Sunday, December 3, 2023

Naperville Central Improves to 6-1 Winning Three Duals at Mega-Duals

December 2, 2023

  • NCHS 61 – Wheaton Warrenville South 12
  • NCHS 53 – Oswego 22
  • NCHS 53 – West Aurora 17

Naperville Central varsity swept the 2023 Mega-Duals held at St. Charles East High School to improve to 6-1 on the season.  Central won 30 individual matches and lost just 12 on the day.  The Redhawks had 17 of their wins com by way of fall.  Four individual wrestlers completed the day undefeated: Nicolas Besteiro (215), John Carens (165), Will Erbeck (285) and Austin Aguinaldo (106).

Central defeated Wheaton Warrenville South to open the day by a score of 61-12.  Eight matches were contested with the Redhawks winning five of them, three by fall.  The Tigers forfeited six matches.  In the second dual, NCHS defeated Oswego by score of 53-22.  The Hawks won eight matches of thirteen, seven by fall and five in a row.  In the final contest, Naperville Central bested West Aurora 53-17 with nine wins and an additional win by forfeit.  Seven of those wins were pins.

The top performer of the day was light-heavyweight standout Niko Besteiro who finished 3-0 with three pins improving his record on the year to 6-1.  All six of Besteiro’s wins have come by fall.  Matching Besteiro’s efforts is junior heavyweight Will Erbeck who also had himself a strong day.  Erbeck battled to two tough decisions, winning 5-2 with two tough takedowns against Kibbe of WWS and 6-5 against Chacon of West Aurora.  In that match, Erbeck overcame a 3-1 deficit with a take down and near-fall in the second period and secured the win with a late escape in the third period.  Erbeck also posted a fall against Oswego.

Sophomore Austin Aguinaldo (106) won by fall against his opponent from Oswego to remain undefeated at 7-0 on the season.  John Carens (165) finished 3-0 on the day with wins of 12-4, 15-0 and a first period fall.  Carens improves to 6-1 on the season tied for third on the team with ten takedowns.  Senior Hagen Taylor (150) also finished the day undefeated, finishing 2-0 and improving to 4-1.

The middle of the lineup proved successful for the Redhawks with four wrestlers in consecutive weight classes finishing 2-1 on the day.  Tyler Martin (126), Mitchel Kaszuba (132), Vince Bern (138) and CJ Bierman (144) combined for eight wins, five of which ended with a slap of the mat.  Bierman lead the team with eight takedowns combined in his matches.  Henry Rydwelski (175) and returning state qualifier Jacob Smetters both finished 2-1 with two falls each.  Smetters has improved to 5-2 on the season.  Sophomore and second year starter Jacob Cochran (113) continues to impress his coaches with his efforts.  Cochran added two more wins to improve to 6-1 on the season.  One of his wins was by fall.  Vince Miller (120) and Chris Bern (157) both wrestled and added a win to their records.  Bern leads the team with 17 takedowns on the season.  Bradley Anderson (150) lost in his only match to top ranked Serio of West Aurora.

The Junior Varsity 1 team completed in the Mega-Duals and won all three of their duals at West Aurora High School and remains undefeated on the season upending Wheaton Warrenville South 72-6, Oswego 63-18, and West Aurora 49-30.  Triple winners were Dalton Meluch (106), Jackson Bell (113), Jack Schwartz (126), Stavros Gerousis (138), Javier Sevilla (165) and Nate Radtke (215).  The Junior Varsity 2 team defeated Oswego and West Aurora and lost to St. Charles East.

The NCHS Freshman Wrestling Team took 1st place at the Lyons Freshman Tournament.  Oscar Binkowski, Justin Skrid, Nicolas Olvera and Sashvin Yogandran all brought home gold for the Hawks.  Making the finals was Josh Melsa, Igor DeCastro, Simon Hayes, Tyler Gonzalez, Connor Parkhurst, and Mauricio Perez-Gomez.  Blake Highhouse and Sean Serbinski took third place.

Next up the Redhawks will travel to Neuqua Valley in a DuPage Valley matchup on Thursday, December 7 and then head to Prospect High School for the very competitive Mudge/McMorrow Invitational Saturday, December 9.  The NCHS Girls Team will complete at “The Munch” tournament at Pontiac.

GO REDHAWKS!