Naperville North handles Metea V.

Friday night's DuPage Valley Conference dual meet between host Metea Valley and Naperville North started on a positive note for the Huskies and ended on a positive note for Metea Valley.

In between, Naperville North won 7 out of 12 matches to prevail, 39-26.

Huskies coach Tom Champion was pleased with the continued progress his team is making. "To the man, we were more aggressive than we were a week ago," he said. "Not every match went our way, but we battled."

Champion said that's key for any wrestler, win or lose.

"I would like to win, but I still want to see wrestlers battle aggressively against wrestlers that might be physically strong, more experienced or favored to win," he said.

The meet started at 152 pounds and North's Kyle Plank got things going with a win by fall at 3:34.

Plank said there's plenty of incentive for a wrestler who competes first to help his team get out of the gate quickly.

"It got into my mind and I think that's why I wasn't wrestling as well as I should. But if you can start off with guys that get points, that's momentum," he said.

Teammate Drake McIntire (160 pounds) followed with a win by fall and Caleb Yu (170) won by decision.

Metea then followed with two straight victories. Junior Josh LaBarbera (182) pinned his opponent in 1:11 and Sean Burke (195) got a decision.

Next came three forfeits at 220, 285 and 106. Robert Padgett (220) and Evan Demari (106) won for Naperville North. Henry Hartl (285) got his arm raised for Metea.

The Huskies' three remaining victories came from Jake Allgood (113), Cosmo Champion (126) and Jake Newton. All were decisions.

Esteban Calderon (120) and Kyle Smart (132) also won by decision and their teammate Phillip Sims ended the evening at 145.

He ended it in a big way with a technical fall at 4:00.

The Mustangs were heading to the Marist Quad on Saturday and Sims said ending the meet on a positive note was important.

"It did (enter my mind). We still want to give our best in every match even though we might not win the meet. You want to keep the momentum going with that," said the senior, who will wrestle at the University of Illinois.

Metea coach Claudio Torres said Sims and LaBarbera are two veterans key to the Mustang lineup.

"They have matured. I'm not worried about them being aggressive. They are reliable," he said.