CM Advances 4: Area Wrestlers Have Strong Opening Day In State Wrestling Tourney

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA - Riverbender.com area wrestlers did well in the opening day of the IHSA boys state wrestling tournament at State Farm Center in Champaign-Urbana, as Civic Memorial saw four advance in Class 2A, two wrestlers from Edwardsville went through in Class 3A and two wrestlers from East Alton-Wood River won their opening matches, but lost in the second round.

Here's how the local wrestlers did, with schools listed in alphabetical order.

Civic Memorial, wrestling in Class 2A, saw Bradley Ruckman lose in his first 106-pound match to Cameron Phillips of Maple Park Kaneland 7-3 and Joey Biociocchi lost his 132-pound match to Anthony Strieb of Antioch 11-2. Bryce Griffin took his opener at 138 pounds, pinning Grant Gensler of Rochelle at 1:45, then won the quarterfinal by fall over Antioch's Caleb Nobling at 3:56 to guarantee no worse than a sixth-place finish. Ben Skaggs lost his opener at 145 pounds when he was pinned by Jayden Colon of Lombard Montini Catholic at 3:15, with Abe Wojcikiewicz took both of his 170-pound bouts, pinning Brock Hoyd of Riverside Brookfield at 1:17, then defeating Nathan Kim of Burlington Central 8-1 to advance to the semifinals. Colton Carlisle split a pair of matches at 182 pounds, defeating Charles Medrow of Ottawa by technical superiority 17-1 after four minutes, but then lost a close quarterfinal bout to Matty Jens of Grayslake Central 5-4. Logan Cooper at 285 pounds lost his opener to Eric Perez-Nava of Midltothian Bremen 4-3.

Alton's lone representative, DeOntae Forest, lost his Class 3A 132-pound opener to Tyler Guerra of St. Charles East 12-1 in his only match of the day.

Carlinville's lone wrestler, Jake Schwartz, lost his Class 1A 145-pound opener to Joseph Gilatta of Elmhurst Immaculate Conception Catholic 5-3, while Austin Stewart, the lone representative for Collinsville, lost his Class 3A 170 pound opener to Lukes Schmerbach of DeKalb 14-0. East St. Louis' Cody Powell split his two matches on the day at 152 pounds in Class 2A, winning over Donovan Hall of Chicago Noble/Comer by fall at 5:01, then lost in the quarterfinals to David Mayora of Montini by fall at 2:40.

Ben Mitchell, the lone representative for Highland at 160 pounds in Class 2A, lost his first match to Thomas Tate of Sterling 8-7, with Roxana's only wrestler, Braden Johnson at 152 pounds in Class 1A, lost by fall to Levi Leitner of Tremont at 3:57. Triad, wrestling in Class 2A, saw Colby Crouch win his first two matches in the 126-pound division, taking 25 second to pin Jatuthep Rattanahattkul of Wheeling in the first round, then won his quarterfinal over Gauge Shipp of Galesburg 8-5. Chase Hall split his two matches at 138 pounds, winning in the first round over Evan Schiffman of Lemont 3-2, then lost his quarterfinal bout to Kai Neumark of Deerfield 3-2. Jordan Clines then lost his opener at 182 pounds to Caden Moore of Joliet Catholic Academy by fall at 3:56.

For East Alton-Wood River, going in Class 1A, Aaron Niemeyer split his two bouts at 113 pounds, winning his first round match over Danny Tay of Colfax Ridgeview 9-0. then lost in the quarterfinals Emmitt Nelson of Richmond Burton 8-2. Jason Shaw won his first round match at 126 pounds with a pin of Ian O'Connor of Glasford Illini Bluffs at 2:45, but lost in the quarterfinals to Phoenix Blakely of Dakota 6-3. Drake Champlin lost in his opener at 220 pounds to Jadon Mims of Elmhurst IC by technical superiority 18-3 at 3:50 of the match.

The state meet continues with semifinal bouts and the opening round of the wrestlebacks on Friday, with the state championship bouts set for Saturday afternoon.

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