Vernon Hills' Senior Night a rousing success

Not only did Vernon Hills have a great Senior Night Friday against Niles North, but the Cougars also built some fantastic momentum heading into their Class 2A wrestling regional meet next weekend.

Vernon Hills is definitely peaking at the right time as the Cougars built a 32-10 lead over the Vikings after eight matches before rolling to an impressive 68-10 victory in the Central Suburban League North Division dual meet.

Vernon Hills (27-5, 2-3) took a quick 10-0 lead behind freshmen teammates Will Ludolph picking up a forfeit victory at 106 pounds, and Alex Gil earning an easy 18-6 major decision at 113.

Niles North did battle the Cougars very tough at the lower weights as a 19-6 major decision by 120-pound junior Danish Ayaz, and a pin by 126-pound junior Matthew Espinoza in 3:48 quickly deadlocked the score at 10-10 in the early going.

But that would pretty much be the end of the road for the Vikings as pins by Vernon Hills teammates Matthew Kagan (132), Jake Psaras (138), and junior Will Darling (26-8 at 145) gave the Cougars a 28-10 advantage midway through the meet. It took Psaras only 29 seconds to pin his opponent.

"We have a hardworking, solid team, and we're a good dual team," said Vernon Hills coach Jerry Miceli, whose team is gearing up for the Lakes regional next Saturday. "The (eight) seniors are really good role models for the younger kids, and we have a nice group of freshmen and sophomores."

Steven Hart's 7-4 decision at 152 boosted the lead to 32-10 before pins by 160-pounder Nathan Lee in 3:08, and 170-pounder Ryan Peck in 1:19 made the score even more lopsided at 44-10.

Then came a forfeit victory by sophomore Vito Axxettura at 182, and a pin by 195-pound senior Casey Wood (28-11) in 1:37, and Vernon Hills knew it was ready for a big post-meet celebration.

"We've beaten most of the teams in our conference, and we wrestled really well collectively tonight," said Wood, who is one of at least four Cougars hoping to make a push for the state meet in February. "We have Nate Gunderson coming back for the regional meet, and we have one of the hardest regionals. So nothing is guaranteed, and we all have to have a really good performance."

While Gunderson is going to be returning from injury for regionals, sophomore standout Matteo DeLeon (32-6 at 132) is out for the season after suffering a torn labrum last week at the CSL meet.

Senior teammates Faheem Mannan (26-11 at 220), and Max Xu (26-10 at 285) picked up forfeit wins to close out the meet by the big 58-point margin.

"We'll be ready for regionals,- the key is winning the close matches," added Miceli. "I think Casey and Will Darling can both make state, and I think Max is getting better and better after missing last season with a torn labrum."

After regionals, the next step toward the 82nd Annual IHSA state meet in Champaign will be the always powerful Antioch individual sectional in two weeks where a berth downstate will be on the line.