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ALTON – Area wrestlers will be wrestling today for a individual berth in the 82nd IHSA Wrestling Championship.
Qualifying for today's bouts took place Friday evening at the Redbird Nest as the Class 3A Alton individual Sectional tournament got under way; wrestlers from the host Redbirds, Edwardsville and Granite City had bouts to continue in the championship brackets or determine who they would face in wrestlebacks leading to third-place bouts on Saturday. Bouts in both the wresleback and championship brackets begin at 9 a.m. today, with finals beginning at approximately 2 p.m. The top four wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes advance to next weekend's individual state tournament at Champaign-Urbana's State Farm Center.
“We've got a young, hungry group,” said Edwardsville coach Kevin Matarelli. “They came here without a lot of experience at the sectional level and they came out and competed really hard tonight. We started off really hot – we did lose a match in the first round – and then we had some guys fall in the second, but they're going to come back strong tomorrow.
“It'll be nice to go home and good night's sleep in your own bed and then we'll come back tomorrow and get ourselves into that third-place match – that's what it's all about. We know it's not going to be easy tomorrow.”
The Tigers' two top wrestlers – Noah Surtin at 113 and Luke Odom at 126 – both won their opening bouts of the tournament, Surtin scoring a 16-0 technical fall over Kendall Norfleet of Chicago Heights Marian and Odom earning a 43-second fall over Payton Geigner of New Lenox Lincoln-Way West. “We know we're going to have tougher matches tomorrow,” Matarelli said. “We're going to be battle-tested when we get out of here, but we wrestle great competition all year, so we'll be ready for moments like this.”
“At this level, kids run into some tough competition,” said Redbird coach Eric Roberson. “That first round, we went 3-3; the second round, we didn't win, but we're still alive for tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. Pierre (Evans) at 145 wrestled very competitive and stayed mentally tough in that match; he'll carry that into his wrestleback rounds.”
Besides Surtin and Odom, Edwardsville saw Dylan Wright pin Chad Lawyer of Normal West in 3:43 of his opening-round bout at 132, but was pinned by Reece Heller of Chicago Heights Marian in 1:07; Will Zupanci took a 4-3 decision in his first bout at 138 over Normal Community's Joshua Delgadillo, but was pinned in 2:57 by Lockport Township's James Pierandozzi in the quarterfinal; at 145, Sam Martin took a 5-1 decision over Naperville Neuqua Valley's Alec Castillo but dropped a 16-0 technical fall to Moline's Hunter Henning; at 220, Josh Anderson scored a 2:20 pin over Minooka's Connor Briley in the quarterfinal after a first-round bye; and Lloyd Reynolds at 285 dropped a 6-3 decision to Moline's Cobie Underwood before getting a bye into the wrestlebacks.
For the Redbirds, Gus Kodros dropped a 6-4 decision in the opening round at 120 to New Lenox Lincoln-Way West's Garrett Geigner before getting a bye into the wrestlebacks; at 126, Garrett Sims fell to Eric Davis-Smith of Joliet West in the opening round before getting a bye into the wrestlebacks; Evans opened at 145 with a 14-4 win over Homewood-Flossmoor's Caleb Smiddy before dropping a 9-5 bout to Oswego's Gannon Hughes; Courtney Wilson at 152 defeated Brock Pfeiffer of New Lenox Lincoln-Way West 14-4 to open the tournament before Plainfield South's Jake Kendall scored a 12-0 decision over Wilson; at 182, Nolan Woszczynski scored a 10-2 win over Minooka's Connor Colbert to begin the tournament before being pinned in 1:41 by Lockport Township's Yousif Salah in the quarterfinals; and at 220, Kyle Hughes was pinned in 1:18 by Minooka's Derek Wentworth before receiving a bye into the wrestlebacks.
Granite City's Nathan Nelson, wrestling at 113, was pinned in six minutes by Plainfield Central's Nick Minnito in his opening bout and received a bye into the wrestlebacks; Jared Skaggs scored a 4-0 decision over Gus Christenson of Frankfort Lincoln-Way East at 152 before Lockport's Zach Reese pinned Skaggs in 2:50 in the quarterfinal bout; at 182, Reide Wilson had a first-round bye before Oswego East's Jackson O'Reilly took a 10-3 decision over Wilson in the quarters; and Chase Nelson, going at 195, dropped a 3-2 decision to Plainfield Central's Josh Mackenzie before getting a bye into the wrestlebacks.
Results from today's bouts will be updated in real time on the wrestling website trackwrestling.com; the service is free.
