Naperville Central Nearly Wins DVC Tournament

• 1^st: DeKalb 269
• 2^nd: Naperville Central 254.5
• 3^rd: Naperville North 197
• 4^th: Neuqua Valley 94.5
• 5^th: Waubonsie Valley 92
• 6^th: Metea Valley 56

January 20, 2023

Naperville Central finished in second place at the DuPage Valley Conference Tournament held at DeKalb High School.  The top two teams battled for first place through the last three bouts of the place matches.  Chase Enfield scored a technical fall at 285 pounds in his third place bout on mat 3 to put the Redhawks in the team score lead.  DeKalb answered later, scoring wins in the finals at 182 and 195 pounds to secure overtake the team score lead.  DeKalb is ranked 6^th by “Illinois Matmen.”

The Hawks crowned four individual conference champions in the six-team tournament and advanced ten to the finals.  All fourteen Central wrestlers placed in the top three.  In all, NCHS finished with a record of 19-10 with nine wins coming by fall.

Leading the way for Naperville Central was junior standout Ty Martin.  The 113 pounder scored falls against Sifuentes (WV) in the semifinals and Castro (D) in the finals to become DVC Champions.  At the conclusion of the tournament, Martin was named the co-winner of the Al Collins Outstanding Wrestler award.

Senior captain and two time state qualifier Ethan Olson walked through the 126 pound weight class to win his third DVC title.  Olson defeated Sternstein (NN) for gold by a score of 11-0.  First seeded Olson won by fall over Chidley (NV) in the semifinals.

Perhaps the surprise of the tournament was freshman Vince Bern.  Bern, seeded fourth at 120, defeated Hinkle (NN) in the semifinals, overcoming a previous defeat to the Huskie.  In the finals, Bern came from behind with a lateral-throw on the edge of the mat to upset top seeded Airhart (D) in the finals by a score of 13-9 to win gold.

Senior Gavin Bohan won the 160 pound weight class to become DVC champion.  Bohan came out of the three seed and needed three wins to stand on top of the podium.  Bohan opened with a fall against Nurundinov (NV) to get to the semifinals.  There, he faced off against Kolkebeck (D) whom Bohan lost to in Central-DeKalb dual.  Bohan was down 1-6 after the first period but scored a takedown in the second period to close the score to 4-7.  Then came a flurry of points in the third period that included three takedowns by Bohan.  The wrestlers also traded reversals.  With 11 second left in the third and down by one, Bohan choose a free-release escape point to go down by two to attempt to tie the match.  Tie he did with a double leg as time expired to send the match to overtime.  Early in the sudden victory, Kolkebeck stepped out of bounds and was penalized for stalling giving Bohan the 13-12 win and sending the senior to the finals.  As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Bohan came from behind once more in the championship match.  He needed a last second takedown against Goodrick (NN) in the finals to win the conference championship by a score of 4-3.

Six additional Central wrestlers won their semifinal matches to make the finals.  Henry Rydwelski, sophomore 170 pounder needed come-from-behind points to defeat Franco (D) in the semis.  The aggressive action needed to retake the lead resulted in a fall for Rydwelski for his highest placement of a tournament all year.  Senior Larry Stubitsch (138) scored multiple takedowns in route to a 15-7 major decision over Geataz (WV) to earn a silver medal in the DVC.  Mitchell Kaszuba continues to show grit in his successful wrestling season.  The strong top wrestler locked down a pin against Gonzalez (WV) to make the championship match.  Hagan Taylor (145) was down by one point going into the third period of his semifinal match and choose neutral to start the period.  That choice proved to be a good one as Taylor was able to headlock Wojtowich (WV) for the pin to move Taylor to the finals.  Junior Chris Bern placed second by defeating Garcia (WV) by major decision 20-9.  Bern racked up eight takedowns in that match.  Niko Besteiro (220) battled Nurundinov (NV) in the semifinals earning a solid 10-5 victory.

For additional Redhawks finished the tournament with a win and a 2-1 record for third place.  Senior Chase Enfield (285) defeated Ericson (D) by technical fall 19-4 for bronze.  Enfield avenged an earlier loss to the Barb for the win.  Jake Smetters scored a key takedown early in his place match against Housour (WV) and held on for the key win at 195 pounds.  The victory kept the team tournament championship alive for the Hawks.  Nyree Dabney impressively scored two falls out of two in his efforts at 182 pounds with the place match coming against Funk (MV).  Dabney held a solid lead against Funk before earning the big fall.  Freshman Jacob Cochran (106) battled Benjamin (NN) and earned a couple of sets of nearfall points in his match, but Cochran fell short of winning that match and ended up placed third in his first DVC tournament.

Next up the Naperville Central JV1 wrestling team will compete in their DVC championships on Saturday at Waubonsie Valley High School.  In two weeks, the Redhawks will enter the postseason and wrestle in the IHSA Regional hosted by Glenbard West High School.