BETHALTO – The Riverbender area's first big wrestling tournament of the season took place at Civic Memorial in Bethalto Saturday as 15 teams got together for the 37th Civic Memorial Holiday Wrestling Tournament.
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For most teams,t he tournament gave them a chance to see how their wrestlers would fare in tournament competition and what they would need to work on heading into the holiday-season tournaments coming up.
It certainly was a good day for East Alton-Wood River's wrestlers; they had three first-place finishes as the Oilers finished fifth with 130.5 points, best among the three area teams taking part; Jersey finished eighth with a score of 112 points and the host Eagles were 11th at 67.5 points.
Waterloo won the tournament with 159 points, followed by East St. Louis (139), Highland (134.5), Mattoon (131.5), the Oilers, Vandalia (129), Benton (126), the Panthers, Maplewood-Richmond Heights of St. Louis County (78.5), Jacksonville (76), the Eagles, Carlyle (52), Centralia (51), Herrin (39) and Freeburg (26).
“We had three in the finals and three champions,” said Oiler coach Dave Sobol. “I couldn't be happier. This is the first time Wood River has scored over 100 points in a tournament; it's been longer than I've been here. It was a good showing and we don't have a senior in the lineup, so I'm real happy.
“Our two leaders, Drew (Sobol) and Zac (Blasioli) really stepped up. They set the pace in in the practice room; they set the tone for our team. They've had pretty good careers; Drew beat a kid that was ranked in (Class) 2A and a kid that beat him 6-5 last year and kind of set the tempo. Zac's been a constant and he dominated. Zac Kincade went from a freshman to a sophomore and we've watched him turn into a man a little bit; he works so hard in the room and it's paid off.”
For their part, Saturday's tournament was the first time the Eagles had gotten to the mats in competition mode this season, and CM coach Chad Young was pleased overall with how things turned out for his team. “Not too bad,” Young said. “We've got a lot of young kids and a couple of guys out with injuries early in the season and weights coming down, so we did well. It was our first event for the year; we hadn't had any matches prior to our tournament, so it was a good place for us to get an idea where our kids are at.”
Young also got an idea on what his wrestlers need to work on in the wrestling room as well. “Definitely, what we haven't worked on enough in practice. I think the kids are pretty positive; we got a win, and that's big. It's a little bit of confidence-building; we'll do all right as the year goes on.”
Sobol defeated Mattoon's Trevor Edwards by a 9-6 decision in the 106-pound class to win his championship, while Blasioli won his bout at 152 with 1:45 pin of Waterloo's Austin Stewart and Kincaid won at 195 with a 2:46 fall over Mattoon's Jacob Wiebking. Shane Lindquist lost a third-place match when he was pinned in 21 seconds by Jersey's Ross Speidel at 182, while Jake Ersion took fifth with a 56-second fall over Carlyle's Lucas Hanke, Daron Austin dropped his fifth-place bout to Vandalia's Riley Smock at 220 by the score of 4-1, Jon Wright took fifth at 285 with a 27-second pin of Benton's Carston Sanders and Austin Hammond took seventh over CM's Zach Wells with a 21-3 technical fall at 120.
The Panthers' Tanner Zedolek took second at 120 when he was pinned by Freeburg's Cooper Secker in 1:59 and Brandon Critchfield finished second at 132 when he dropped a 8-6 decision to East St. Louis' Tyler Dunn. Dylan Torrey, though, claimed the title at 138 with a 7-0 decision over Mattoon's Jayvin Quinn. Kyzick Bell finished fourth at 170 when he was pinned in 3:11 by Waterloo's Max Jennings and Trent Hayes took fourth at 195 when he was pinned in 2:57 by Waterloo's Kory Johnson at 195. At 105, Ashley Duncan finished eighth when Jacksonville's Cole Reif pinned Duncan in 1:31.
The Eagles had no championships on the day, but did get a third from Brandon Copeland at 145 when he took a 5-3 decision over Maplewood's Matt Green and a third from Jordan Stagner at 220 when he pinned Bryden Picklesimer of Benton in 3:10. Hudson Brown won the fifth-place bout over Jacksonville's Jocelyn Murphy in a 8-3 decision at 113, while Ian McIntire took seventh at 152 over Kristain Wells of Carlyle with a 13-3 decision and Dillion Lawrence won the seventh-place bout at 160 with a 8-6 decision over Vandalia's Wyatt Goade.
