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Wheeling grabs Erb lead

The first day of the 54st Rus Erb wrestling tournament is in the books, with Wheeling leading the field in Glenview at host Glenbrook South.

The Wildcats, team champions here a year ago, will send six entrants to the semifinals on Saturday morning, one more than second-place Lake Park. Wheeling has 72.5 points, with Lake Park at 61.5.

Oswego (58.5), Batavia (55.0) and Evanston 53.5 round out the top five. Class 2A state power Marian Catholic just off the pace in seventh place at 49.5 and has two of its best, Travis Ford-Melton (126) and Carlos Champagne (132), among the tops in their weight class in the state.

"We've been wrestling very well of late, with much better effort and fight each time out, and with us getting closer to getting our lineup together, we should be in good shape for the second half of the season," said Wheeling coach Charlie Curran.

One of Curran's top performers is junior John Paul Smith, who this weekend moved down from 152 to 145 to increase his chances in the race to get downstate in mid-February.

"After struggling through injuries that took away nearly three-fourths of my season last year, it feels good be healthy," said Smith (22-2) who is on course to meet top seed Gannon Hughes (14-0) of Oswego. "If I can get into the final here tomorrow, I'll have the chance to go against one of the top guys in the state."

Wheeling's Manny Ramirez (120) is after a second consecutive title, while his teammate Mason Skloot is on collision course with another highly ranked athlete from Oswego, Allen Swanson at 160.

Senior Vince Liebich (19-1) leads the charge for Lake Park at 152 after two impressive outings, both ending with pins to advance into his semifinal against Kurtis Smith (7-0) of Lakes.

"I tore the labrum in my shoulder in my regional final last year, and although it isn't an excuse for not making it downstate, I know for a fact that I thought too much about my injury instead of my wrestling at sectionals," said Liebich, who won 25 matches last year. "So in addition to working hard in the off-season, I also worked on the mental side of my game, so now I feel that I'll be ready when the postseason gets here."

Junior Andy Posledni (14-1) finds himself in one of the top divisions here this weekend at 132 pounds, headed by Champagne (13-0). That's whom Posledni would meet should he get past Jake Matthews (14-1) of Addison Trail in his semifinal.

"Sitting around while I had a first-round bye didn't help me much today, but I did what I had to do in my quarterfinal to advance and to get the chance at (Champagne) would be a good opportunity for me," said Posledni, whose hard-fought 3-2 win over Aidan McKeag of Loyola came after he build a 3-0 advantage halfway through the second period.

The 138-pound division may have as much depth as 132 - and the top two here might be the top one-two duo in the tournament.

Juniors Riley Palm (Carmel, 15-0) and Reece Heller (Marian Catholic, 10-0) are the top two seeds. Palm is a returning state medalist, while Heller, who transfered from Deerfield, has terrific wresting heritage as older brother Holden, No. 2 at 138 pounds, is a two-time state medalist.

"That's the guy I want to wrestle in the final," said Palm, who earned his second state medal last winter at the 2A tournament despite battling a couple of bad knees, one of which was 'scoped after the season. "Surgery slowed my return last year, and the other knee required attention later on. Despite that, I never stopped working, lifting and getting stronger, and I'm ready to go after a state title this season."

Class 2A state runner-up Wauconda lost nearly 250 victories to graduation, but the Bulldogs still returned a solid core from that group, including state qualifiers Evan Husko (120, 8-2) and Zac Finn (182, 12-2), who both cruised into the semfinals in their respective weight divisions.

"There are a lot of new faces on our varsity roster, but everyone is putting the work and time in to get better, and once we get our lineup sorted out, we're going to be a tough team when the postseason begins," said Husko.

Buffalo Grove has but one of its starters in the front draw remaining, that coming at 220 pounds where junior TJ West (13-3) in in the semis against top seed Adal Sanabria (11-2) of Addison Trail following a fall at 4:24 in the quarterfinals.

"I put a lot of extra work in this week in order to get to the second day of this tournament, so it feels good to still be alive in the front draw," said West, who was not in the BG tournament lineup last weekend at its own Rex Lewis Invite.

Third-round action is set to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday.

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