2019-2020 Season in Review

During this unprecedented time of social distancing, like many things, we were unable to have a proper banquet to celebrate our season. In more normal times we would meet and coaches would talk about the season and recognize all the hard work of our athletes in the classroom and on the mats. I know this does not replace that, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take a few minutes to put down my thoughts. I have also put together a more robust version of our “Books” to share with everyone electronically. You can download it from this link: 2019-2020 Season

This was a season where many outside of Lockport did not have that high of expectations for our team, this was going to be our “down year.” It’s a good thing that no one told our team that. These young men through hard work showed that expectations are not destination. This year was one of the best seasons in the history of great seasons that Lockport Wrestling has had. A few of the accomplishments our team had:

1. Undefeated regular dual season, only loss on season to 3A State Champions

2. Defeated 1A Champions, 2A 2nd, Defeated 3A 3rd and 4th

3. Back to Back SWSC Blue Champions

4. 6th Straight Regional Championship

5. 30 Wrestlers with Varsity wins

6. 22 of 30 Varsity letter winners on the Honor Roll or High Honor Roll

It is always difficult to say goodbye to our seniors and typically I’m able to speak a little about everyone at our banquet. I know this isn’t a substitute but I feel it is important to share just a sentence or two about everyone individually. Before I do that I want to thank the seniors as a whole for your years of dedication to the program and wish you the best in all your future endeavors. Hopefully we will see you at some meets when you are home.

Brandon Baker - Baker fought back from an injury that took him out  all of last season only to aggravate another football injury this year and miss a big chunk of the season. Brandon will be playing football at Rober Morris.

Kyle Boone - Kyle never shied away from competition and wrestled many different weight classes over the last two seasons. On a team full of academic success Kyle led the seniors in GPA with above a 4.0. Kyle will be attending Loyola University Chicago.

Ishmael Curiel - Ish is a kid that you could always know would walk into practice with a smile on his face. He could partner with anyone and be ready to work. 

Mikey Kaminski - Looking back at the season Mikey quietly put together one of the best and most dominant seasons in Lockport Wrestling history. Mikey finished his career with a second place finish at the State Tournament, more than 100 varsity wins and he appears on 3 of our all time record boards: Season Wins, Takedowns and Technical Falls. Mikey was the only wrestler on this year's team that appeared at either Dual or Individual State all 4 years he was in High School.

Mikey Kinney - Mikey was our Porter Pride award winner this year. The Porter Pride award is given by the athletic department to the person who best exemplifies Porter Pride. Mikey was always there working hard, holding his teammates accountable and giving all he had. His leadership will be missed.

Andy Navarro - Andy is a great practice partner and a great student. Andy had the second highest GPA for our senior class.

Joe Oster - Joe put together a great season ending up 2nd in Falls, 3rd in Bonus Point wins and 4th in wins. Joe was a match away from being a State Qualifier. Joe was ever present at offseason activities and that dedication showed in his results. Joe will be continuing his career at Joliet Junior College.

Jacob Rosin - Rosin unfortunately spent much of his Senior season injured, but he was able to come back for one tournament. Rosin spent parts of 3 seasons on the varsity, all despite not starting wrestling until High School.

Jameel Salah - Jameel was thrust into the line up after some injuries and you could always expect him to give it his all. Our undefeated regular season would not have happened with Jameel’s comeback pin against Lincoln-Way West making the difference in that dual. What a great way to get your first varsity win.

Pierre St. Fort - This was Pierre’s first season as a wrestler at Lockport and we were glad to have him. He fit in right away and made a lot of strides.

Kaleb Thompson - Kaleb finished his career as a 2x Regional Champion, Sectional Champion and State Placer (3rd and 5th). Kaleb is a fierce competitor and never backed down from a challenge. Kaleb is only the 15th Porter to be a multiple State Placer. 

Porters start season with a strong Barrington Tournament

Today we have a special report on our season opening tournament at Barrington. All words and pictures are by Senior Wrestler Ronald Tucker Jr.

