Barrington's Rasmussen gets state title shot
CHAMPAIGN - After nearly two hours of grueling, heart-stopping semifinal action Friday night at state Farm Center, Barrington senior Luke Rasmussen advanced into the Class 3A state wrestling finals after unleashing a vicious, unrelenting attack against Bobby Gaylord of Marist to set up a rematch of last week's sectional final with No. 2 David Ferrante of Huntley.
The lightning-quick pin of Gaylord at 1:13 from Rasmussen would lift the spirits of the Mid-Suburban League faithful, who would watch two unbeatens from Prospect, Will Baysingar (106, 45-1) and Jack Milos (132, 45-1), fall out of the semifinals, and three other league rivals do the same before the night was over.
Kai Conway (Barrington, 160, 44-4), Isiah Pettigrew (Fremd, 195, 36-3) and Barrington junior Evan Roper (220, 32-6) will now turn their sites on working back in wrestlebacks Saturday in order to claim a state medal at tourney's end.
"I've been thinking about getting back here ever since that less-than-dazzling tournament performance I turned in and I have to admit I was still thinking about it right up until the start of this season," said Rasmussen, now 44-0.
"But once the season got going, I turned my attention towards training, trusting my coaching staff and just working on all the little things needed to compete at a high level but there's still one more big day ahead of me."
No. 1 rated Baysingar was unable to solve Joe Fernau (Montini Catholic, 33-9) during a 4-3 defeat, the second big win by the Broncos' sophomore, who in the quarterfinals upended No. 2 Charlie Farmer from Moline.
Milos had trouble contending with the length of Noah Mis (Mt. Carmel, 34-4), whose superb work on top dashed the hopes of the Knights' junior in his 7-3 loss.
Milos used his 29th and 30th pins of the season to earn a spot in the semifinals against the three-time state qualifier.
Earlier in the day, yet another top-rated wrestler from the MSL lost his chance of staying in the front draw.
Buffalo Grove's Gio Jackson, fighting flu-like symptoms and the defensive-minded Drew Gutknecht (Minooka, 36-5), dropped a 3-1 decision in the quarterfinals to end his hopes of bringing home the first state championship at Buffalo Grove since Kyle Czarnecki did so in 2009.
Jackson (39-2) would rebound later in his wrestleback match to stay alive after he would grind out a hard fought 5-2 decision over Angelo Eklou of Naperville Central.
After two days, it's just Hersey heavyweight Austin Korba who's still in the medal hunt following wrestlebacks on Friday.
The senior would draw level at 5-5 with a nifty reversal at five minutes to send his match with Mundelein senior Jason Guadarrama (41-4) into overtime.
Once there, Korba (37-5) recorded his match-winner with just 11 seconds remaining in the first extra session.
Next up for Korba will be Ryan Boersma (Providence Catholic, 43-4) who at one time this season was the No. 1 rated 285-pounder in the state.
The season ended for juniors Grant Hansen (Schaumburg, 145, 31-13) and Jack Hominac (170, 31-8) from nearby Conant, in addition to Barrington sophomore Brian Beers (38-10), the two-time state qualifier and MSL champion.
Maine East senior Angel Villegas (145, 18-5) saw his career end in the first round of wrestlebacks, while the same fate beset Leyden seniors Daniel Uribe (138, 35-6) and Ronnie Massari (33-6) at 160.
"The Leyden program was far better for having two guys like Daniel and Ronnie in the room each and every day," said Eagles coach John Kating.
Fremd senior Michael Mondus (160, 39-12) was eliminated in wrestlebacks, as was teammate Charlie Fifield (126, 40-5), who enjoyed a sensational sophomore season.
The third and final day of competition will begin at 9 a.m. with wrestleback quarterfinals, followed immediately by semifinal action.
Third and fifth place matches take place at 1 p.m.
The Grand March is set to start at 5:30, with championship matches across all three classes scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m.