wrestled Tuesday. That included Czernek (30-13), twin brother Tom (38-10) at 170 and their cousin, Jon Czernek (25-16), at 285. At individual state Tom finished fifth at 160 and Joe was 0-1 at 138. Joe wrestled up Tuesday against Ordonez (38-10), fifth at state at 145.
"I wasn't even supposed to make it to state, Jon was only a point or two away from (reaching) state and Tom placed fifth," Joe Czernek said. "This has been great growing up together. We all like wrestling, and winning together is just awesome."