Sunday, January 9, 2022

Naperville Central Resumes Season With Three Dual Wins

 1/8/2022

  • NCHS 38 – Barrington 30
  • NCHS 84 – South Elgin 0
  • NCHS – Downers Grove North 15

After a ten day Corvid hiatus, Naperville Central (16-1, 3-1 in DVC) resumed its wrestling season with three dual victories competed at Downers Grove High School.  Central opened with a come-from-behind dual victory against Barrington and, after sweeping South Elgin, defeated host Downers Grove North.  Triple winners were David Pirozhnik (182), Tristen Hall (170), Chris Ramirez (145), Tommy Porter (138), Gavin Bohan (152), and Ethan Olson (120).  Also undefeated were Muhammad Totten (195-220) and Nico Besteiro (220) who both finished 2-0.  Both Pirozhnik and Hall finished with two falls on the day while Ramirez led the team in takedowns with nine.

The dual of the day was the opening contest with Barrington.  With the dual starting at 106 pounds the Broncos opened with four falls in the first five matches to take a 4-24 team score lead.  Ethan Olson won by major decision in his match.  Tommy Porter started a three match winning streak for the Redhawks with a hard-fought major decision at 138 pounds.  His effort was followed by Chris Ramirez who won by fall and Junior Gavin Bohan who won by decision 7-3.  After a Broncos’ won by decisoin at 160 the team score showed 17-27.

Senior Tristen Hall and David Pirozhnik got Central into the team-score lead with a couple of falls.  Hall’s pin came in the second period while Pirozhnik earned his in the first period.  Team score: 29-27.  Barrington responded with a win by decision at 195 pounds to regain the lead 29-30 with two matches left.  Sophomore Niko Besterio won a key match at 220 pounds with a 3-2 decision to put NCHS back on top by two team points.  Nick Antonietti (285) was able to secure the dual victory with a pin in the second period.  Final team score: 38-30.

In the second contest, Naperville Central swept South Elgin with a perfect 84-0 team score.  South Elgin sent only four wrestlers to compete against the Redhawks and all four were defeated by pins.  August Kukis (126), Tristen Hall, David Pirozhnik, and Muhammad Totten (195) were the winners.

In the final event, Central defeated host Downers Grove North 48-15.  In thirteen matches, the Redhawks won 10 of them.  Scoring pins were Olson, Porter, and Bohan.  Sophomore Ty Martin (113) won by technical fall.

The Naperville Central junior varsity team travelled to Bolingbrook to compete in the challenging Bolingbrook Invitational and took second place out of 15 teams.  Lockport won the tournament scoring 264.5 points while the Redhawks finished with 248.5 points.  Downers Grove South was a distant third with 140 points.  Charles Kuang, Michael Salvo and Niko Epps all took home gold while Luke Moen, Larry Stubitsch and Patrick Bohan made the finals and finished with silvers.  Flynn Collins, Hagen Taylor and Pace Goldenman all earned bronze.

NCHS fielded two teams (team “Red” and team “White”) at the NCHS JV2 tournament, with the Red team edged Naperville North for second place.  Oswego won with 165 points, Central Red 157 and Naperville North 155.5.  The Central White team took sixth out of eight teams.  Champions were Javier Sevilla (145), Joe Thomas (160), and Jacob Smetters (195).  Finalists were Ryan Serbinski (106), Zaide Azar (145), and John Carens (170).  Third place finishers were Sammy Mullen (138), Bradley Anderson (145), and Dylan Schroeder (195).

Next up the Redhawks will travel to Metea Valley for the last conference dual of the season on Thursday and then travel to Mahomet-Seymour High School for the Bulldog Invitational on Saturday.  The freshman-sophomore team will compete at Oswego.