St. Charles East finishes 2nd at DuKane
Ian Huck's conference tournament experience ended much differently than last year.
He prefers this one.
Huck, a Geneva senior, lost in the 126-pound DuKane Conference title match to Wheaton Warrenville South's Dominic Duve in the final seconds last year. Memories of that match were floating in his mind prior to taking the mat for the final Saturday at Batavia.
Huck not only prevailed over WW South's Aidan Waszak in a 13-6 decision for his first conference title, also at 126, it was also his varsity tournament championship of any kind.
"I think I've gotten four second (places) in my career," an upbeat Huck said. "It was so sweet. Especially being unseeded coming in. I knew I could beat anyone here and I just did it."
Huck admits he has some losses on the season - seven entering Saturday - but his overall performance appears to exude true confidence with regionals approaching next week.
"I think I proved myself here (that) I can hang with anyone," Huck said. "I've been on a good roll recently because last week at Glenbard North, the kid who won at 132 (today, Glenbard North's Matt Chi), I pinned him too."
Glenbard North captured its second consecutive team conference title with 277.5 points, while St. Charles East (200) and Wheaton North (168) followed in second and third, respectively.
Geneva's Dylan Schlegel (113) and Nicky O`Keefe (132) placed fourth; Preston Leake (138) and Hank Smith (220) took fifth and Justin Rupnow (152) took sixth individually.
St. Charles East shined in the heavier weight classes, as Gavin Tatar (160) and Carter Maggio (170) each won titles. Frank Szymanski (182), Diego Sanchez (195) and Xander Song (285) each took second.
Maggio prevailed in a 7-0 decision over Wheaton North's Nathan Love on Saturday for his first conference title. It was a rematch of a dual meet earlier in the season, which Maggio also won by an 8-0 decision.
"There was definitely some advantages (having previous familiarity with Love)," Maggio said. "But, also disadvantages. I knew how he kind of was, but also, if you lose to the same person, you're not going to want that have happen again. So, I was expecting more of a change-up instead of what I had the first time with him."
Charles Fialka (145), Jalen Farmer (220) and Max Sztuk (120) each took third for the Saints. Michael Wirkus (152), Jake Penzato (126), Alex Hadzima (106) followed in fourth. Wrigley Schroeder (113) took fifth and Peyton Schroeder (132) took sixth.
Host Batavia had three first place finishers in Kaden Fetterolf (106), Riley Woods (138) and Mikey Caliendo (145). Batavia finished fifth as a team.