The Porter wrestling team kicked off the 2018-2019 season by participating in the Moore-Prettyman Tournament at Barrington High School this past Friday and Saturday.

The Porters, coming off a 12-9 season, finished in second place with 213.5 points behind Marmion Academy’s 260 points. Coming in third was Libertyville with 159.5 points, who had two champions themselves.

This season is consisting of what seems to be similar of last season in regards to the lineup. As the season is now underway, there are a few new faces in the lineup, especially in the upper weights. The team only lost five varsity letter winners due to graduation and transfers. The Porters lineup was almost at full potential. As many may already know, the tournament allows schools to bring two wrestlers at each weight class and the team was able to bring eleven extras. Those eleven wrestlers weren’t allowed to be scored for the team race but if those eleven were scored, they would’ve taken 16th place out of 29 teams by themselves.

The team had 14 wrestlers scoring and 11 non-scoring, and we had 9 out of the 14 scoring wrestlers place top 8 and 3 of the eleven non-scoring also place top 8 as well.

At 106 the Porters had Ryan Oster, who is a returning varsity letter winner, who was just a match short of placing losing in the wrestlebacks by decision (10-5). A new face was for the Porter's is Alex Vukobratovich who won his first match but sadly his tournament ended shortly after losing his next two matches.

From 113 to 126 we had three champions in Keegan Roberson, Matt Ramos, and Anthony “Big Tone”  Molton. Keegan coming in as a freshman at his first varsity tournament taking 1st in dominant fashion by only giving up two points the entire tournament. Also at 113 we had senior Jake Lukaszczyk take third place after losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual runner up. Ramos came out on top of a loaded bracket that had 4 state placers, beating Michael Jaffe of Marmion in the finals and earning the Outstanding wrestler award. Where as Big Tone wrestled a great tourney as well, beating 2A state champion, Dean Hamiti, in what was an exciting match by a score of 20-14.

Between 132 and 145 we had 3 wrestlers place top 8. At 132 Mikey Kaminski took 4th place and Nate Ramsey posted a 2-2 record. Jake D’angelo, the lone 138 pounder, took 5th place after fighting through a tough bracket. At 145 we had Senior Matt Mahalik post a 3-2 record and Anthony Crapia who took 8th place.

Our only 152 pounder, Baylor Fernandes, spent less than a total of 4 minutes on the mat before his finals match pinning everyone in the first period. He then beat #4 ranked Joe Roberts in the finals by a final score of 10-3.

At 160 we had two placers as well with Malik Dagash taking 5th and Kyle Boone taking 7th. These two did wrestle each other in the quarterfinal wrestleback with Dagash squeezing out the win. A notable match was Malik taking last year’s runner up down to the wire. Malik was beating Marmion’s Brad Gross before he got pinned in the third period.

At 170 we had two juniors wrestle with Brandon Gamagami going 2-2 and Cameron Viar losing his first two matches which were against tough opponents.  Same thing occurred at 182 where we had a Junior in Mikey Kinney as he went 2-2 falling one match short of placing. The other 182 pounder is sophomore Jon Kratz who lost his first two matches as well.

In the 195 pound weight class was Freshman Drew Blackburn-Forst who took 7th place losing to much older opponents and Drew only weighs 180 pounds! Also there was Junior Andy Navarro who also weighs 180 pounds, who lost his first two matches. In the 220 weight class we had sophomore Mario Herrera who was 2 matches away from placing and Junior Jake Rosin who dropped his first two matches. To round it out there was Senior Ryan Schenk in the 285 pound weight class who posted a 1-2 record. There was also Sophomore Brendon Shin who made it to the semifinals where he lost to the eventual champion, Jose Ramos. He then took fifth after losing in the wrestlebacks to the third place wrestler and winning by pin in :26 seconds in the 5th place match.

