Glenbard East nips Bartlett for UEC crown
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst pain he's felt in his young life, Bartlett senior Tyler Rivelli checked in at, oh, about 8.
His left shoulder, which has given him problems since his freshman year, was packed solid in a bag of ice. Plus, he looked absolutely exhausted.
But so what? He was the Upstate Eight Conference champion at 170 pounds, after defeating Larkin's D.J. Akins 14-5 in the league meet Saturday afternoon at Fenton.
That match was halted twice due to Rivelli's shoulder, which was supported by a black brace. He hadn't practiced all week save for Friday, after a doctor appointment Monday revealed a shoulder impingement. Ouch.
Against Glenbard East's Doug Pham in the semifinals, he got a 1-point escape with 2 seconds left to win 8-7. But he was just getting started.
In the final against Akins, he raced out to a 14-4 lead at the end of two periods, after overcoming one injury timeout. But he suffered another with 1:11 to go, and that time, it looked like he might have to retire.
"The second time was the worst," he said. "They said I had 30 seconds left, do you want to call it? I asked them when time was up and what the score was. I decided to tough it out."
He did, managing to get a 2-point takedown in the process to win going away.
"Tyler is the biggest influence we have in our school," said Bartlett coach John Glorioso, who saw his team finish second with 218 points, just 1.5 points behind winner Glenbard East. "He's a football kid, wrestling kid, tough as nails. No one works harder than he does."
Also recording a conference title for the Hawks was Jacob Cwenar, who pinned Fenton's Ricardo Saucedo in 1:06 in the final at 195 pounds.
Glenbard East proved that you don't need a lot of individual champions to win team titles. The Rams had but one on Saturday, senior Miguel Garcia at 106 pounds, who pinned West Chicago's Connor Zentner in 2:47.
"I expected to come in here and have a few battles," Garcia said. "It just feels good to come out on top. It feels good that you put in the work in the offseason and you have something to show."
But Glenbard East has plenty of depth and showed it with a pair of runner-up finishes, 5 third-place finishes and 4 fourth-placers.
"We're very, very extremely young," Rams' coach Kevin Carlson said. "We tell them all the time, this is what it's all about, You three guys over here aren't going to win this tournament, you nine guys are."
West Chicago had the most individual titles with 5 - Pierre Baldwin at 113, Eduardo Cholula at 126, Isaac Padilla-Huitron at 132, Ryan Hannah at 285, and Brian Salinas at 182, which was interesting because he missed a month with a broken middle finger.
"It's my senior year, and I'm trying to make the most of it," Salinas said. "It feels amazing that all the hard work all of us put in, in the offseason, we all brought it together at the end of the season."
Baldwin said his goal was win the tournament and pin everyone in the first period en route - which he accomplished. As a team, the Wildcats finished third with 190 points.
Fenton, fourth with 189.50 points, had two title-winners, including senior Jeremy Piskorz at 138. It was a turnabout for him, as he lost in the final at that weight class A year ago. Also winning for the host Bison was Daniel Ramirez at 152, who prevailed via an 18-6 major decision over Bartlett's Gavin Moretti.
South Elgin finished sixth with 106 points and had a pair of title winners in Nico Clinite at 120 and Mike Roath at 220. Clinite had a slim 10-7 led at the end of the second period but then reeled off 14 straight points, including 4 near falls, to win 24-7.
"At the end, I had the legs multiple times and I kept letting him off his back to get those points," Clinite said.
Perhaps the feel-good story of the meet was Elgin junior Eric Santana, who got a 2-point takedown in the first period and made it stand up in a 2-0 win over South Elgin's Logan Swangren at 145. It was Elgin's first individual title since 2013 - which Santana's brother Richie won.