Preview: Week of 2/22/2016
Last week was the culmination of our athlete's individual seasons. This week, however, brings about the end of the whole season. Tonight, we will be heading to Lasalle-Peru High School to wrestle Moline High School in the IHSA 3A Dual Team Sectional (which begins at 6pm - try to make it out to support us!!! We had a good crowd last year at Taylorville, which was way further!)
When we win, we'll qualify for the IHSA 3A Dual Team State Tournament. I was going to do a preview here and now, but we'll need to know the other qualifiers from tonight, so expect that later this week. We'll just say, for now, that we have a good path to getting a better trophy than we did last year, but we still need to wrestle well to make that happen.
For those who cannot make it, follow us on twitter for live coverage! Click here for the direct link for the Dual Team Sectional coverage - which will be updated live.
When we qualify for Dual Team State, that will also be covered on TrackWrestling. In any case, on Saturday, click here for Dual Team State coverage on Track! We'll wrestle at 9am Saturday, then hopefully again at 2pm and 6pm.
Recap of Our Week
While many of our wrestlers had their individual seasons end prior to the state tournament, almost half of our "normal" varsity lineup did not. We sent six wrestlers down to the IHSA Individual State Tournament, and came back with three medals. It's a performance that has everyone conflicted - we're always happy to get medals, so having 3 of them is great. But not one of the six competitors feel like they lived up to their own personal expectations, and we recognize that as a wrestling family too.
Out of our six competitors, Shayne Oster finished in 2nd place at 145, Abdullah Assaf in 5th at 120, and Trevell Timmons in 6th at 152 after medically forfeiting his two matches after losing in the semifinals. Freshman heavyweight Ronald Tucker was one win away from placing at 285, but couldn't pull out the "Blood Round" win. Brandon Ramos and Baylor Fernandes each qualified, at 126 and 138, respectively. But tough draws led to them each going 0-2. Ramos wrestled the #1 and #5 wrestlers in the state, while Fernandes wrestled the #1 and #3 wrestlers in the state.
For a full Individual State recap, click here!
Alumni Recap
Jameson Oster (Northwestern University): Oster went 0-1 this week, losing by a 9-0 major decision to Zach Finesilver from Duke, re-aggravating an injury from earlier in the season in the process. Hopefully he can heal up in time for the B1G Ten tournament.
Shaun'Qae McMurtry (Northern Illinois University): McMurtry had one match this week, losing a tough 7-6 decision to Old Dominion's Seldon Wright.
Vince Dietz (St. Cloud State University): With the team competing in the 2016 Ranger Duals, Vince Dietz got the opportunity to compete in the second dual, taking on The University of Indianapolis' Jordan Collins. Unfortunately, Dietz lost an 11-7 decision.