Marmion doubles up St. Charles East
It was not the way Tegan Chumbley envisioned mathematically sealing a big-time nonconference wrestling dual match.
A Marmion junior, Chumbley earned an injury-default victory over St. Charles East 145-pounder Anthony Gutierrez in the schools' penultimate match Thursday night in Aurora.
The final match was academic, but Collin Carrigan had the only major-decision triumph in the 12 contested matches as No. 4 doubled up the eighth-ranked Saints 38-19.
"I felt it right away," Chumbley said of a late second-period reversal that spelled the end of the night athletically for both competitors. "I landed right on his knee. I knew it wasn't good when I heard him scream. Hopefully, he is going to be able to get well soon."
The 6-point Chumbley win gave Marmion a 34-19 advantage.
Marmion improved to 7-1 on the season in ending the Saints' 11-match winning streak.
"We knew the cards were stacked against us," said St. Charles East coach Jason Potter, whose squad fell to 16-2. "We had to have close to a perfect night to get them this year. We lost a couple of close matches that were toss-ups that we knew we needed to win."
The teams split the opening four matches as Brody Murray and Anthony Chiaro equaled the two narrow victories the Cadets' Tyler Perry and Jack Lesher - both of whom are ranked in the top five in the coaches' poll - at 170 and 182 pounds.
With the match deadlocked, Marmion scored 20 consecutive points in an unblemished 4-match run.
Sean Scheck and defending state champion Jameson Garcia had a pin and third-period technical fall to bookend the Cadets' unanswered run.
"That's what we needed in a dual like this," said Garcia. "(The Saints) are kind of like our rivals. We tried to stay positive the whole week. Good things happen with positivity."
The highly anticipated match between the Saints' top-ranked and reigning state champion Ben Davino and Tyler Aters failed to materialize as the latter forfeited at 120 pounds.
Davino has never lost to an in-state opponent in his almost two years of high school competition.
The Saints responded as sophomore Tyler Guerra had an impressive technical fall at 132 pounds.
"We're starting to pull off some big wins," Guerra said. "Potter expresses to us to score points, score points. We are focused on the state series."
But in addition to the Chumbley and Carrgan close out wins, the Cadets' John Conover also eased the path to victory at 138 pounds with a 4-2 win.
Ethan Penzato preceded the Guerra tech fall with a win for the Saints at 132.