Aurora Christian handles move to 2A just fine
After winning the Class 1A title in 2018 and taking second in 2019, Aurora Christian was bumped up to Class 2A this year.
The Eagles wasted little time in flexing their muscles in the new division. Aurora Christian won Saturday's Class 2A Sycamore regional by advancing 12 wrestlers to next week's Rochelle sectional.
The Eagles scored 229.5 points and took home eight first place medals, one second place honor and three third place titles. Grapplers placing in the top three slots in their weight class earned a sectional berth.
Aurora Christian, in only its fourth year of competition, advanced in all but two of the 14 weight classes.
"We were expecting to get everybody through. We were expecting to win," said Aurora Christian coach Justin Pearch. "There were only a couple who unfortunately aren't going to make it on to sectional but they are going to be with us on the journey and help these guys to continue to grow."
What was more impressive is the Eagles won seven of the final bouts by either a pin or a technical fall.
The host Spartans took second place, tallying 198 points and also advanced 12 wrestlers to next weekend's competition.
"We wrestled Aurora Christian in a dual and lost to them so it wasn't like we didn't what we were going up against coming in and how tough they are," Sycamore coach Alex Nelson said. "We knew we would have to wrestle near perfect or pull out some wins in other spots and we did. We wrestled well and in a couple of them we fell just a little bit short which were the points that we needed."
Among the Eagles' eight first place finishers were 2-time defending state champions Cameron Johnson (132 pounds) and Noah Villarreal (138).
Pearch was impressed by Braden Hunter, who won the 195 class, and 285 class winner Mike Esquivel.
"Braden Hunter really stepped it up to today, showing some growth," Pearch said. "Mike Esquivel has had a complete 180 turn from last year at heavyweight. This time last year, he broke his neck. He had a slight fracture in his neck and tore some muscles and ligaments and never thought he would wrestle again. He shows up here a year later and wins the regional title."
Trailing Rochelle's Ben Harvey 6-3 with 22 seconds left in the second period of the 182 title match, Aurora Christian's Alex Knauf pulled out a win with a pin.
"I knew there was a short time left so I decided to go for it since I was down by three or four," Knauf said. "So I just decided to go for something."
Sycamore took first in three weight classes all by pins, including Dylan Shumen at 220.
"He was a fourth seed and went in and won it all," Nelson said. "He beat the No. 1 seed and then beat the No. 3 seed in the finals, pinned him. That says a lot about you."
"It's called a Gator Roll," Shumen said about the move he used to pin Kaneland's Miles Ripper at the 1:10 mark of the match. "Me and my partners have been practicing some not very bright moves and that was one of them."
Brayden Peet (145) and Zac Kozumplik (170) also won their titles with falls.
Led by Patrick Barnas' second place finish at 285, Hampshire (102) took fourth place and earned eight sectional spots.
Kaneland (82.5) came in fifth and will have six representatives at Rochelle. Three Knight wrestlers earned second place medals.
Burlington Central (68), which will have four wrestlers competing in the sectional, came in sixth.
Noah Dial (106), Chris Moore (113) and Joe Mylin (120) also took first place honors for Aurora Christian.