Sunday, January 19, 2025

Naperville Central Wins Marty Williams Invitational

1/18/2025

  • 1 Naperville Central High School 458.5
  • 2 Normal Community High School 451.5
  • 3 Ft. Zumwalt North High School 356.5
  • 4 Rochelle High School 354.0
  • 5 Mahomet - Seymour High School 310.5
  • 6 Rock Island High School 301.5
  • 7 Belleville West High School 286.5
  • 8 Morris High School 274.0
  • 9 Rockford East High School 236.5
  • 10 Burbank St. Laurence High School 229.0
  • 11 Mattoon High School 217.5
  • 12 Mt. Zion High School 215.5
  • 13 Lincoln High School 194.5
  • 14 Champaign Central High School 171.0
  • 15 Carbondale High School 169.0
  • 16 Metamora High School 154.0
  • 17 Normal Community West High School 149.5
  • 18 Champaign Centennial High School 127.5

 Naperville Central edged Normal Community West for the title at the Marty Williams Invitational hosted by Mahomet-Seymour High School.  There were 18 teams competing.  NCHS entered 16 wrestlers in the tournament with 14-point scorers and two “extras.”  Central won 52 matches to 25 losses.  Five Redhawks advanced to the finals and Central came away with two gold medals.

At 106 pounds, Dalton Meluch, 25-13, won four of five matches and placed 5th.  Meluch won by fall over Parker of Rock Island in his place match early in the second period.  Jack Fitzgerald entered the event as a non-scoring wrestler at 106 pounds and finished impressively with a 2-3 record with both wins coming by fall.  Fitzgerald carries a winning record of 7-5 at the varsity level this season.  Jack Schwartz finished 3-1 on the day but medically forfeited his place match to finish in 6th place.  Schwartz is 23-13 on the season.  List him as day-to-day on his injury.  Jake Moore, 120, completed the day with a record of 2-2 for a 7th place finish.  Moore pinned O’Dell of Carbondale in his place match earning two important bonus points.  Moore is 21-13.  At 126, Jacob Cochran won four of five matches placing 5th at his weight class.  His final match was a hard fought 11-4 decision over Tristen Porter of Mattoon.  Cochran becomes a 30 match winner this season, 30-9.  Also wrestling at 126 was freshman James Ball.  Ball ended the day with a big win over Noonan of Mahomet-Seymour.  The freshman Ball is 11-8.

Surely the top performer for the Redhawks was junior standout Vince Bern, wrestling at 132 pounds.  Bern racked up 16 takedowns in his five wins to bring home gold.  In the semifinals, Bern outlasted Rader of Normal Community West by a score of 19-12 in a match that could have decided the tournament.  In the finals, Bern needed overtime to defeat Burkemper of Ft. Zumwalt North (Missouri) by a score of 11-9.  Stavros Gerousis added four wins to his record after a workmanlike day at 138 pounds.  Three of Gerousis’ wins came by fall including this 7th place match over King of Rock Island.  Senior Bradley Anderson checked in for the Hawks and finished with a record of 2-3 good enough for a 10th place finish.  Anderson is 6-6 at the varsity level.

Senior CJ Bierman, 150, won four matches in a row, three of which were pins to make the finals.  Bierman fell short of gold, losing 5-2 to Neal of Metamora but his bonus points proved critical to the team championship.  Bierman is 24-9 on the year.  Young Justin Skryd had an impressive day wrestling at 157 pounds.  Skryd did not let his varsity effort go by with adding four wins out of five on the day.  Skryd won his 5th place match by technical fall by a score of 18-3.  Nick Olvera, 165, added 11 takedowns from the day’s efforts.  Olvera advanced to the championship bracket after winning his first three matches.  Olvera finished in 4th place and is 25-11.

The Redhawk Captain Henry Rydwelski scored four consecutive technical falls in this route to the championship match.  The senior pushed his opponent to triple overtime before succumbing to Casillas of host Mahomet-Seymour 3-2.  Rydwelski lead the team in wins with 35 against only 3 losses.  Paul Peradotti, 190 also won four matches in a row in route to his match in the finals including a hard fought 4-2 decision over Vallalobos of Rochelle.  Peradotti lost in the finals to finish with a silver medal.  Peradotti has an impressive 29-4 record this season.  Jayden Davis earned a varsity win wrestling at 215 pounds.  Davis was able to win by fall over Torres of Mahomet-Seymour.  Davis placed 12th.

Naperville Central lead the team score throughout the day, only to have Normal Community West to overtake the team score lead during the place matches.  Central, down by 1.5 team points, looked to Will Erbeck to win in the final match of the entire tournament.  Earlier, Erbeck earned a trip to the finals with four consecutive wins by fall.  Erbeck faced off against Matthews of Belleville West for individual and team gold.  Matthews started the scoring with a takedown for three points, but Erbeck was able to escape to make the score 3-1.  In period two, Erbeck picked the down position and earned another escape for to make the score 3-2 Matthews.  Then, a minute into the second period, Erbeck got the takedown and pin.  The win brings Erbeck’s rockstar record to 31-1 with 25 of those wins coming by fall, none more impressive than tonight’s.