Making a two-hour drive to wrestle on a Tuesday evening is not something that is always easy to get excited over, especially when you'll have a two-hour drive home. It gets even tougher when it's only two and a half days after returning from the Individual State Tournament, held very close to where Tuesday night's dual was. And, with no disrespect intended, when you're taking on a team that you had previously defeated earlier in the season by a score of 62-3, it's not easy to be full of intensity. But, for Lockport to qualify for its third straight IHSA Dual-Team State Tournament this upcoming Saturday, that's exactly what they had to do - that and win. And, that is exactly what the Porters did, heading to Mahomet-Seymour High School yesterday evening to take on, and ultimately defeat, Edwardsville High School, by a score of 40-19.
In a dual that had the potential for a great deal of star-studded matchups, the quick turnaround from the Individual State Tournament this past weekend prevented many of those from taking place. Out of the 12 Lockport wrestlers that competed at State this weekend, only three of them took the mat against Edwardsville at the same weight class that they wrestled for state. Two of Edwardsville's four qualifiers took the mat at the same weight that they were at this weekend.
The dual started out with the marquee match of the dual - Lockport's Anthony Molton squaring off against Edwardsville's Luke Odom. Both wrestlers were coming off of a state tournament where they earned podium spots - Odom taking 3rd at 106, while Molton placed 4th at 113. This was also a rematch from earlier in the season - a match in which Molton found himself the 1-0 victor. Unfortunately on Tuesday, the match went the exact same way, but in the opposite person's favor. Neither wrestler was able to break through their opponent's offense for a takedown, while Molton, who scored the only point in their first match this season with an escape, was ridden out in the second period. Molton elected to cut Odom and work for a takedown in the third period, and while he did work a stalling call, he couldn't force another or a takedown, and lost, 1-0.
The next bout also featured a state medalist, as Edwardsville's Noah Surtin, who placed 5th, took the mat against Jake Lukaszczyk, making his first trip back to the mats since breaking his hand and requiring two surgeries to correct it at the Ron Sauer duals. Lukaszczyk was outmatched in this one, and Surtin came away with the fall near the end of the first period. James Pierandozzi bumped up to 126 for Lockport, and put the Porters on the board with a technical fall over Edwardsville's Dylan Wright, and Lockport trailed in the dual, 5-9.
The Porters and the Tigers would go on to split the next four matches. Brendan Ramsey, up at 132, dropped a close 4-2 decision to Edwardsville's Ben Schlueter. While Ramsey had several scoring opportunities Schlueter was able to fend off a majority of the finishes, and picked up a takedown of his own for the win. Edwardsville sent out Will Zapanci to battle Abdullah Assaf at 138, where Assaf put on a takedown clinic, coming away witha 26-11 technical fall. Brandon Ramos bumped up to 145, where he squared off with Edwardsville's Rafael Roman. Roman, who has seen plenty of bouts with Lockport in his high school career, was a state qualifier at 145 this year, while Ramos was a qualifier at 138. The size was not the factor in the match, but it was definitely a factor, as Ramos was unable to stop attacks and get to his own in the manner he is used to, falling by a score of 6-4. But, in another battle between the Baylors, Lockport's Fernandes picked up a 7-0 decision over Edwardsville's Baylor Montgomery, who did well to prevent Fernandes from earning a major decision. At this point, Edwardsville held a slim lead, 15-13 over the Porters.
Lockport, however, would continue to pile on wins after Fernandes's win over Montgomery - six more consecutive wins, to be exact. Trevell Timmons came out at 160, fresh off of his state championship, and earned an 18-2 technical fall. At 160, Nick Dado won a close 5-2 bout against Markell DeBerry of Edwardsville, scoring two takedowns to earn the bulk of his points, but having about 6 more that were called out of bounds in some form. Chandler Proszek took the mat at 182, dominating is opponent en route to an 18-8 major decision that he controlled from start to finish.
At 195, Payton Fernandes scored a quick fall, taking just 0:23 to add to his team lead for pins this season. Yousif Salah took the mat at 220, without knowing that if he won his match, the team would win the dual meet. It appears the lack of pressure helped a bit, as he dominated his bout en route to a fall over Josh Anderson of Edwardsville in 3:26, clinching the dual for Lockport.
Even with the dual clinched, there were still two bouts to go on the evening. Dan Stojsavljevic bumped up to 285, where he scored a 5-1 victory over Edwardsville's Lloyd Reynolds, controlling the bout from start to finish, nearly putting Reynolds on his back multiple times. To close the dual, Mikey Kaminski made his varsity debut, taking on Edwardsville's Ben Lunn. Both of these wrestlers would be starters at nearly any other school, being stuck behind state placers at 106. In fact, Lunn wrestled a majority of the matches on the season at 106 for Edwardsville, racking up a 25-2 record on the season for a team with a tough schedule (and one of those losses coming to our own Matt Ramos). Unfortunately for Kaminski, it looks like that varsity mat experience made a big difference, as Lunn controlled him from start to finish, earning a 12-0 major decision to give Edwardsville one more win on the evening.
Lockport now travels to Bloomington this Saturday, where we'll be taking on Marmion Academy at 9:00am at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in the first round of the Dual-Team State Tournament. For more info on the tournament, click back to the blog homepage and read the Week Preview.
Lockport 40, Edwardsville 19
113: Luke Odom EHS dec. Anthony Molton LTHS, 1-0 / 0-3
120: Noah Surtin EHS fall Jake Lukaszczyk LTHS, 1:52 / 0-9
126: James Pierandozzi LTHS tech. fall Dylan Wright EHS, 23-6 / 5-9
132: Ben Schlueter EHS dec. Brendan Ramsey LTHS, 4-2 / 5-12
138: Abdullah Assaf LTHS tech. fall Will Zapanci EHS, 26-11 / 10-12
145: Rafael Roman EHS dec. Brandon Ramos LTHS, 6-4 / 10-15
152: Baylor Fernandes LTHS dec. Baylor Montgomery EHS, 7-0 / 13-15
160: Trevell Timmons LTHS tech. fall Eric Epenesa EHS, 18-2 / 18-15
170: Nicholas Dado LTHS dec. Markell DeBerry EHS, 5-2 / 21-15
182: Chandler Proszek LTHS major dec. Connor Mikulait EHS, 18-8 / 25-15
195: Payton Fernandes LTHS fall Sam Martin EHS, 0:23 / 31-15
220: Yousif Salah LTHS fall Josh Anderson EHS, 3:26 / 37-15
285: Dan Stojsavljevic LTHS dec. Lloyd Reynolds EHS, 5-1 /40-15
106: Ben Lunn EHS major dec. Mike Kaminski LTHS, 12-0 / 40-19
Photos!
While many things are not completed (tournaments... they take forever), I skipped out on a negligent amount of potential hours of sleep last night to get this dual done within a day. Go and enjoy, everyone. Click here to see the photos from this dual.