Prairie Central denies Lisle
WILMINGTON - Lisle wrestler Charlie Waldusky has plenty to be proud of. The senior just hoped he and his Lions teammates could have extended his final wrestling season beyond Tuesday's Class 1A dual team sectional.
Instead, Lisle ran into a buzz-saw. Prairie Central, led by a pair of state champions, improved to 32-4 on the year by eliminating the Lions 45-24. Waldusky was pinned in the first period of his 195-pound bout, but there's no shame in falling to the undefeated Brandon Hoselton, who last week claimed an individual state title and hopes to bring the Hawks a first team crown this weekend.
"Absolutely (we had plenty of positives)," said Waldusky, a two-time state qualifier who finished the year 20-11. "We had a pretty solid team this year. We've all been working hard for a while now, and I'm just glad we were able to do what we thought we could do. I mean, hopefully we could have gone a little further. But we hit some bumps in the road tonight."
Tuesday's dual started at 120 pounds, where the Hawks' Harrison Ifft edged Lisle's Matt Gwilliam 2-1. When the Lions' Joe Chan picked up a pin at 126 pounds, the state qualifier had given his team a 6-3 lead. But another tight win - 3-1 at 132 pounds - drew the Hawks even at 6-6. From there powerful Prairie Central flexed its muscle while building a 45-18 lead before Lisle claimed the last two matches of the night.
"We had a lot of tough matches there that could have gone either way and it was tough to not get those. But they are really tough up top at the higher weights," first-year coach and former Lisle wrestler Brandon Wolak said. "They were in our sectional and we saw them downstate at the tournament. We knew they were going to be tough. We just came out to wrestle tough tonight."
Jack Kelly won by fall at 152 to pull Lisle to within 15-12 at the time, and senior Kevin Paz capped his strong season with a pin at 220 pounds. But it was just not enough against the Hawks.
Hawks coach Tyler Webster was happy to pull out some of the tight lower weights and then sit back while his four state placers did their thing. At 160 pounds Prairie Central state champion Logan Deacetis recorded a pin of the Lions' Brandon Easterling.
Despite the setback Waldusky will remember a long list of accomplishments that included two trips downstate and individually reaching the 100-win mark for the Lions.
"I love the sport and I've been working since sixth grade. I'm just glad I was able to progress," he said. "I'm bummed out that it's over, but I'm glad we achieved what we did this year."