Naperville Central keeps marching through schedule
While the final score will surely cause some folks to do a double take, the fact that Naperville Central is so strong this year does not come as such a surprise to wrestling fans who have paid attention the last few seasons.
The Redhawks had a lineup filled with underclassmen the last two years and this year a senior-laden, experienced squad has won all eight of its dual meets, including Friday night's 71-3 pounding of visiting cross-town rival Naperville North.
Naperville Central opened its dominating performance with a pin from senior Ben Cianchetti at 195 pounds, and when two more victories by fall were sandwiched around a win via forfeit at heavyweight, it was 24-0 and the one-sidedness had only just begun.
The hosts led 61-0 following a pin by Sean King at 152 pounds before the Huskies finally got on the scoreboard after Drake McIntire's hard-fought, 2-0 win at 160 pounds.
"I'm excited. Every weight class is pretty solid. I don't think we have any holes," said Cianchetti, who improved to 8-1 on the year with his pin of Syed Ahmed. "It feels really good. Our team has always been pretty good. I could see a lot of potential throughout the years … and we have just gotten better and better because all of the training."
A lopsided win in a dual between these two wrestling programs is rare, but Naperville Central coach Noah Fitzenreider said his team's success this year has been a steady work in progress.
"We've got a lot of experience on our varsity team and so that's helping out," he said. "We were really young the last few years. Two years ago we started something like 10 underclassmen. So we're starting to see the experience come in that we haven't had the last couple years."
Against the Huskies, the unbeaten Redhawks recorded eight pins and 120-pounder Colin Baumgartner added a win by technical fall that lifted the home team to a 32-0 lead after six bouts.
"They're solid and well-coached. Their kids are big and tough and that's a touch combo," said Naperville North coach Tom Champion, whose team dropped to 6-4 on the year. "They're an experienced team and they know what they're doing. They have good kids, tough kids who are well-coached and that's a rough combination."
Naperville Central's veteran squad has gotten a boost from a few newcomers this year, including freshman 106-pounder Tommy Porter, who defeated Evan Demari by fall to improve to 5-2 on the year. The young wrestler is not a newcomer to the program; he's spent plenty of time around the Redhawks the last few years as the son of former coach Rob Porter, now an assistant.
"It's going pretty well. I'm Coach Porter's son so I have big expectations," said Tommy Porter, now 5-2. "We've really put in the work all the way around. We have a few holes here and there but we're working on it."
At the onset of the new campaign, the younger Porter felt a little pressure, but it has dissipated and he's fitting in with the varsity squad nicely.
"There was some pressure on me at the start, but once I started winning it felt really good," he said. "It's what we expected, so we're hoping to keep the pace up."
Fitzenreider expects the solid results to continue for this program.
"Overall, top to bottom, they're showing what the last three years have worked toward. A lot of people are saying, 'Oh you're good this year.' But what our kids are doing is showing what the last three years have done.
"They've worked their butts off for the last three years to get here. The seniors this year they've known since they were freshmen that this was going to be the year people understood how good our program was going to be."