Senior Shayne Oster's White Team started the night evenly with junior Abdullah Assaf's Maroon Team, but quickly pulled away, winning 8 of the 12 varsity level intrasquad matches of the night to come out on top of a 37-16 final score. As it was a dual meet between the team's wrestlers, the actual varsity coaches sat this meet out and the teams were captained and coached by the athletes themselves. Brendan Ramsey, a junior, served as Oster's assistant coach, while senior Chase Peters filled the same role on Assaf's squad.
The dual began at 106 pounds where two freshman, Anthony Molton and Jake Lukaszczyk, both IKWF placewinners last season, squared off. In a close 3-1 match, Molton's first period takedown made all the difference, putting the White Team up 3-0. At 113 pounds, Matt Kronsbein, a freshman and four-time IESA state placer, responded with a second period fall over junior Jake Cook, a past Illinois National Team member, to give the Maroon Team a 6-3 lead.
In a combination 120/126 pound match, junior Abdullah Assaf, coming off a 3rd place finish at last year's IHSA State Tournament, took on sectional qualifier Brendan Ramsey. A close match into the third period, Assaf pulled away to get a major decision and extend the lead for the Maroon Team to 10-3.
Next, at 132, sophomore Tyler Krestel rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the third period to tie it up and get the fall at the buzzer for the White Team over returning sectional qualifier Dalton Dwyer, narrowing the team score to 10-9. Baylor Fernandes, a freshman and last year's IKWF champion, followed up with a second-period fall over sophomore Ryan Kancewick at 138 pounds to put the White Team up, 15-10, a lead they would not give up the rest of the night. At 145 pounds, Senior Shayne Oster extended his teams lead to 21-10 with a first period fall of his own over sophomore Zach Reese.
At 152, the Maroon Team was able to put a dent in the White Team's lead, when senior Chase Peters was able to reverse Mike Scurlock, a junior, to his back late in the third period and pick up a fall, bringing the team score to 21-16. The White Team immediately responded at 160 pounds as junior Chandler Proszek pinned senior Kevin Giroux in the third period of their match, giving them a 27-16 lead.
This marked the start of a four-match win streak for the White Team, as junior Nick Dado secured a 3-0 decision over senior Grant Ackland at 170 pounds, bumping White's lead to 30-16. At 182 pounds, Yousif Salah, a sophomore, scored an 8-0 major decision over fellow sophomore Austin Atwood. The win gave the White Team an insurmountable 34-16 lead. In a combination 195/220 pound match, juniors Andrew Balderrama and Dan Stojsavljevic battled to a 5-3 decision in Balderrama's favor, extending the lead for the White Team to 37-16. In the final match of the night, freshman Ronald Tucker, last year's IKWF champion, picked up a fall over junior Brett Stephens, bringing the final score of the dual to 37-22 in favor of the White Team.
#6 Lockport has its first dual meet of the season this Wednesday, November 25, against West Aurora. The dual begins at 4pm (Freshmen) and will be held at the CENTRAL campus gym.
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