January 18, 2020
NCHS Varsity 1st place / 22 Teams at Marty
Williams Invitational
NCHS Freshman-Sophomore 1st Place / 8 Teams at
Oswego F-S Dual Tournament
Naperville Central Wrestling showed its grit at two events
this Saturday. The varsity team won the
40th Annual Marty Williams Invitational for the 6th year
in a row. Central scored 473.5 team
points. LaSalle-Peru was second with
372, host Mahomet-Seymour third with 362 and Normal West fourth with 361.
Naperville fielded a team of 19 wrestlers for the overnight
trip, six competing as additional non-scoring wrestlers. In all, Central finished with a record of 54
wins against just 27 losses and 30 of the wins were by fall.
Three Redhawks took first place, led by senior captain,
Tyler Driessens at 120. Driessens
finished virtually perfect, scoring all four victories by fall. He made quick work of his opponent in the
finals, locking down a fall using his outside cradle. Not to be outdone, senior Elrin Esporlas, 126
won three of four matches by fall (one by injury default). All of Esporlas’ matches ended by fall coming
in the first period. Esporlas needed
just three takedowns to finish his opponents and stand on the top of the podium. Sophomore Tommy Porter brought home gold at
the 113 pound weight class. He improved
to 29-2 on the season. Porter scored a
late fall in the final match for his fourth win of the day, the three others
coming by fall (2) and technical fall.
Two Redhawks made the finals and finished as
runner-ups. Senior Captain Ryan Silva
(152) had four wins leading into the finals including a hard fought 2-0 victory
in pool competition. Sean King (160)
continues to impress not just his coaches, but the state of Illinois as
well. Recently getting mentioned in
state rankings, King pinned Dalton Hall from Champaign Central. Hall is currently the number two ranked
wrestler in Illinois (class AA) by IWCOA rankings.
Shane Roth (170) lost a nail bitter in semifinals but came
back to take 3rd place in the tournament. All four of Roth’s wins came by fall as he
continues to improve. Angelo Eklou (220)
scored a 10-5 win in his bronze medal match.
He ended with a 4-1 record. Bryce
Cooperkawa showed off his seemingly never ending endurance. The senior battled to four wins in route to
the podium’s third step.
The Central underclassman also showed some toughness. Sophomore Ayden Lutes continues to get better
and better. He won four hard fought
matches to finish third place including an exciting 14-11 place match. Last, but not least, freshman Ethan Olson
(106) earned three victories with scores of 14-0, 11-3, and 18-3 to take 3rd. He scored the most takedowns for the team in
the tournament (tied with Porter, 10).
The tournament format allowed for wrestlers to compete in a
three-man round robin pool with the top finisher in the pool advancing to the
Gold bracket, top 8. A loss in the pool
relegated a wrestler to a Silver bracket of 8.
Two Redhawk wrestlers lost in the pool competition, but came back to win
the Silver bracket. Anthony Pendolino
finished 3-1 scoring a 6-3 win in his final bout and senior Manny Rivera put up
four wins in his efforts at 170 including an exciting 11-10 win in the
finals. August Kukis earned two varsity
wins wrestling at 106 pounds. He battled
to a pair of decisions 6-4 and 5-3.
Ethan Jones scored a 14-1 decision to make the finals of the silver
bracket. Austin Nesci finish 2-1 in competition
winning two decisions of 17-2 and 11-0.
Tariq Sikander made the gold bracket by way of a fall in
pool competition. He won another match
by fall. Philip Marrero scored a come
from behind win to qualify for the gold bracket as well. Austin Longmire lost a couple of tight
matches, but did come away with a fall in the silver bracket. Alex Knusel competed, but had to withdraw due
to injury.
The Naperville Central freshman-sophomore team won the 8-team
Oswego dual team tournament, defeating Joliet West 44-27, Oswego East 63-12,
and Wheaton North 75-6 in pool competition and St. Charles East 60-21 in the
championship dual. Gavin Bohan, Patrick
Geiger, Adrian Alvarado, Chase Enfield and Quinn Hurley all finish 4-0 on the
day while Brayden Halverson, Chris Ramirez, Michael Parker all went undefeated
at 3-0 and Ethan Pytlak had 2 wins against no losses. In total, the Hawks won 45 matches to just 12
losses and 23 of the wins were by fall.
Next Saturday the Redhawk varsity team will compete in the DuPage
Conference Championships held at Naperville North High School. The freshman-sophomore team (mostly freshman)
will travel to Dundee Crown to compete in a quad.
GO REDHAWKS!