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Sports
Three grapplers clinch regional titles : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisThree grapplers clinch regional titles
| Eight others advance to Moline Sectional
| by Kristin Sharp
| 2/7/2013
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Although the Oswego wrestling team matched Waubonsie Valley's sectional qualifiers at six, and Oswego East put two grapplers atop the podium with championship finishes, neither District 308 program could challenge the Warriors for the regional championship.
Waubonsie Valley easily claimed the Class 3A Bolingbrook Regional championship last Saturday with 163.5 points while Bolingbrook was second at 136.5 points and Plainfield East and Neuqua Valley rounded out the top four. Oswego East scored 109 points to take fifth and Oswego was sixth with 107.5 points.
"We had just as many qualifiers as Waubonsie, but we just didn't have enough points in the end," Oswego head coach Andrew Cook said.
In addition to Oswego's six sectional qualifiers, Oswego East will send five into this weekend's Moline Sectional. The top three wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state tournament Feb. 15-16 at Assembly Hall in Champaign.
"Going into the tournament, I felt like we really had a good shot at getting six guys out," Oswego East head coach Mike Jezioro said. "You never know going in. There can always be guys who disappoint you, and guys who surprise you. Overall, I thought we wrestled fairly well. We had a lot of young guys in the tournament that haven't been in that situation before. Those young guys who got beat, it wasn't because they were overwhelmed. It was because they faced a better wrestler."
For Oswego, senior Max Larson (28-3) celebrated his first regional champion as he cleared the 160-pound bracket after a pair of runner-up regional finishes in 2011 and 2012.
"He was pretty excited to get that regional championship," Cook said. "It's big. It's good for him. He gets to watch the two guys that feed into him and get a bye into the second round at Moline on Friday night. That's a big thing to get a bye as well."
Larsen opened his bracket as the No. 1 seed and pinned Romeoville's Dan Carreno in 1:13 before winning a 13-3 major decision over Waubonsie Valley's Jake Laws in the semifinals. Larsen met Oswego East's Tim Iannantone (17-14) for the third time this season in the championship finals and won an 8-2 decision.
Earlier, Iannantone won a 15-0 tech fall over East Aurora's Victor Vargas, and won a big 5-3 decision over No. 2-seeded Dontrell Bryant of Plainfield East to face Larsen in the finals.
Oswego East had a pair of champions in senior Andrew Chastain at 152 and sophomore Zach Prinz at 170.
Chastain (31-7) opened with two quick pins, ending his first match in just 58 seconds against East Aurora's Junior Corral-Nelson before ending his semifinal match in 1:07 against Plainfield East's D.J. Muenzing.
"Chastain, when he's ready to go, he can put people on their back real quick and that's something we talked about on Saturday," Jezioro said. "At this time of year, you don't want to mess around with guys because you never know what can happen and if you get a chance to pin them, pin them early."
Meanwhile in the lower half of the bracket, Oswego senior Bo Pradel (17-9) pinned Bolingbrook's Mark Davis before winning an 8-3 decision over Waubonsie Valley's Sean Sarkauskas to meet Chastain in the finals. With Pradel just returning from an injury, he defaulted in the finals and Chastain was awarded the win.
"With Bo just coming back from an injury - he's been out of the lineup for a few weeks - this isn't the time to chance anything. He qualified (for sectionals), so we decided to default," Cook explained.
At 170, Prinz (31-3) opened with a 3-0 decision over Neuqua Valley's Brent Linderman before pinning Oswego senior Adrian Herrera in 2:50. In the finals, Prinz won by injury default over Waubonsie Valley's Mitch Kroening, who sustained a serious arm injury during the match.
"Zach had a tough bracket. He probably had the toughest road out of anyone who qualified," Jezioro said. "The Neuqua Valley kid is tough and Oswego upset the No. 4 seed. In the finals, unfortunately the young man from Waubonsie might have broken his arm and Zach ended up with the default. I think his experience from the past will help him this week when it turns up even more."
Oswego has four other sectional qualifiers in sophomore Andrew McFall, sophomore Jack Pradel, junior Nick Aguirre and senior Max Hively.
At 106, McFall (29-6) won a 2-0 decision in the semifinals over Plainfield East, but lost a 5-4 decision to Bolingbrook's Milan Patel (31-7) in the finals to finish second.
Jack Pradel (25-11) navigated his way through the 120-pound bracket to place third with a dramatic 3-1 overtime decision over Plainfield North in the finals. Earlier, he pinned Plainfield East in 2:40, but lost a 10-4 decision to Neuqua Valley in the semifinals. Pradel rebounded with a pin over Oswego East's Jason Fountain (2:25) to reach the third-place match.
At 138, Aguirre (24-12) pinned Plainfield East in 2:56 and won a 4-3 decision over Bolingbrook in the semifinals to meet Waubonsie Valley's Howard Beatty (33-5) in the finals. Aguirre lost a 5-3 decision to take second.
Hively (195) extended his season by pinning Bolingbrook in 1:30 to capture third place in the 195-pound bracket. Earlier, he pinned Oswego East's Monte Hall in 1:14, but was pinned by eventual champion Awais Arain in the semifinals. Hively pinned Romeoville in 36 seconds in the wrestlebacks to meet Bolingbrook in the finals.
Hively, Bo Pradel and Larsen - all senior captains - will continue their seasons another week in Moline.
"They've been a good resource for me to have as my first year coming into the program. They've done an excellent job being leaders, helping out with the lower level, making sure everyone is communicating with one another, and they did an excellent job on Saturday making sure they qualify," Cook said of his senior captains.
Oswego East had two other sectional qualifiers in senior Justin Garza and sophomore Ryan Ingalls.
At 126, Garza (18-21) won by tech fall (3:27) over Romeoville to start his bracket, but lost a 6-3 decision to Grant Smiley in the semifinals. He won a 15-9 decision over Plainfield East, and pinned Waubonsie Valley's Isiah Ray in 3:35 to capture third and advance.
Ingalls finished third at 220, pinning East Aurora in 2:43 in the finals. He pinned Romeoville in just 41 seconds to open the bracket, but lost to Neuqua Valley in the semifinals. He won by default in his opening wrestleback match to advance to the third-place bout.
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