Ryan Berg, Luke Roth and Tom Mitrenga advance to Champaign
February 11
Naperville Central High School will send three individuals to the IHSA State Tournament in Champaign. Ryan Berg, Luke Roth, and Tom Mitrenga all placed in the top four of their weight classes in the IHSA Sectional Tournament to qualify. The tournament was held at Glenbard North High School on Friday and Saturday, February 10-11. NCHS had eight wrestlers compete in the sectionals. Seven of the eight advanced to the state-qualifying round and seven of the eight won at least two matches.
Ryan Berg, 195, defeated Boser of Geneva and Cleveland of Wheaton North to advance to the finals and punch his ticket to state. In the championship match, Berg used three takedowns to defeat Zavalla of Elgin by a score of 7-6. Berg avenged a loss to Zavalla from earlier in the season. This will be Berg's first trip to state.
Luke Roth, 182, defeated Drozd of Evanston and Santana of Elgin before losing in overtime to Fierro of Glenbard North in the semifinals. In the state-qualifying match, Roth came from behind to pin Monreal-Berner of Niles West. The fall came late in the third period and qualified Roth to state for the second time in his career. In the third place match, Roth defeated Warren of West Aurora. It was the fourth time the two wrestlers have met this season with Roth winning three.
Tom Mitrenga, 160, forfeited to Carlson of St. Charles East on Friday by injury default setting him up for a difficult route to state having to win three matches in a row in the wrestle-backs. There, Mitrenga defeated Stephens of Schaumburg and Gastaldello of Downers Grove North to set up a state qualifying match with Kindle of Maine West. Mitrenga scored a takedown in the first period and added nearfall points in the second period and cruised to a 8-2 win. The victory put Mitrenga to state for the first time in his career. Mitrenga injury defaulted to Rowland of Willowbrook to finish in fourth place.
Naperville Central wrestlers had seven wrestlers advance to the state-qualifying round in the tournament, an outstanding performance for the Redhawks. Central lost four of those matches. Individuals losing in this round are alternates to the state tournament. They were Mitch Lee, Steven Splan, Ben Williamson, and Kirk Cherep.
Mitch Lee, 113, defeated Wolf of Lake Park and then Afshar of Maine West to advance to the semifinals. Lee lost to San Juan of Glenbard East. In the consolation semifinals Lee lost to Martens of Geneva by a score of 0-7.
As a regional champion, Steven Splan, 120, had a first round bye and then defeated Davis of Conent to make the semifinals. Splan lost to Cortez of Glenbard North, then in the wrestle-backs lost to Calkins of Maine South by a score of 5-7
Ben Williamson, 126, dropped his first match to Sheppard of Glenbard West, but won two matches in the wrestle-backs to make the state qualifying round. Williamson upended Rose of Conent 12-2 then Garduno of South Elgin 15-0 (in the first period). Williamson was pinned by Shoen of Lake Park in his bid for state.
Kirk Cherep, 132, also lost his first match, his to Gosinski of Glenbard North. Cherep then pinned Gratz of Maine West and followed that up with an emotional win to Hassan of Glenbard West by a score of 4-2. Cherep was narrowly defeated by Graham of Metea Valley by a score of 1-2.
Kyle Klass, 170, also won two matches in the sectional tournament. Klass scored a 9-7 come-from-behind win against Rosemon of Elgin. Klass avenged a loss to Rosemon from earlier in the year. Klass lost to Caprio of Rolling Meadows, then defeated Ebert of Elk Grove. Klass nearly defeated Cleveland of Wheaton North, but lost 4-5.
Naperville Central's three qualifiers will compete at in the Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois starting Thursday night. The preliminary round is set to begin at 6:30pm. Wrestling will continue into Friday and Saturday. Hope you can cheer on the Redhawks.
Reminder, by virtue of winning the Regional Tournament, Naperville Central will be competing at the IHSA Sectional Dual against Maine West on Tuesday, February 21 at 6:30pm. The winner of the dual will advance to the (elite eight) IHSA Dual State Tournament to be held in Bloomington on Saturday, February 25.