January 17, 2016
Top Five Team Scores
1. Naperville Central High School 520.02.
2. Yorkville High School 476.53.
3. Rock Island High School 408.04.
4. Carbondale High School 390.05.
5. Mahomet-Seymour High School 379.56.
Naperville Central traveled to Mahomet-Seymour High School and brought home the championship at the 24-team Marty Williams Invitational. NCHS outscored the second place team by nearly 44 team points. This is the second tournament victory for the Redhawks this year. They won the Bradley-Bourbonnais tournament on December 29th.
Wrestlers in each weight class were placed in pools and then based on their performance in the pool, were placed in appropriate brackets. For example, a wrestler finishing 2-0 in his pool was placed in a pool A with other wrestlers finishing 2-0. Same for 1-1 pool finishers (pool B) and 0-2 finishers (pool C). All wrestling continues to a place (all wrestlers place).
From Naperville Central, Mizoguchi, Jake Keating, Jandt, McDaniel, Punzel, Hayes, Hunter, Nussbaum, and Catalano all qualified for the A bracket, thus placed in the top 8.
Senior Captain Cam Hayes won all five of his matches to bring home the gold at 160 pounds. He won by scores of 12-3 and 22-7 in pool competition, then qualified for the finals by defeating Fisher from Yorkville by fall and getting past Garcia from Prairie Central by a score of 16-12. In the championship match, Hayes scored a takedown and nearfall and that was enough for a 5-0 victory. Also qualifying for the finals was Jake Keating. Keating scored two falls in pool play, then earned decisions of 11-4 and 13-8 make the finals. In the championship match, Keating fell behind by five quickly after being thrown to his back, but he battled back in the match and only lost by two points, 7-9.
Shuji Mizoguchi won three matches, two in his pool (both by pin) to take third place. He won in his place match by a score of 15-4. Christian Nussbaum finished 4-1 and took 5th place. He was caught and pinned by the eventual 220 pound champion in the first round of the bracket competition. He won all other four matches by fall. Alex Hunter finished 3-2, Derek McDaniel and Jackson Punzel finished 2-2. Hunter, McDaniel and Punzel all finished in 6th place. Luc Jandt won his final match by fall for a 7th place finish. Brad Catalano entered the tournament as an alternate at 285 pounds earned 2 varsity matches to earn a 7th place finish. His winning scores were 4-2 and 3-2.
Nick Keating and Ben Cianchetti both won the B bracket and finished in 9th place. Nick Keating won four matches including a pin in the semifinals. Cianchetti also had four wins and scored bonus team points with two pins. Luke Russell was 3-2 and finished in 10th place. Russell battled to a 4-3 triple overtime victory in the quarterfinals. Mujtaba Ahmed also earned a 10th place finish. He was not scored upon in his two wins, 4-0 and 9-0.
Colin Baumgartner ended in 11th place, Joe Lopez in 14th place. Both Alex Raulicks and Brad Klass won the C bracket and ended in 17th place. Cam Palmer won a match by fall and took 18th place. Sam Piazza scored two falls and finished in 21st place.
Next up the Redhawks will face DVC foe Lake Park at home on Thursday, January 21st. At that event NCHS will be honoring our senior class of 2016 Shuji Mizoguchi, Luc Jandt, Steven Bumpus, Cameron Hayes, John Szczap, and Alex Hunter. This will be the last home event for the Redhawks. Action starts with JV and freshman competition at 5:30 with seniors and families recognized around 6:30 and varsity action starting around 7:00. The the Hawks will travel to Wheaton North on Friday. On Saturday the varsity team is off while the JV1 and JV2 teams will compete at the DVC Tournament Championships. JV1 will be at Wheaton Warrenville South while JV2 will be at Wheaton North.
GO REDHAWKS!