Wrestling hits a tough 2 week stretch

The Porters battled through an exhausting two weeks of wrestling earlier this week.  In that time span, the team went out of state to finish 21st as a team, placing only two wrestlers at the toughest in-season tournament in the nation.  Lockport then had four straight days of dual meets, ending the span with a record of 3-3.

IRONMAN

All the way back on December 8th and 9th, Lockport traveled to the Ironman Tournament at Walsh-Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  Considered to be the toughest high school tournament in the nation, it held up to its reputation.  Lockport placed only two wrestlers in the tournament - Matt Ramos finished in 7th place at 113, while Anthony Molton took home 5th place at 120.

Each placer had a couple notable wins under their belt.  Ramos, who came into the tournament ranked 15th in the country by FloWrestling at the time, took out Dylan Shawver of Elyria (OH) in the Round of 12 (or, as we love to call it, “The Blood Round”).  At the time, Shawver was ranked 17th by Flo, but at 120 pounds.  Ramos also notched a win by fall over Beau Bayless of Reynolds (PA), who has been ranked 20th by Flo at one point this season.  It’s also worth noting that one of Ramos’s losses came to Lucas Byrd of La Salle (OH), who has been ranked between 5th and 12th nationally this season, and was on the Cadet World Team this past September.

Not to be outdone, Anthony Molton picked up a pair of quality wins during his tournament.  Molton also knocked off Brendon Fenton of Elyria (OH), ranked 15th at the time by Flo, by a 10-1 major decision in the Blood Round.  Molton’s 9-7 victory in his 5th place match came over Justin Pacheco of Pomona (CO), who is ranked 16th by FloWrestling in their most recent set of rankings (Dec. 19).

There was a much more detailed write-up just about the Ironman, but some website difficulties occurred, and that post seems to have disappeared forever, so that’s all the blurb you’ll get for this one.  If you’d like to check it out for yourself, here is a link to the Ironman Tournament on TrackWrestling, where you can view final team scores, individual results, and brackets.  http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/predefinedtournaments/VerifyPassword.jsp?tournamentId=270646009

WEEKDAY DUALS

On Wednesday, December 13, Lockport traveled out to Homewood-Flossmoor to take on the Vikings, where the Porters came away with a 58-13 win on the day.  There were no “matches to watch out for,” so to speak, as HF had no ranked wrestlers.  Lockport kept HF to 4 wins, while coming away with 7 of their own, as well as three wins by forfeit.  Matt Ramos (113) won by a technical fall, while Anthony Molton (120), Baylor Fernandes (152), Zach Reese (160), and Parker Pavlacka-Piel (195) each picked up a win by fall.  Anthony Crapia (132) picked up a decision victory, as did Jake Rosin (220).  Earning forfeit wins were Ryan Oster (106), Jake Lukasczyk (126),and Malik Daghash (170).

Thursday, Lockport hosted an always tough Lincoln-Way West squad.  The dual was a back-and-forth battle, as one may expect from the #4 (Lockport) and #6 teams in the state.  But when the dust all settled, it was Lincoln-Way West coming out with a win over the defending state champion Porters, by a final score of 34-30.  Jeff De Graw wrote up a great article covering the dual meet here (http://www.theherald-news.com/2017/12/15/wrestling-skentzos-lincoln-way-west-slip-past-lockport/akrqugx/), so do yourself a favor and read that to get a detailed account of the dual.  No reason to write it up twice!

