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CHAMPAIGN-URBANA – Edwardsville’s Noah Surtin and Roxana’s Alex Maguire both finished second in their respective weight classes on the final day of the IHSA state individual wrestling tournament on Saturday at State Farm Center on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Surtin lost the final of the Class 3A 120 pound division to Matt Ramos of Lockport 8-4, and finished the tournament with a 50-2 record, while Maguire lost the Class 1A 152 final in a very close bout 4-3 to Brody Ivey of Sterling Newman Central Catholic. Maguire finished his season 39-5.
On the last day of the Class 3A tournament, Lloyd Reynolds of the Tigers finished sixth at 285 pounds. Reynolds won his first match of the day in the third round of the consolation bracket, defeating Ahmad Sulleman of Oak Lawn Richards 4-1, but in the consolation semifinal, Reynolds was pinned at 5:50 by Andrew Bejerano of Plainfield South, and in the fifth-place match, Reynolds lost to Roberto Pena of Naperville Neuqua Valley 3-1. Reynolds is now 39-14 on the year.
In the Class 2A tournament, Civic Memorial’s Caleb Tyus finished third at 120 pounds, winning his consolation bracket semifinal over Alex Barbarise of Antioch 7-0, and the third-place match over Chicago St. Patrick’s Brad Ritter 9-2, finishing his season at 46-3. His twin brother Caine finished sixth at 126, dropping his consolation semifinal to Kylan Montgomery of Mascoutah 14-0, then lost the fifth-place match to Danny McPherson of Antioch 2-1. Caine’s final record is 39-11.
Triad had two wrestlers finish fifth in their respective classes. Chase Hall won two of three matches on the day, starting in the third round of the consolation bracket with a win over Cajuan Johnson of Champaign Centennial 11-3, but lost his semifinal bout to Evan Schiffman of Lemont 7-2. Hall won the fifth-place match in sudden death overtime, defeating Coby Haney of Mattoon 6-4. Hall’s record currently stands at 36-11.
In the 145-pound class, Garrett Bakarich also took two of three bouts on the day, starting with his third round consolation bracket win by fall over Joey Murphy of Grayslake Central at 1:35, but then, Bakarich was pinned in the semifinal at 1:20 by Grant LaDuke of Lemont. Bakarich then won the fifth-place match over Thomas Konetski of Clifton Central 15-4 to run his record to 42-7.
Jersey’s Zeke Waltz finished fifth at 152 in Class 2A, splitting his two matches. Waltz lost his consolation semifinal to Ryan Wasielewski of Coal City 6-4, but bounced back to win the fifth-place match over Aron Taylor of Carbondale 9-8 to finish his season at 34-7. In the 170-pound division in Class 1A, East Alton-Wood River’s Jake Erslon finished fourth, winning his third round consolation match over Colin Dvorak of Lena-Winslow 6-3, then taking the semifinal bout over Joey Braunagel of Belleville Althoff Catholic 10-5. Erslon lost the third-place bout to Jacob Conaty of LeRoy 6-0 to finish his season at 44-8.
For the Tigers and Knights, it’s now on to the team dual meet sectionals this week. Edwardsville will face New Lenox Lincoln-Way West in a Class 3A meet at Taylorville on Tuesday night, with the meet starting at 6 p.m., while Triad will meet Mahomet-Seymour in the Class 2A Taylorville sectional, the meet also starting at 6 p.m. The state team tournament will be held at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.