2/9-10/2024
Naperville Central competed in two IHSA Individual Sectional
Tournaments with the boys competing at Hinsdale Central High School and the
girls at Schaumburg High School. Four
Redhawk boys and one girl placed in the top four and qualified for IHSA
Individual State. Hagan Taylor (144),
Chris Bern (157), Niko Besteiro (215) and Will Erbeck (285) will take their
place on the State Wall of Fame while Ellan Purl (120) historically becomes
Naperville Central’s first ever girls state qualifier. The boys will compete next weekend, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, February 15-17 at the State Farm Center on the campus of
the University of Illinois. Ellen Purl
will compete at state in the Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington Illinois on
Friday and Saturday, February 23-24.
The boys qualified all fourteen wrestlers to the sectionals and won 24 matches to 26 losses, with twelve wins by fall. Nine of the fourteen qualified for the “blood round.” The blood round is the consolation semifinals and is called that due to it being the state qualifying match, or “win or go home” match. The Hawks won four of five of those matches. The Hinsdale Central sectional was dominated by private schools Mt. Carmel, Marist and Marmion. The three schools combined gathered 28, or exactly half of the state qualifying spots. The other thirty teams battled for the remaining 28 spots.
Senior Hagan Taylor (144) advanced to the quarterfinals due
to his first-place finish at the regionals.
There, Taylor brought down the house by pinning Hobson of Marmion who
was ranked 4th. The pin came
early in the second period. In the
semifinals, Taylor lost to Acuna of Mt. Carmel by a score of 10-12, moving
Taylor to the consolation semifinals, or blood round against Mally of
Naperville North. Taylor won by fall
over Mally in 34 seconds to punch his ticket to state. Taylor lost the rematch to Hobson 8-20 to
finish in fourth place.
Senior Chris Bern (157) won his preliminary match by fall
over Farley of Oak Lawn before facing 2nd ranked Enright of Mt.
Carmel. After failing to defeat Enright,
Bern dropped to the consolation bracket requiring him to win three matches in a
row to qualify. Three matches he did
starting with Ahrens of Lyons by fall in the first period followed by Favia of
Marmon by score of 8-2. In the blood
round, Bern squeaked out 4-3 decision over Tomkins of Marist. Bern didn’t stop there, scoring a 5-1 decision
over Shadid of Glenbard West to finish in 3rd place. That win likely puts Bern in a better spot on
the state bracket. Bern finished with
five wins in the IHSA Sectionals.
The first of the two big anchors, senior Niko Besteiro (215)
worked his way to a state final birth.
Besteiro lost his opening quarterfinal match to 10th ranked
Sheldon of Batavia by a score of 2-5.
Needing three wins, Besteiro pinned Breish of Sandburg in the first
period and followed that with a mat-slapper over Ibragimov of Naperville North
qualifying Besteiro for the blood round.
Besteiro went to work scoring in each period for an 11-2 major decision
over Piehl of Downers Grove South. In
the third place match, a rematch to Sheldon of Batavia, Besteiro was defeated fall.
Will Erbeck (285), surely the recipient of the heart attack
award after his dramatic come from behind pin last week at the regionals,
defeated Costello of Lyons by a score of 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Erbeck was defeated by third-ranked Ivanisevic
of Hinsdale Central in the semifinals dropping Erbeck to the blood round. There he dispatched Spraggins of Downers
Grove South by a score of 6-2. Erbeck
added another win to finish in third place with a 7-5 victory over Nycz of
Marist.
Five Redhawks battled to their way to the blood round before
bowing out of the tournament. Sophomore
Jake Moore (106), a champion from last week’s regional, moved up to the
semifinals of the sectionals after a decisive 9-0 major decision over Ortega of
Glenbard West. Moore was pinned by
third-ranked Hayes of Sandburg and then lost to Moore of Mt. Carmel in the
consolation semifinals. Tyler Martin
(120) also made the semifinals after defeating Ahmed of Stagg 12-5. Martin was handed a 0-3 loss by Parker of
Sandburg and then lost to Massaro of West Aurora 3-8. Mitchell Kaszuba (126) had an excellent
effort at sectionals coming out of the preliminary round. Kaszuba defeated Bruce of Sandburg by fall. Bruce was an honorable mention in the
rankings. Kaszuba advanced to the
semifinals after defeating Woolsey of Downers Grove South 6-5. In the semis, Kaszuba lost by technical fall
to second-ranked Esteban of Marist. In
the consolation semifinals, Kaszuba just missed on a victory, losing to
Matkovich of West Aurora 5-6. John
Carens (165) advanced all the way to the blood round after losing in the
preliminary round to number one ranked Carrigan of Glenbard West. Carens pinned Barba of Oak Lawn and battled
Lasota of DGS to a 15-2 major decision before losing to Kalahbrenner of Mt.
Carmel by fall. Jake Smetters (190) just
missed a second trip to the Hall having himself another impressive run in the
tournament. After losing to honorably
mentioned Salvino of Glenbard East 1-2, Smetters advanced previous losses by
pinning Murphy of Naperville North.
Smetters then won by fall over seventh ranked Jaffal of Sandburg. Smetters lost by fall in the consolation
semifinals to Lapacek of Downers Grove South.
Jake Moore and Jacob Smetters are both first alternates to state.
Jacob Cochran (113) finished 1-2 in the tournament,
defeating Paunkov of Naperville North in the semifinals. Javier Sevilla (150) won in the opening round
against Contreras-Lozan of DGS by fall.
Henry Rydwelski (175) avenged a loss from regionals defeating Gatlin of
Naperville North in the first round of the consolation bracket. Vince Bern (132) lost both of his matches,
his second a narrow defeat to honorably mentioned Rosas of Glenbard West. Stavros Gerousis (138) also lost both of his
matches but gained some valuable experience wrestling at the sectional level.
Meanwhile at Schaumburg High School Ellen Purl (120) began
her run for a state birth by pinning Barboza of East Aurora in the quarterfinals. Purl was pinned by the eventual sectional
champion Ball of Hoffman Estates in the semifinals. That loss moved Purl to the blood round
against Ciavarella of Conant. Ciavarella
opened with a takedown in the first period with just 18 seconds left in the period. Purl picked top to start the second period
and came close to getting a turn, but no points were scored. Up by two points, Ciavrella picked top to start
the third period. Purl scored a reversal
to tie the score 2-2 and rode out the period and send the match to overtime. In the one-minute sudden victory overtime
period no points were scored. The match
then moved to two 30-second double-overtime periods on the mat with Purl
picking down for the first one. Purl
worked a side roll forcing Ciavarella to illegally throw a full-nelson to avoid
being reversed. The period ended with Purl
leading 3-2. Ciavarella picked top to
start the second 30-second period but was unable to turn Purl giving her the
victory and an historic first-ever trip to girl’s state. Purl was defeated for third place by Matthews
of Addison Trail.
Freshman Dezi Azar (115) just missed a state birth losing in the blood round to Aphay of Riverside-Brookfield by a score of 8-10. Azar was defeated by Aphay in the regional finals. Azar qualified for the blood round by defeated Jones of Conant by fall and Hardin of Proviso West 10-2, both matches in the consolation bracket. Gracie Meluch lost both of her matches at sectionals, the first one a nail-bitter 7-9 loss in overtime to Villarreal of Schaumburg.
Individual boys state action begins Thursday with Class 3A session
starting at 4:30pm. Dual sectionals
against Downers Grove South will be Tuesday, February 20 at Downers Grove South
with the winning team qualifying for Dual State. Individual girls state and boys dual state
both happen Friday and Saturday, February 23-24.