Wrestling: Short-handed Sycamore falls to La Salle-Peru

SYCAMORE – La Salle-Peru heavyweight Nik Belski knew the math going into the final match of the night against Sycamore.

He knew he needed at least a major decision for the Cavaliers to avoid a loss to the Spartans, who still were missing two football players from the team’s semifinal run and a handful of other wrestlers to various minor injuries or sickness.

Belski came away with a pin in a night full of them – 10 of the 11 on-the-mat matches were pins – and the Cavaliers opened Interstate 8 Conference play with a 42-40 win.

“We needed a win, I know I needed to pin the guy, and I did,” Belski said.

Despite giving up three forfeits earlier in the match, Sycamore was leading 40-24 after Hunter Britz came up with a pin at 195, the fourth pin in a row for the Spartans (1-3 overall, 0-1 Interstate 8) after Gus Cambier at 152, Cooper Bode at 160, Zack Crawford at 170 and Hunter Britz at 182.

Britz’s pin was dramatic considering it happened 1:40 into the match. Jace Wallgren had an early takedown, but eventually Britz battled back and got a reverse, which led into the pin and the six points.

But that was the last win for the Spartans. Brett Aimone started it off for the Cavs (1-1, 1-0) with a first-period pin at 195, then Connor Lorden at 220 followed suit.

That led to Belski getting his pin in 1:28 and securing the conference win for the Cavaliers.

“We have strength throughout our lineup, but we’ve always had strong upper weights,” Rebholz said. “Our 220, Connor Lorden, is a returning state qualifier. He’s one of our tougher wrestlers, and he did what he needed to do. He got the pin. Pin, pin, pin. Ended nice and solid.”

Rebholz said he knew the Spartans were short-handed, but liked how his young team was able to fill in every spot in the lineup and perform. He pointed to Ryland Rynkewicz at 126 stepping up. Even though the freshman lost 11-1 to Jonathan Buckheister it was the only match of the night that wasn’t a pin, and those two extra points ended up being important for the Cavaliers.

“It’s nice to fill a whole lineup, even if it’s a freshman stepping up just to fill in,” Rebholz said. “We lost some matches, but I tell them wrestle six minutes, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s why we wrestle the matches.”

Sycamore was missing two of its wrestlers at the upper weights – Gable Carrick at 195 and Lincoln Cooley at 285. Both are cutting weight from football and are the last two football players to return.

But there also were some injuries in other spots, notably Michael Olson at 106, which coach Randy Culton said was a big hole as well.

“I guarantee you if our 106-pounder would have wrestled it would have been a different story,” Culton said. “But he was hurt, so we go to battle with what we’ve got.”

Tyler Lockhart and Thomas Lind also picked up wins by fall for the Spartans. Gunnar Skoog had the other on-the-mat win for the Cavaliers.

Culton said he expects to be at full strength soon, perhaps as early as Saturday at a home quadrangular meet.

“Most of the matches we wrestled we won,” Culton said. “You can’t help forfeits. I’m happy with what they did. They wrestled aggressively, they wrestled without fear. Last Wednesday they wrestled with a little fear. I finally got that out of them, my normal starters, they’re wrestling starters.”