Sterling’s Farnham wins sectional title; Garcia battles back through blood round

ROCHELLE – Sterling will be sending two wrestlers downstate, and the path at the 2A Rochelle Sectional was very different for each of them.

Jason Farnham had the luxury of winning his semifinal bout and being guaranteed a spot, while Mauricio Garcia had to survive a 3-1 win in the so-called "blood round" to even make it to the third-place match.

Farnham even one-upped himself with a sectional title at 220 pounds, heady stuff for a sophomore wrestling against a bunch of upperclassmen. Farnham's not a typical sophomore, but rather one gushing with confidence.

Facing Brock Neill (32-7) of LaSalle-Peru, Farnham (28-4) gave up an early takedown, appearing to be caught out of position. Neill was hoping to avenge a 2-0 loss in the regional finals to Farnham.

"I don't think you can get Jason out of position," Sterling coach Kevin Heller said. "He is a good old-school, blue-collar wrestler."

Farnham quickly escaped, and escaped again in the second period to tie the match 2-2. Starting the third period, Neill chose to take neutral instead of the more-favorable down position. With both grapplers taking shots, it was Farnahm who caught Neill and threw him to the mat for a takedown and back points, giving him a 6-2 lead.

"The throw was the difference," Neill said.

Neill struggled to get out of Farnham's clutches, and was ridden out for the 6-2 final margin. But it certainly was a match that could have gone either way without the toss.

"This kid [Neill] is a good Greco-Roman upper-body guy," Heller said. "We found ourselves in a situation we didn't want to be in. The L-P kid committed and pushed into us hard. That gave us leverage for the move Jason made."

After qualifying as a freshman, also at 220, it is a second trip downstate for Farnham. That experience served him well, as he showed plenty of poise against Neill.

"I wasn't worried," Farnham said. "He gets drained quick. I was able to beat him at his own game – up top. I put the pressure on and threw him. I knew I could beat him in every aspect."

Since entering high school, Garcia has been one win away from making state. This year proved to be different, though he took the same route to get there – through the wrestle-backs.

But he made the chore almost statistically impossible.

In Friday's opening round, the 27-6 junior was upset by Jacob Mumm of Joliet Catholic. That meant Garcia would have to win three times in a row to make the third-place match, something rarely done at a sectional.

Undaunted, he rode 8-1 and 10-1 wins into a 145-pound blood-round bout against Brayden Peet of Sycamore, a match that would decide who moved on to state.

It was Garcia taking a 1-0 lead on a second-period escape. In the third period and on top, Garcia got two valuable back points by turning Peet.

Peet managed an escape, but with the way the match was going, a 3-1 lead was a safe margin, and it proved to be so. Garcia was the only wrestler from the Rochelle Sectional to advance to state after losing in the first round.

"Getting the back points won it," said Garcia, who leaped into assistant coach Jordan Cater's arms afterwards. "I used a cheap tilt. It was an easy move. After working so hard, this feels so good to make it."

The win avenged an earlier loss to Peet, and gave Garcia his first win in three tries in the blood round.

"We had film on the past loss and were able to see where small adjustments could be made," Heller said. "With how evenly matched these two were, I thought it might come down to needing back points. The Sycamore kid was stronger, and we had to wrestle smarter."

"The coaches had me ready," said Garcia, who had another tough battle in the third-place match with 32-5 Tristen Westbay of East Peoria.

After a scoreless first period, Westbay had an escape and takedown to go up 3-0 in the second period. Garcia tacked on a couple escapes to pull within 3-2 in the third period.

With a minute left, Garcia took a 4-3 lead on a takedown. He put the match away with another takedown for a 6-5 win.

"There was a lot of difference between the blood-round and third-place matches," said the respendently-dressed Heller, who like all the Warrior coaches, set themselves apart from everyone else at Rochelle by wearing suit and ties. "We told him to go out and relax. I'll tell you, though, he hit some really wicked duck-unders."

Also in the blood round for Sterling was Drew Kested at 132. Wrestling against Victor Guzman (29-7) of Rock Island, Kested (26-8) lost in overtime.

Three different times in regulation, Guzman came close to recording a single-leg takedown. Each time, Kested avoided the two points with crafty moves.

Headed into the extra period tied 1-1, with both wrestlers having escapes, Kested made a move and got caught. After three failed attempts at takedowns, Guzman simply had to come around on Kested for an easy two points and the win.

"We had a good game plan," assistant coach Cater said. "We avoided the quick shots, kept our hands low and stayed out of the tie-ups. We had to hit arm drags and sidebars. We knew Guzman would be heavy on the lead leg, which would have fed right into our offense."

Nick Simester (28-8) also suffered a heartbreaking loss in the 170-pound wrestlebacks to Owen Gerdes of Joliet Catholic, a 4-1 tiebreaker. He started his tournament with an 11-10 win. After a quarterfinal loss, he came back with a pin in the wrestlebacks before the loss to Gerdes, who went on to place third.

Like Simester, Julian Rodriguez (21-15) had a narrow loss a match away from the 152-pound blood round. He dropped a 5-4 decision, but did have a pin to start his round on Friday. Alejandro Arellano had two losses at 195.

Sterling state qualifiers

Sectional champ – Jason Farnham Jr. (220)

Third place – Mauricio Garcia (145)