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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville advanced 11 wrestlers to next week's Class 3A individual sectional meet at Quincy, while the Tigers won their ninth straight championship, and Triad won the Class 2A Mascoutah regional as the IHSA wrestling tournament series got underway.
Here's a look at the results in each of the local regionals:
CLASS 3A AT GRANITE CITY
Edwardsville advanced 11 wrestlers to the Quincy sectional, with eight of them winning individual championship, as the Tigers easily won the Class 3A regional at Granite City's Memorial Gym.
The Tigers scored 244, doubling the host Warriors' 112, in winning the regional. Collinsville was third with 120 points, Belleville West came in fourth with 116.5 points, Alton was fifth with 86, Quincy came in sixth with 78, O'Fallon finished seventh with 67.5, and Belleville East was eighth with 52 points.
Luke Odom was the winner of the 160 pound class, and also surpassed former teammate Noah Surtin for first place in the all-time wins list at Edwardsville, while Lloyd Reynolds won the 285 pound weight class to lead the Tigers.
"I'll keep on what I'm doing, keep the pressure on, and stay focused," Odom said in an interview when asked about the next step. Odom also felt honored about becoming the Tigers' all-time wins leader.
"Yeah, it's cool," Odom said. "Two of the best in Edwardsville history, so I'm glad to be up there with him."
Both Odom and Surtin did talk about the possibility of Odom taking the top spot last season.
"We kind of talked about it last year, and he kind of knew it was going to happen," Odom said. "but we're just proud to be the top two, and be up there together."
Meanwhile, Reynolds came out on top in the 285 pound class that had four of the top 10 wresters in the state in the class, including Alton's Kyle Hughes, who also qualified for the sectional.
"This whole season, it's been tough," Reynolds said. "because I knew everyone was coming back this year. It wasn't going to be easy, but I trained hard in the weight room, and kept going hard the whole season."
Coming back to win the championship after finishing second in 2019 to Dustin Olmstead of Belleville West, who Reynolds defeated to win the title, meant very much to him.
"I was really upset after last year," Reynolds said. "I wanted to beat (Olmsted) so bad, and I managed to hang on."
Reynolds felt that he managed to control the mat in his title bout, and felt it made the difference in the match.
"I think I just controlled the match this year," Reynolds said. "Last year, he was pushing me around the mat, but this year, I controlled the middle, and I won the match."
The Tigers got championships from Dylan Gvillo at 126, a 9-3 winner over Gabe Thomas of O'Fallon, Austin Bauer at 132, who won over Collinsville's Gannen Kane 13-0, Will Zupanci at 152, who defeated the Kahoks' Drew Evans 7-2, Odom, who won over George Kiisor of Granite City by technical superiority 17-1, Drew Gvillo at 170, a winner over Alton's Damien Jones 3-1, Caleb Harrold at 182, who defeated Quincy's Thomas Cole 9-8, Blake Moss at 220, who won the title 10-2 over Avery Bodi of Quincy, and Reynolds, who won over Olmstead 2-1.
Finishing second in their classes for the Tigers were Zeke Rhodes at 113, who lost to Collinsville's Joe Biciocchi 7-3, and Simon Weakley at 195, who was pinned by Riley Elam of Belleville West at 3:47. Grant Schmid also qualified at 138 with a pin of Luke Schultz of O'Fallon in the third place match at 3:48.
The host Warriors qualified Dylan Boyd at 106, the winner over Warren Zeisset of Belleville East 6-0 in the title bout, Antonio Briagas at 132, who pinned O'Fallon's Elijah Roberts at 5:27, Braden Dippel, who lost the 145 pound final by injury default to Adam Thebeau of Belleville East, Kisor, Seth Brooks at 195, who won the third place bout over J.C. Lackey of Quincy 16-7 and Mason Kelly at 220, who pinned Collinsville's Martin Ochoa at 2:20 of the third place match.
The Redbirds qualified Yaveion Freeman at 113, who won by fall over Granite Michael Boyd at 3:53, Lawson Bruce at 160, winning by fall over Quincy's Kayden Garrett at 1:51 in the third place bout, Jones, and Hughes, who pinned Mason Baker of O'Fallon at 3:52 in the third place match.
Going to the sectional for the Kahoks will be Biciocchi, Jalen May at 120, who lost the title bout to Josh Koderhart of Belleville West by technical superiority 23-8, Kane, Garrett Lee at 138, who pinned Tyrece Wilbourn of Belleville West at 4:30 and Kenny Lutz at 182, a 4-2 winner over Ethan Sperry of West in the third place match.Chris Rhodes also contributed to this story.
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