St. Charles East dominates Batavia forUEC River title
There was total domination by the St. Charles East wrestling team Tuesday night at Batavia.
The anticipated showdown between the two undefeated Upstate Eight Conference River Division teams simply failed to materialize after the Saints won the opening 10 weight classes.
The 38-point unanswered run by St. Charles East was the centerpiece of its conference-clinching 48-11 victory.
The Saints won 12 of the 14 matches.
Wrestling dual meets feature a blind draw to start the contest.
"When we drew 220 (pounds as the opening weight class), I was pretty excited about it," St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said. "I felt like it was in our favor. That was the perfect spot starting against (Batavia)."
Darrell Gregg, Justin Hull, Peyton Schroeder, Joe Ruffino, Ben Anderson, Justin Benjamin, Louis Gordon, Thomas Schroeder, Niko Derain and Steven Dziadosz all captured victories for the Saints in the first matches between 220 and 152 pounds.
"We knew (the Bulldogs) were going to be hyped up," said Thomas Schroeder, who had a first-period fall at 138 pounds to extend the commanding St. Charles East lead to 29-0. "We just wanted to come out and stick it to them right away. We push every day in the (practice) room. We try to be the best we can every day."
St. Charles East (23-4, 7-0) was at the forefront from the opening match.
Batavia (17-4, 6-1) did not even register an offensive point - a Justin Major takedown at 132 pounds - until the seventh match.
But St. Charles East senior Louis Gordon had a late takedown and 2-point near-fall to clinch the Saints' seventh straight win to start the night at 132 pounds.
"I just had to pick up my hustle," Gordon said. "It's really hard to explain how we won that (many matches in succession to start the dual). (The Bulldogs) came out as hard as we did, but I think we had the edge on them tonight."
The Saints' Max Hatch and Cody Glidewell wrapped up the one-sided victory with a second-period pin and major decision, respectively, at 182 and 195 pounds.
The only Batavia victories came when Joe Posedni and Nick Benson, both of whom won major-consolation titles at the Bulldogs' tournament last weekend, had a pin and technical fall at 160 and 170 pounds.
"The score was very lopsided," Batavia coach Scott Bayer said. "I just told the boys that we wrestled a team with tremendous confidence who have a tremendous ability to close out matches. If there was a fundamental difference between the two teams, they were ready to win matches. We were hesitant."