Tigers send five wrestlers to Class 3A State Meet, Knights, Eagles, Shells, Panthers also advance competitors

The Edwardsville High wrestling team qualified five wrestlers for next week’s IHSA Class 3A individual state wrestling tournament, Triad will send five and Civic Memorial two in the Class 2A tournament, and Belleville Althoff Catholic had seven qualify for the Class 1A meet in sectional tournaments around the state, which all concluded Saturday.

Here’s a look at the qualifiers for state meets:

CLASS 3A AT JOLIET CENTRAL

Edwardsville had five of its wrestlers qualify for the state tournament, with two champions – Noah Surtin at 120 pounds and Luke Odom at 138 – among those who qualified.

Grant Matarelli at 106 finished third, defeating Koshal Shah of Naperville Neuqua Valley 6-0 in the third-place bout, while Surtin defeated Matt Ramos of Lockport 11-10 in the final at 120. Odom won the title match at 138 11-0 over D’Anthony Hopkins of Plainfield East, while Blake Moss finished fourth after being pinned by Jared Dowell of Pekin at 1:18 in the 195-pound third-place bout and Lloyd Reynolds ended up second in 285. losing the final to Andrew Bejarano of Plainfield South when Reynolds was pinned at 48 seconds.

The three Alton wrestlers who qualified for the sectional didn’t place. Garrett Sims at 126 made it to the semifinals but lost to Travis Ford-Melton of Chicago Heights Marian Catholic by fall at 1:18. Sims was eliminated in a wrestle-back semifinal, losing to Ryan Haines of Pekin 6-0. Pierre Evans at 155 lost his quarterfinal bout to Dominic Adamo of New Lenox Lincoln-Way East 5-3, won a second-round wrestle back match over Jake Mohler of Neuqua Valley 18-4, but was eliminated by Jeremy Pullen of Joliet West 7-3. At 285, Kyle Hughes won his quarterfinal bout over Ethan Johnson of Normal Community 3-2, lost his semifinal bout to Bejarano 12-2, and was eliminated by Cobie Underwood of Moline 7-2.

Other area wrestlers who qualified for state are Josh Koderhandt of Belleville West, who took first at 112 and Logan Johnson of West, who finished fourth at 160.

CLASS 2A AT MAHOMET-SEYMOUR

Triad had the most wrestlers qualify for the Class 2A meet, sending five to state, while the Tyus brothers of Civic Memorial and Zeke Waltz of Jersey also qualified.

Chase Hall finished third at 106, winning the third and fourth place bout over Cameron Lee of Decatur MacArthur 10-2, Will Hillard took a 5-2 decision over Hayden Stanley of Mattoon in the third-place bout at 138, Garrett Bakarich took third at 145 with a pin of Chase Overton of Mascoutah at 3:01, Kaleb Port finished fourth at 182, dropping the third-place match to Colin Bybee of Carbondale 8-5, and Collin North finished fourth at 220, being pinned at 4:40 by Dawson Pruitt of Westville.

Meanwhile, Caleb Tyus of CM won the 120-pound class, pinning Garrett Chrisman of Chatham Glenwood at 3:03, while brother Caine took third at 126, taking 45 seconds to pin Jesse Stewart of Springfield High. Waltz finished second at 152, losing the final to Aron Taylor of Carbondale 11-3.

CLASS 1A AT CARTERVILLE

Seven wrestlers for Althoff, including two champions, made it to the state meet, while both Roxana and East Alton-Wood River had wrestlers qualify for state, one as a champion.

Matthew Minick became the first Crusader wrestler to qualify, finishing second when Minick lost the final to Tavius Hosley of Tolono Unity 6-3. Shawn Minick finished third at 113, winning over Cade Keepes of Mt. Carmel 16-7, and Isaiah Bernal finished third at 126, winning over Ben Gavel of Tolono Unity 9-5.

Anthony Federico won the title at 132, pinning Monticello’s Ethan O’Linc in 58 seconds, Max Kristoff won the 145 pound class with a pin of Nate Kisat of Anna-Jonesboro at 1:35, Joey Braunagel finished second at 170, losing to Connor Eaton of West Frankfort 6-5, and Nolan Schmidt finished second at 220, falling to Dale Allen of Carlyle 3-1 in the final.

Meanwhile, Roxana’s Alex Maguire won the title at 152, defeating J.D. Sexton of Champaign St. Thomas More by fall at 2:42, and Jake Erslon of EAWR ended up third at 170, defeating Tristan Moore of Carlinville in a 21-6 technical fall at 5:00 to go to state.

The individual state tournament will take place Feb. 14-16 at State Farm Center on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

More like this: