WRESTLING: Area teams tune up for regionals at Super Duals

Early last week, St. Bede wrestling coach Sam Allen wasn’t sure what kind of lineup he’d be able to put on the mats for the Super Duals at Hall on Saturday.

Luckily for Allen and the Bruins, a lot of questions were answered by mid-week and St. Bede was able to put a strong lineup out Saturday, going 4-0 to win the tournament.

“It was a very good day for all our wrestlers,” Allen said. “We were a little scared last week because we had some guys who were sick, we had some guys fighting some skin issues and we had some guys fighting injuries. We didn’t know how this weekend was going to go, but Wednesday everything started to come together. We had a couple guys get over their injuries and a couple guys pass their skin evaluations. It was really nice. That was huge. We got some energy back and we had a couple good days of practice leading up to it.”

The Bruins beat Marquette (57-12), Mendota (36-21), Amboy (54-24) and host Putnam County-Hall (54-18) in their final tune up before the regional.

“I think this was a very good, positive thing to happen for us being able to wrestle the way we did,” Allen said. “Now we’ll get a solid week of practice going into regionals. Everybody’s confidence is up. You can’t beat that. That’s exactly what every team wants. You want to be on some kind of upswing going into the regional. I’m excited for regionals.”

For St. Bede, Dom Bima won by pin at 126 pounds against Marquette and PC-Hall in the only matches he wrestled, Noah Setser (132) won both his contested matches — by 9-4 decision against Marquette and by pin against PC-Hall — and Peter Sampson (285) won his only contested match by third period pin against Amboy.

“Noah Setser had a really good day and got a couple good wins for us,” Allen said. “Dominic Bima wrestled a couple tough matches and got a few wins. Pete Sampson only had one match but wrestled such a good match. He is really putting together the whole offense we’ve been trying to build with him throughout the year and really throughout the last couple years. We’ve been pushing him to open up more and not be a typical heavyweight. We’ve shown him some more athletic offense and a little more dynamic defense. He showed he’s been putting that stuff together quite nicely.”

The Bruins will compete this weekend in the Class 1A Plano Regional along with PC-Hall and Mendota.

The Panthers went 3-1 with wins over Amboy (36-33), Marquette (39-12) and Mendota (32-10).

Connor Brooker (145) went 4-0 for PC-Hall and set a school record for takedowns in a season, while Toby Harper (138) — the team’s lone senior honored on Senior Day — Denzel Sobin (152) and John Davis (195) each went 3-1.

“There was a lot of energy and excitement,” PC-Hall coach Jerry Kreiwald said. “It’s a good stepping stone for those who are serious about regionals. It was a good day for them to get ready for it.”

Mendota went 0-4, but a positive for the Trojans was the return of Ethan Hanaman, who has been out with injury since late November.

In his two contested matches, Hanaman won by decision at 120 against St. Bede and by major decision at 126.

“All of them performed well,” MHS coach Dale Meyers said. “We had a couple mistakes here and there, but mostly they did pretty good. I can’t complain.

“Ethan hasn’t done much wrestling this season, but he came back and performed really well. I still see him maybe advancing.”

Kevin Chlum can be reached at 220-6939, or at kchlum@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_SportsEditor.