Story posted Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Hersey's Mitchell Remains Unbeaten; Saxons Take 1st
By BOBBY CHILVER Journal Sports
Hersey, Wheeling and Fremd each took home two individual titles while Conant, Rolling Meadows, Prospect and Palatine added one apiece in an exciting Mid Suburban League wrestling championship Saturday at Buffalo Grove.
Schaumburg won the MSL title behind two championships and four second place finishes. The Saxons' 199.50 outpaced Barrington's 191.50 and Hersey's 185.00.
The Huskies came into the weekend hoping for a shot at the conference crown but settled for a strong third place showing.
State-ranked Demetrios Mitchell (145) and Jeff Koepke (160) led the way with impressive championship runs. Mitchell ran his record to a perfect 42-0 with a 14-5 major decision in the semi-finals and dominating 15-2 major decision over Conant's Gino Gastiglione in the title bout.
"I felt pretty good, just need to stay focused," Mitchell said. "My number one goal is to just go out there and bust my butt every match."
Koepke pinned Buffalo Grove's Matt Zabrin in the semi-finals, then controlled his championship match to earn a 9-2 decision over Schaumburg's Pat Felde.
The Huskies did have several chances at improving their score but settled for three second place finishes, three fourths, a fifth and two sixths in a well-balanced team performance.
"Overall we didn't finish real well," coach Jim Wormsley said. "But I'm pretty happy. It shows us what we need to work on for next week."
Stephfon Scales (112), Kevin Snodgrass (125) and Sean Bonner (152) all advanced to their championship bouts before settling for second place medals. Other Huskies placing included Conrad Bugay (119), Jason Olson (171) and Fred Scales (189) in fourth, Joe Castellanos in fifth (215) and Josh Simmons (130) and Zach Whitehead (135) in sixth.
Wheeling finished fourth overall (157.00) behind individual titles from Luke Smith (135) and Chris Johnson (189).
Smith, a junior, improved to 34-0 on the year and won his third straight MSL crown. Next year he will attempt to become only the third wrestler ever to win four MSL titles. Prospect's Matt Boggess most recently accomplished the feat last year.
"It's a huge honor," Smith said of his third crown. "Hopefully next year I can win four. But my main goal is to go undefeated and win the state title this year."
Smith looked well on his way to that goal, dominating the weekend at 135. He earned a pin in 1:02 and technical fall in 4:58 before his 3:33 fall of Schaumburg's John Lombardo in the title bout.
"I thought I wrestled pretty well," Smith added. "I didn't come out like I wanted to but I ended up pulling it out."
As did his teammate Johnson, who earned his MSL title with a 5-0 decision over Schaumburg's Joe LaManna. Johnson was also impressive on the weekend, earning a technical fall (4:16) and pin (3:42) in his first two matches to improve to 35-2 on the year.
Mike Smith (140) and Tim Schalz (285) took second place finishes for the Wildcats while other medalists included Eddie Scanlon (152) and Joel Rangel (171) in third, Rob Desio (145) in fourth and Brandon Jagielski (215) in sixth.
Conant finished fifth as a team with 129.50. The Cougars won their lone title on the final match of the weekend as Nate Benedetti (285) pinned Wheeling's Tim Schalz just 59 seconds into the final bout.
Benedetti said he has been improving throughout the year and it paid off Saturday.
"This is my senior year so I got to go out with a bang," he laughed after the win. "The coaches have really kept me motivated."
Other Cougar medalists included Ben Clifford (103) and Mitch Alexander (119) and Castiglione (145) in second, Vince Gottardo (125) in third and Travis Sylvester (135) in fourth.
Rolling Meadows used some strong team depth to take sixth overall with a 125.00.
Joey Caprio (152) earned the Mustang championship with an exciting 6-5 overtime decision over Hersey's Sean Bonner. Caprio trailed 4-1 before rallying back to tie the match and win in overtime.
"I just picked up the intensity," he said.
Meadows' depth earned the Mustangs nine other medals on the day, including Frank Adame (119), Chris Sanchez (103), Dennis Caravello (140) and Jordan Farnum (285) in fourth, Kory Jauch (125), Nick Calandra (130), Shawn Meyer (135) and Marc Herff (145) in fifth and Jared Diaz (189) in sixth.
Prospect had a familiar name on the winner's podium as Josh Boggess, brother of former Knight state champion Matt, won the 112 title with a 5-1 decision over Hersey's Stephfon Scales. Only a freshman, Boggess improved his record to 33-4.
Teammate Tim Schweigel advanced to the 130 championship match for Prospect before losing a tight 6-3 decision and taking second. Other Knight standouts included Brandon Thompson (152) in fourth, Tom Mensing (119), Beau Zanca (171), Chris Kozlowski (189) and Terry Thomas (285) in fifth and Leo Clark (140) and Jon Eliopoulos (160) in sixth. As a team the Knights were seventh with a score of 120.00.
Buffalo Grove followed in eighth after four wrestlers fell in the semi-finals but bounced back for third place medals.
Hunter Ori (103), Brian Egan (130), Matt Zabrin (160) and Leo Haro (215) each wrestled back to finish third while other medalists were Ben Lake (125) in fourth, Ryan Sparks (140) in fifth and Eugene Blackmon (112) and Jamey Zabrin (171) in sixth.
Fremd earned only four medals but two of them were championships as Ron Hauser (130) and Travis LaSchiava (140) topped their bracket fields.
Hauser took a tight 6-3 decision over Prospect's Tim Schweigel for the win while LaSchiava earned a well-fought 12-10 decision over Wheeling's Mike Smith.
The other two Viking medals came from Chris Suchomski (160) and Dan Muehfelt (215) in fourth.
Palatine took a title of their own when Leshon Mejias (125) pinned Hersey's Kevin Snodgrass for the Pirates' only medal of the weekend.
Elk Grove showed their program is heading in the right direction as the Grens took home four medals after earning none last year.
Alex Mertes (112) earned the top finish with a fourth place showing while Bart Broda (103) was fifth and Matt Evans (119) and Brett Lesniak (152) were sixth.
Mid Suburban League teams will be spread across Chicagoland this Saturday as they compete in IHSA regional action.
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