Barrington nails down 50th annual MSL championship
Outside of Barrington, its wrestling counterparts around the Mid-Suburban League considered the lifting of the MSL championship trophy a fait accompli.
The Broncos' league rivals were correct in their predictions, as they watched coach Dave Udchik's club collect four individual titles and 12 medals overall to claim top honors Saturday afternoon at Wheeling High School.
However, the Broncos' 29 point (270.5 to 241.5 advantage over second place Prospect was not the feature story of the day.
Instead, it was the 220-pound final featuring the No. 2 and 3 rated wrestlers in the e state - Buffalo Grove's Gio Jackson (30-1) and Barrington's Evan Roper (25-3) in the second contest of the season between these two, with another two likely on the way before the state tournament.
Jackson-Roper II did not disappoint, stealing the show at the 50th annual event.
Jackson recorded a takedown with nary a second left on the clock to stun Roper, 7-6, to win his second-straight league crown, and go 2-0 over the No. 3 rated junior this season.
"Those two gave the fans what they came here for," said a thrilled Buffalo Grove head coach Kurt Kutska, who just last weekend watched his best man lose to Ryan Golnick of Jacobs in the Batavia Invite final to drop the previously No. 1 rated man down a slot.
"That loss to (Golnick) was the wake-up call I needed," said Jackson, who trailed 5-2 in the second period but got back even moments before the third period began.
"It was a great match, one that we obviously hoped would go our way, but Gio is a terrific young man, and wrestler so we'll look towards regionals and likely their third meeting of the year," said Udchik.
MSL East champion Prospect, which would match the Broncos with four individual titles, did not have enough in the end to overtake its league rival, who won it last year, and now have eight MSL titles in program history.
"We made it interesting out there today, but it still was a one-horse race," said Prospect coach Tom Whalen.
Whalen's two best, Will Baysingar (106) and Jack Milos (132), Nos. 1 and 4 respectively in the state, were unstoppable all throughout, as were a handful of other champs destined for bigger and better things in the coming weeks.
Charlie Fifield (126, 35-2) and his teammate from Fremd, Isiah Pettigrew (195, 28-1) twice an MSL champ, were magnificent and unstoppable while the same can be said for No. 2 Luke Rasmussen (Barrington), now 36-0 at 170 pounds.
"One of our big goals of the season is to get down to team state, get ourselves a state trophy, but nothing can take away from us winning our second straight conference championship," said Rasmussen, who pinned his way to his second MSL crown.
His teammate Kai Conway (160, 36-3) won his third title in four seasons, the first coming in his rookie season at 106 pounds, while another Bronco, sophomore Brian Beers (113, 32-6), would repeat after winning it all a year ago at 106.
Lennon Steinkuehler (120, 30-9) and Joe Miller (138, 29-13) helped the Prospect cause by lifting championship trophies, while Grant Hansen (Schaumburg, 145, 27-9), Alejandro Mejia (Buffalo Grove, 152, 22-3), Jack Hartman (Barrington, 182, 31-5) and Hersey heavyweight Austin Korba (29-3) all were first-time champions.
Mejia, who missed the last three conference meets due to an injury, would start a pin frenzy at 152 that lasted until Pettigrew's at 5:05.
Korba became the first to win a title at Hersey since 2013 when Hunter Rollins did so.
"I'm lucky to have a great coaching staff in my corner, including (Rollins), who has taught me so much, both tactically and technically," said Korba, who as the story goes according to head coach Joe Rupslauk, nearly quit when he opened his sophomore season 0-10.
Hersey, 11th as a team a year ago, would finish fifth overall with 167 points, 18 behind Conant at fourth.
Fremd enjoyed a marvelous day with a third-place trophy after earning 200.5 points.