Summary
Any time a team takes on the top-ranked team in the state, they know they are in for a battle. On Friday, that's the situation Lockport found itself in - while also missing roughly half of their regular starters. Sandburg, also out two starters, cruised to a controlling 52-21 victory in the dual meet, but Lockport managed to still hit some high notes on the night.
The dual began at 170 pounds, and Sandburg came out strong, picking up pins in the first four matches on the night. At 170, Nick Dado fell to 4th ranked Brian Krasowski, while at 182, Mike Scurlock was pinned in the second period by 2nd ranked Patrick Brucki. Austin Atwood lost by fall to 6th ranked Cole Bateman at 195, and at 220, Dan Stojsavljevic did the same against Jack Hart.
Although the Porters did not get a win until the fifth match of the night, it was an extremely quick victory. At 285, 6th ranked Ronald Tucker came out aggressive, taking down HM Malik Scales and putting him to his back for the fall in only 0:18 seconds. At 106, Matt Ramos followed suit, winning by a fall of his own in 5:06. That closed the gap in the team score to 24-12 in Sandburg's favor, but unfortunately for Lockport, that was the closest the dual would be the rest of the night.
At 113, Jake Cook lost by fall to 2nd ranked Louie Hayes, while Garrett Golob lost to 3rd ranked Kevin Stearns by fall at 120, pushing Sandburg's lead to 36-12. Brandon Ramos stopped the losing streak at two, as he picked up a 5-2 decision at 126 pounds.
At 132, Dalton Dwyer lost by technical fall to two-time state champion and top-ranked Rudy Yates, who is also ranked 6th nationally by InterMat. Matt Mahalik, stepping in to wrestle at 138 on short notice, lost by fall in the second period. Zach Reese picked up a tight 5-3 victory at 145 to get the Porters back on track.
With all of the injuries and wrestlers sitting out, almost all of the would-be matchups that could have happened between these two teams didn't occur. The lone exception was at 152 pounds, where 4th ranked Trevell Timmons found himself up against Sandburg's 8th ranked John Prieto. This was the third time these wrestlers met in less than a week, having split matches this past Saturday at the Cheesehead - Timmons winning in the quarterfinals, but Prieto scoring a victory in the 5th place match. This time, however, Timmons found himself getting his hand raised at the end of a very close 6-5 match, fending off a strong late comeback from Prieto after having established an early lead. While winning the rubber match for the week is nice, Timmons knows it's likely he will see Prieto again next weekend in the SWSC Conference Finals, should the expected seeding hold true.
In the final match of the night, senior Kevin Giroux, also stepping up to the varsity level on short notice, lost by technical fall to 4th ranked Ben Schneider at 160 pounds.
#1 Sandburg 52, #5 Lockport 21
170: #4 Brian Krasowski CS fall Nick Dado LTHS, 3:18 / 0-6
182: #2 Patrick Brucki CS fall Mike Scurlock LTHS, 3:06 / 0-12
195: #6 Cole Bateman CS fall Austin Atwood LTHS, 0:45 / 0-18
220: Jack Hart CS fall Dan Stojsavljevic LTHS, 1:05 / 0-24
285: #6 Ronald Tucker LTHS fall HM Malik Scates CS, 0:18 / 6-24
106: Matt Ramos LTHS fall Sam Wojcik CS, 5:06 / 12-24
113: #2 Louie Hayes CS fall Jake Cook LTHS, 0:18 / 12-30
120: #3 Kevin Stearns CS fall Garrett Golob LTHS, 2:27 / 12-36
126: HM Brandon Ramos LTHS dec. Josh Kirby CS, 5-2 / 15-36
132: #1 Rudy Yates CS tech. fall HM Dalton Dwyer LTHS, 23-6 (1:52) / 15-41
138: Tyler Foley CS fall Matt Mahalik LTHS, 3:19 / 15-47
145: Zach Reese LTHS dec. Anthony Cimino CS, 5-3 / 18-47
152: #4 Trevell Timmons LTHS dec. #8 John Prieto CS, 6-5 / 21-47
160: #4 Ben Schneider CS tech. fall Kevin Giroux LTHS, 16-0 (2:00) / 21-52
Photos (Click to enlarge, scroll left/right)
Click here to see more pictures from the dual meet on the photo site.
