Robertson's OT win caps Glenbard North's big day
The Glenbard North wrestling team left the most exciting match for last on Saturday at the IHSA Lake Park individual regional.
The Panthers had already had crowned five regional champions and wrapped up the team title heading into the 285-pound match between sophomore Paulie Robertson and West Chicago junior Ryan Hannah.
But that didn't matter much when the pair battled to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation. It took until the second 30-second overtime for Robertson to eke out a 1-point escape.
Then he had to hold serve for one more overtime period, which he did to win 2-1 and place a cherry atop the regional sundae for the Panthers.
"That was a crazy match," Robertson said. "I mean, that's what we condition for during the week in practice, for those matches. It's deep in triple overtime and you've got to be able to keep pushing through it, and keep the guy down, or get up."
The Panthers walked off with 259 points, more than enough to best runner-up Conant with 155 and third-place finisher Wheaton North with 126.5.
Besides Robertson, Paul Woo (106 pounds), Ronan Schuelke (120), Nolan Allen (126), Patrick Curran (138) and Alonzo Smiley (182) all walked home with individual titles. In all the Panthers advanced 13 of 14 possible wrestlers to next Saturday's Conant sectional.
Allen's was particularly interesting because he was the third seed and ended up beating the No. 2 seed, West Chicago's Eduardo Cholula, and then the top seed, Dominik Mallinder from Lake Park, by a 5-1 score.
Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn was pleased but realized there is more work to do at both the Conant individual sectional and the South Elgin dual team sectional on Feb. 25.
"The first round of the semis were real impressive," Hahn said. "The finals ... I felt we didn't wrestle as well in the finals. We've got our hands full now, we've got DeKalb, but that's where we want to be."
Conant had a very nice day amid a tough field, despite having just one regional champion, junior Jack Hominac at 170, who defeated Wheaton North senior Nathan Love 7-1 in a drawn-out, three-period marathon to win his first regional title.
"I knew it was going to be a close match, so I wrestled very physically, compared to how I normally wrestle," Hominac said. "I had to mentally break him as soon as I could. That was my goal."
In all the Cougars advanced seven wrestlers to their own sectional, including Yordan Neykov (106 pounds), Anthony Fioravanti (113), Russell Hoeft (120), Patrick Kane (152) and Henry Chang (195) in decisive third-place matches. The top three individuals advance to the sectional.
Wheaton North was led by junior Logan Balosky, who won the Falcons' only regional championship with a pin in 4:47 of Glenbard North's Matt Chi. After his match ended Balosky spread his arms out and grinned toward his school's fans. What was the significance?
"Well, in the wrestling room, there are a bunch of old pictures of Wheaton North wrestlers and they always did The Falcon and I thought I would bring it back," Balosky said.
Ryan Riser, a junior from Lake Park, started the second half of the meet at 152 with a dramatic 4-3 decision over Glenbard North's Kyler Kradle. Riser, the No. 3 seed, broke a 2-2 tie with a reversal with 50 seconds left in the third period, then had to hold his breath as Kradle managed a 1-point escape with five seconds to go.
"That kid, he beat me three times this season, and I knew I just had to stay until it was over," Riser said. "I was nervous as (heck)."
Riser and Mallinder advanced to the sectional, along with the champion at 160, junior Shane Piper, and junior Michele Valvalle at 138, senior Victor Rodriguez at 220 and senior Anthony Roberts at 285, all of whom took third.
Schaumburg was fifth with 98 points and was led by junior Grant Hansen, who took only 38 seconds to pin Glenbard North's Jack Barracca. Senior Franco Fontela snatched a 3-1 decision over Wheaton North's Cam'Ron Harper in the final at 220.
West Chicago's Pierre Baldwin, the No. 2 seed, beat top seed Lauden Edwards of Glenbard North by a 13-0 tally, scoring 9 in the final period to win going away. Baldwin, Cholula, Hannah and Isaac Padilla-Huitron at 132 all advanced.
Bartlett was paced by junior Joey Vinson, the No. 2 seed at 195, who scored all four of his points in the third period to defeat Glenbard North's Jaylin Garay.
"I came in and I was determined to advance to sectionals," Vinson said. "I was unsure about winning, but I've been working hard in practice, so I'm happy."