Friday, the Porters traveled to Frankfort to square off against Lincoln-Way East.  Taking nothing away from the host Griffins, who clearly came ready to wrestle, Lockport struggled from the get-go, perhaps still focused on their disappointingly close loss from the night before.  In the end, it would come to cost them, as Lockport dropped the dual to LWE by just one point, 29-28.  The dual started at 132, where Garrett Golob lost a close 2-0 decision to LWE’s Patrick Zofkie.  Matt Mahalik helped the Poters bounce back at 138, earning a takedown in the final thirty seconds of a tied match to pick up a 7-5 win and even up the team score.  But at 145, LWE’s Anthony Eattinger scored a major decision victory over Chris McMurtry to put LWE back in the lead, before Baylor Fernandes again evened the score with a major decision of his own for Lockport at 152.  At 160, Zach Reese held on for a 4-3 win to give Lockport a 10-7 lead - the only one they would have during the dual.  Lockport surrendered a major decision at 170 and at 182, a last second (literally) takedown for LWE gave them a 5-4 win.  Heading into 195, perhaps the premier match of the dual, Lockport was down 14-10.  At 195, Yousif Salah was taking on LWE’s Nick Mihajlovich, and had fallen behind, but was mounting a solid comeback, notching a few takedowns at will to close the gap, when, early in the third period and trailing by two, Salah went for a big move and couldn’t quite land it - instead landing on his back and Mihajlovich scoring the fall.  LWE continued by picking up a fall at 220 and a 1-0 decision at 285, leading 29-10.  Lockport picked up a decision at 106 by Mike Kaminski, and pinfalls by Matt Ramos and Anthony Molton at 113 and 120.  Heading into the final bout, Lockport trailed 29-25, and needed a tech or a pin for the team win.  Jake D’Angelo did all he could to get that fall, and was less than a second away from getting it, with a pin call at the end of the first period being waved off as time had run out.  Unable to get the fall, D’Angelo got the win, but the Porters lost, 29-28.

WEEKEND DUALS

On Saturday 4 of the top 10 3A teams in the state met to wrestle in Huntley. #3 Mt. Carmel #5 Lockport, #8 Huntley and #9 Marmion.

Lockport finished 2-1 on the day with scores of:

Lockport 36-23 Marmion Academy
Lockport 26-37 Mt. Carmel
Lockport 41-27 Huntley

Going 3-0 on the day were Matt Ramos, Anthony Molton and Baylor Fernandes.
Notching wins over ranked opponents:

Mike Kaminski 7-2 over #3 Diego Sotelo
Mike Kaminski tech fall over HM Jimmy Pellegrino
Matt Ramos 3-1 over #6 Sam Spencer
Matt Ramos tech fall over #10 Noah Mis
Matt Ramos 6-4 over #7 Michael Jaffe
Anthony Molton 15-9 over #4 Rehan Uribe

Box Scores
LWW
LWE
Marmion
Mt. Carmel
Huntley


 

Lockport starts season finishing 4th at Moore/Prettyman Memorial Invite

The Lockport Porters wrestling team kicked off it’s 2017-2018 season, this past weekend, with the school’s first at the Moore-Prettyman Tournament, held at Barrington High School on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving.

Lockport, the defending 3A dual-team state champions, finished in 4th place with 160.5 points, just 12.5 points behind team-champion Libertyville, and 4.5 points behind Yorkville for 3rd - notable because they are coached by former Lockport state Champion Jake Oster, brother and former assistant to current Lockport head coach, Josh Oster.

In what will be a very familiar theme this season, Lockport had a lot of new faces in the lineup.  The Porters lost half of last year’s starting regional lineup to graduation, and 10 members of the the 21-man roster for the IHSA Dual Team State Tournament.  New names and faces were expected, but due to some injuries, illness, weight issues, etc., we had more wrestlers making their varsity debuts than we had expected  In fact, less than half of the nineteen wrestlers Lockport had competing at this tournament had ever competed on the varsity level in high school.  For those wondering, Barrington allows teams to bring extra wrestlers that compete if there are open spots in the bracket.  But although they are allowed to compete, they do not necessarily earn the team any points.  Each team must designate one point-scoring wrestler at any weight that has multiple members of the same team, and must do so prior to the start of competition.

The Porters only had 13 scoring wrestlers, short a heavyweight for this tournament, while having 6 non-scoring wrestlers competing.  Five of those thirteen scoring wrestlers earned a place in the top-eight of their bracket, while another - Chris McMurtry at 145 -  took part in a mini-bracket for 9th place, but came up just short and finished in 10th.

