Conant takes 2nd at South Elgin regional
Black and orange were the colors of the day Saturday at the Class 3A South Elgin regional.
DeKalb advanced 12 wrestlers to championship matches and 10 Barbs, clad in black uniforms with orange piping, ascending to the top podium step during the award ceremonies.
Only Schaumburg's Jack Lingle at 145 and Larkin's Isai Rios at 285 bested DeKalb grapplers to take top honors.
Conant's victories at the 152 and 220 title matches - the only weight classes DeKalb did not advance to the championship - propelled it to second in team standings with 185.5 points to the Barb's 288.
Eleven Cougars also advanced to next week's individual sectional at Conant. In addition to champions Filippo DeFrenza (152) and Lester Gonzalez (220), five teammates took second place honors and four won third place championships.
"DeKalb is sixth in the state for a reason and they brought it today," said Conant coach Chad Hay. "They didn't make a lot of mistakes today. They got a lot of falls and they just opened it up."
"I'm really pleased with my guys' performance. We got 11 through and two champs," Hay said. "We went four for four in the third place matches so I have to be pleased with that."
DeFrenza earned the 152 title with a 9-4 decision over Tyler Bobnick of Schaumburg.
"My strategy was to move around with my under hook -. that was my offense and defense by cutting him out of everything else and not letting him score," said DeFrenza. "The first takedown was a tough one, but after the second one I felt I was starting to get momentum. I knew I was getting one step ahead of him."
Led by Lingle, third place Schaumburg (149) notched seven sectional berths with one second place finish and five third place wins.
Lingle edged DeKalb's Bradley Gillum, 3-1.
"I knew he was a tough kid. He's got some skill so I knew if I kept hanging in there I could come out with the win," Lingle said.
Rios will lead a contingent of five Larkin wrestlers at the sectional. Four Royal wrestlers earned second place medals.
Rios battled DeKalb's George Colbert for the 285 championship and pulled out a 3-1 victory. The match was scoreless after the first period and Colbert scored the first point in the second frame. Rios then pulled ahead with an escape to take a 2-1 lead. The senior added a point in the final period.
"When I escaped, it gave me the confidence to keep on going," Rios said.
South Elgin will send four wrestlers to Conant. The Storm earned two second and two third places finished.
Michael Roath netted a second place medal in a tough title match with Conant's Gonzalez. Roath was leading 1-0 with 11 seconds left in the contest when Gonzalez scored two points on a reversal to pull out a 2-1 win.
"Michael Roath had a really good tournament. He came out and battled. He gave up that last two points in the last seconds," South Elgin coach Adam Lehmus said. "He just got put into a weird position and he wasn't ready to adjust."
DeKalb, in addition to sending a wrestler in each class to the individual sectional, advances to the McHenry team sectional.