|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sports
Larsen reaches final eight downstate : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisLarsen reaches final eight downstate
| Oswego East's Prinz wins prelim match, Oswego's McFall drops tough decision
| by Kristin Sharp
| 2/21/2013
|
One wrestler ended his high school career as a top-eight finisher in the state tournament.
Two others made their state debut in their sophomore breakout seasons.
Oswego sent two wrestlers into last Thursday's Class 3A individual state finals in senior Max Larsen and sophomore Andrew McFall, while Oswego East sophomore Zach Prinz advanced out of last week's Moline Sectional.
The trio traveled to Assembly Hall in Champaign last Thursday as all three made their first appearance in the state tournament. Larsen opened his 160-pound bracket with a 9-3 decision over St. Charles East's Brad Kearbey to reach Friday morning's quarterfinal round.
Larsen lost a 3-1 decision to Brother Rice's Nuntreae Jackson to move into the first round wrestlebacks. There, Larsen faced Libertyville's Kayne MacCallum in a rematch from the Barrington Invite early in the regular season, and Larsen avenged his previous loss with a 3-1 decision.
"Max went 2-2 and did a real nice job," Oswego head coach Andrew Cook said. "He won his first match, which we thought we could definitely get by, and we had to do that to get a wrestleback. He ended up losing his second match to a tough kid from Brother Rice, 3-1. He wrestled well, but just couldn't finish his shots. It was just a tough match and he couldn't get his game plan going."
Larson advanced to the quarterfinal wrestlebacks where he faced No. 1-ranked Davonte Mahomes of Oak Park-River Forest, who suffered a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion C.J. Brucki of Sandburg.
Mahomes won an 8-3 decision over Larsen and went on to take third. Larsen's bracket run came to an end among the final eight, and he finished with a 33-5 overall record.
"Max went in ready to go, but the kid took him down a couple of times and Max just couldn't respond to it," Cook said. "It was a tough draw, but when you get 16 guys in the state bracket everyone is going to be tough. There are no easy victories for anyone.
"He was definitely excited to qualify for state and once he got there he wanted to place, and he was just one match shy of that," Cook added. "He's definitely had a successful senior season."
In the next weight class at 170, Prinz had a thrilling showing in the preliminary round, winning a 3-1 double overtime match over St. Rita's Jack Sears. With the score tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, neither wrestler was able to score in the first overtime period, but Prinz secured the reversal in the ultimate tiebreaker for the win.
"It was a tough one," Oswego East head coach Mike Jezioro said. "They went into the tiebreak and we held him down and got a reversal to win 3-1. It's real nice to see Zach, especially his first time wrestling down on the Assembly Hall floor, to win his first one."
Prinz advanced to the quarterfinals and lost by fall to Willowbrook's Dan Rowland, who went on to take second place. Prinz and Rowland were locked in a scoreless bout after one period, but Prinz lost his position and was pinned at the 3:40 mark.
"We saw (Rowland) earlier in the year and we knew he was tough. We had a nice game plan going in and it was 0-0 in the first," Jezioro said. "He wrestled well for about a period and a half."
Prinz moved into the first round wrestlebacks on Friday night and lost a 7-4 decision to Zion-Benton's Nicholas Whitehead to end his season with a 34-6 overall record.
"When it first ended he was obviously upset, but once we took a step back and looked at it, it's not a very easy thing to place at the state tournament," Jezioro said. "He wasn't happy with the results, but he understands where he's at and use it moving forward now over his next two years."
At 106, McFall (33-8) met Glenbard East's Carlos Fuentz in the preliminary round and lost a tough 4-2 decision. Fuentz advanced to meet eventual state champion Rudy Yates (42-0) of Brother Rice, and his loss to Yates knocked McFall out of a wrestleback opportunity.
"It was a great match. Andrew gave up the takedown late in the first period that ultimately ended up being the icing on the cake for the kid and couldn't rebound," Cook said. "He almost turned him, but couldn't quite get there. It was a tough one, and both kids had wrestled each other before."
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