The placers for Lockport included Matt Ramos and Anthony Molton, who each won titles at 113 and 120, respectively.  Baylor Fernandes was a runner-up at 152, while Mike Kaminski finished in 3rd place in his first high school varsity tournament.  Zach Reese and Malik Daghash each found a place on the podium, but both came up a bit short in their place matches, with Reese taking 4th at 160 and Daghash finishing 6th at 170.

Other point-scoring wrestlers who fell shy of earning a podium spot included Nate Ramsey at 126 pounds, who made his high school debut this weekend, and picked up a win in the process.  If his name seems familiar, Nate is the younger brother of four-year starter and 1x State Qualifier Brendan Ramsey who just graduated this past year,  Others who came up short but contributed toward the team score include Anthony Crapia at 132, Matt Mahalik at 138, John Tomas at 182, Parker Pavlacka-Piel at 195, and Jacob Rosin at 220.  With the exception of Mahalik, it was the varsity debut for each of these wrestlers.

Lockport’s non-scoring wrestlers had some quality wins on the day as well.  Ryan Oster joined Nate Ramsey in being the only other wrestler on the team to make their high school wrestling debut at Barrington.  Oster, cousin to the brothers that are now synonymous with Lockport Wrestling, went 1-2 on the day at 106 pounds, after weighing in at a scale-tipping 92 pounds that morning.   Ishmael Curiel and Mike Kinney, competing at 120 and 182, were unable to earn any victories on the day, however, journeyman starter Garrett Golob earned one victory by major decision at 132, with one of his two losses coming to the eventual 5th place finisher.

Although they earned no team points for their efforts, Kyle Boone and Austin Kolada each picked up three wins in their varsity debuts.  Both wrestlers earned their way into the 9th place tournament, but each falling in the 9th-place quarterfinal round, ending their day with a 3-3 record.

Full brackets for the tournament can be found here, and they’re definitely worth checking ou

2017 Moore-Prettyman Results Summary: Lockport

SCORING WRESTLERS:

106: Mike Kaminski (So.) - 3rd (5-1)
113: Matt Ramos (Jr.) - 1st (4-0)
120: Anthony Molton (Jr.) - 1st (4-0)
126: Nate Ramsey (Fr.) - DNP (1-2)
132: Anthony Crapia (So.) - DNP 0-2
138: Matt Mahalik (Jr.) - DNP (1-2)
145: Chris McMurtry (Sr) - 10th (4-3)
152: Baylor Fernandes (Jr.) - 2nd (4-1)
160: Zach Reese (Sr.) - 4th (3-2)
170: Malik Daghash (Jr.) - 6th (5-3)
182: John Tomas (So.) - DNP (1-2)
195: Parker Pavlacka-Piel (Sr.) - DNP (1-2)
220: Jacob Rosin (So.) - DNP (0-2)

NON-SCORING WRESTLERS

106: Ryan Oster (Fr.) - DNP (1-2)
120: Ishmael Curiel (So.) - DNP (0-2)
132: Garrett Golob (Jr.) - DNP (1-2)
145: Kyle Boone (So.) - DNP (3-3)
152: Austin Kolada (Sr.) - DNP (3-3)
182: Mike Kinney (So.) - DNP (0-2)

How to order your 2017 State Championship Gear

For anyone interested in ordering gear there are several options available. Please follow the directions below.

Lockport Wrestling STATE CHAMPIONS 2017 Apparel Ordering Instructions – Order Until Friday March 17, 2017

1.     Go to www.spiritproducts.net
2.     Click “Team Order Form” tab on top right of page
3.     Find Lockport Wrestling State Champions  and enter Access Code WRSTATE1
4.     Pick Products and Product size, then Add to cart for all items you would like to purchase
5.     Proceed to checkout (create account and checkout online)

The apparel will come individually poly-bagged to the Athletic Office with a receipt for the items purchased.