Sunday, February 8, 2015

Redhawks Take Second at IHSA Regionals

Sectional Qualifiers: Jake Keating, Shuji Mizoguchi, Ben Williamson, Cam Hayes, and Riley Guttosch

February 7, 2015

Naperville Central took 2nd place to Marmion at the IHSA Regional Tournament held at Batavia High School.  Nine schools competed.  The Redhawks had five wrestlers finish in the top three in their weight class, thereby qualifying for the IHSA Sectional tournament.  Three other Redhawks finished in 4th place, becoming alternates.

In the team score, the Redhawks were in second place after the first round of action but fell to fifth place after the semifinals.  After the wrestle backs round the Hawks climbed back to third place and passed Metea Valley in the final round by winning five of their last eight matches to end in second place, first amongst all public schools.

Jake Keating, 106, was seeded first in his bracket and received a bye into the semifinals where he pinned Fischer of Batavia to advance to the finals.  There he faced VanPouke of Naperville North, a wrestler whom he defeated in the dual but lost to at the conference tournament.  VanPouke scored the first takedown and held a 2-1 lead out of the first period.  Keating came back in the second period scoring a takedown, reversal and back points for a 8-5 lead going into the third period.  Another reversal sealed the championship for Keating 10-5 and a birth to the sectional quarterfinals.

The Redhawks had seven wrestlers in critical third and fourth place matches.  First up was Shuji Mizoguchi at 113 pounds who faced Doranski from Batavia, a wrestler whom he lost to in December.  Mizoguchi scored two takedowns and two sets of back points to cruise to a 14-4 victory.  Ben Williamson pinned Young of East Aurora to take third and become a four time sectional qualifier in his career.  Cam Hayes scored an escape and takedown in the second period against Flores of Wheaton Warrenville South and that was enough for a 3-0 third place win at 145 pounds.  Riley Guttosch defeated Ford of West Aurora for the second time in the day by a score of 6-4 to become a sectional qualifier at 160 pounds.  Riley won the team's I'm Somebody Award for his fantastic effort.

Senior Rick Marciniak won two matches in route to his third place match.  He defeated Ervin from Metea Valley 9-8 and Wallerstein of Batavia 9-2.  He lost by fall in the third place match to take fourth.  Senior Hayden Saldivar battled for two wins at heavyweight.  He avenged a loss by defeating Szymel of Naperville North by a score of 5-3 and he won against Papiemik of Metea Valley 5-0.  Saldivar was pinned in his final match to finish in 4th place.  Christian Nussbaum fell just shy of qualifying for sectionals, losing 1-3 in overtime to Beck from WWS.  Nussbaum scored two pins to make the third place match.

Derek Wilke finished the tournament at 1-2.  He scored a technical fall against Foster of WV.  Nick Nunziato upended Bratland of WV in the first round and finished 1-2.  Junior Luc Jandt locked down a pin against Kerth of WWS.  Sophomore Laddie Skarecky beat Wellington of WA in the tournament.  Kyle Hildebrand and Alex Hunter each finished the tournament 0-2.

Next up the five sectional qualifiers will compete at Downers Grove North High School on Friday and Saturday, February 13-14.  The top three from each of four regionals in each weight class will battle for a top four finish and qualify for IHSA State.  Action starts at 4:30pm Friday.

GO REDHAWKS!