Dundee-Crown sweeps Wauconda quad
Evan Husko of Wauconda and Colin Mays of Dundee-Crown have their eyes on a bigger prize come mid-February but for now, the two wrestling stars must concentrate on more important things.
Mays would lead Dundee-Crown over Husko and host Wauconda Friday night in the final dual of the evening to complete a clean sweep of all three opponents at this annual quad.
Earlier, the Chargers (10-4-0) would defeat Lake Zurich, 43-25, then Larkin, 51-27, to finish the night 3-0 and send coach Tim Hayes' team into the holiday break on its front foot.
Wauconda (8-7-0) went 2-1, while Lake Zurich, with its 60-17, win over Larkin was 1-2.
Larkin missed its chance to defeat Wauconda in its opener (37-36) when it conceded a pin in the final bout of the match.
"That's one that I would have really liked to have but you cannot give away points to forfeits if you want to win the close ones," lamented Larkin coach Michael Hodge, whose club fell to 11-4-0 after suffering three losses on the night.
The Royals will be back in action next Saturday at the Ed Ewoldt Classic at Wheaton Warrenville South.
With former D-C state champion, and current Purdue University star Christian Brunner, on the Chargers' bench, the Chargers opened a 16-9 lead over the Bulldogs, who took back the lead after Colin (120) and Evan Huska put 12 points into the score book for the home side.
However, the Wauconda advantage was short-lived with Gabriel Scales (138, 22-4), Mays (152, 21-4) and Jordan Lescaleet (160, 15-6) leading an offensive explosion that saw D-C outscore the Bulldogs 34-0 down the stretch.
"We've had a few tough losses along the way, including one against Cary-Grove, but we've been right in it thus far this season, and we look to continue to improve when the second half of the year begins after the break," said Hayes, who will take his club to the Mid-States Classic in Whitewater, Wis., next week.
Mays, who was a state alternate last year at 138 after falling just short of advancing, looks primed for a serious run at a trip downstate in his senior year.
"The big difference for me this year from last is having a year of experience under my belt, plus going to a lot of campuses during the offseason, while lifting and getting stronger in order to compete at (152) after going 138 last year," said Mays, who was 30-11 a year ago.
The aforementioned Husko (16-3), who is a two-time Class 2A state qualifier, wants to make the third time a charm should he advance downstate.
"With this being my senior year, the only goal that I have is to get down to Champaign and onto the podium," said Husko, who will look to wrestle next fall either at Cornell College in Iowa or at UW-Eau Claire.
"I was won win short of the medal round last year after losing to (Rafael Munoz), who also beat me in my state opener two years ago, but this time around, I hope things will turn out better for me."
Husko was 34-11 last year, 32-13 as a sophomore.
"As far as our team goes, we're really young, but we have a great freshman group, six of which were middle school state qualifiers, so the future is bright here at Wauconda," Husko said.
Jake Jobst, who starred at Fremd and was an assistant at Warren before taking over at Lake Zurich, watched his club come close to defeating the hosts in second round action, only to lose 34-33 when the Bears fell (8-6) in criteria.
"We're really coming along this year, but we have a bad habit of getting pinned either when we're ahead, or in close matches, and that's how you lose the way we did to Wauconda," bemoaned Jobst, who was without the injured Ian McGee (113, 19-0) who has already lifted championship trophies at the Rex Lewis (Buffalo Grove) and Robert Porter tourney at Niles West.