Lalowski continues strong season, blows through regional

SYCAMORE – Sycamore 145-pounder Steven Lalowski steamrolled through his competition all season, entering the Class 2A regional with just one loss.

Saturday was no different. After pinning his semifinal opponent, Rochelle’s Scott Rodefelt, in just 1:05, Lalowski was just as flawless in the finals.

The top seed at 145 pounds, Lalowski took on Kaneland’s Chris Sabal for the regional title. Lalowski got a takedown right away and kept Sabal on his back, putting in a move called a turk. Sabal had no chance. Lalowski pinned him in 1:03.

Lalowski’s victory helped the Spartans to a regional title. Sycamore finished with 231.5 points, and Kaneland took second with 205.

Lalowski’s win improved his season record to 29-1.

“I kind of just took him over, and then I had to power him into it,” Lalowski said of the move he used to pin Sabal. “Just get him really flat and grip him down.”

In addition to Lalowski, Kyle Akins (112 pounds), Chris Kerwin (119), Austin Culton (140), Kyle Culton (160) and Jake Davis (189) took home regional championships.

With the exception of Davis, all of the Sycamore winners were the top seed in their respective weight class and were expected to win. But Davis wasn’t even one of the top three seeds at 189 pounds.

Despite that, he was able to get a major decision and a technical fall before wrestling Kaneland’s Keagan Mattes in the title match. While Mattes had already beaten Davis twice this season, the Sycamore sophomore pinned Mattes in 3:52.

But Davis’ biggest win of the day might have come in the semifinals, when he won a 16-1 technical fall against top-seeded Blaine Greenwalt of Dixon.

“Jake just came out on fire (against Greenwalt). Tech fall, that’s huge,” Sycamore coach Alex Nelson said. “He took him down, he was turning him back and forth. Just wrestling on fire. He’s been pretty solid up until this point.”

The second-place Knights had six first-place winners – Steve Gust (103 pounds), Sonny Horn(125), Dan Goress (130), Kyle Davidson (152), Nick Michels (171) and Jimmy Boyle (285).

The most surprising champion out of the six was Michels, who was seeded third and hadn’t won a tournament championship in his nine-year wrestling career heading into Saturday.

Down 2-1 to top-seeded Michael Madden of Sycamore, Michels was able to get a takedown in the final minute of the third period and held a one-point lead into the final seconds of the match before Madden scored an escape to send it into overtime.

“I don’t really remember what happened [at the end of the third period] that much,” Michels said. “I just remember I was trying to hang on for dear life and maybe try to get something the last few seconds. I was kind of in front of him so I had less control … I saw that he got the escape. I was like ‘Oh well.’”

In overtime, Madden tried to dive at Michels’ legs from the neutral position, but Michels grabbed his head and was able to get a takedown for a 5-3 decision.

“It kind of did take me by surprise,” Michels said. “But I just had to [take] the head, and I knew I had it.”