Wrestling: Late pins help Ottawa defeat Kaneland in I-8 dual

OTTAWA – The Ottawa wrestling squad trailed Kaneland by a point with two matches remaining in Thursday’s Interstate 8 Conference dual.

The Pirates then received back-to-back pinfall wins in identical 54-second matches from Ivan Munoz at 113 pounds over the Knights’ Russell Blickem and then James Laitila at 120 over Camden Skipper to earn a 43-32 triumph in Love Gymnasium.

“I feel like all my guys wrestled pretty well today,” Ottawa coach Peter Marx said. “We were able to battle with and come out on top of a very good Kaneland team, and then a had a handful of guys pick up a second win against Dwight. The match with Kaneland was close throughout, but I thought it might be. Then we were able to get pins from Ivan and James to close it out.

“Other than the tournament over in Princeton last week, this was our first match since before Christmas. It was nice to see a number of guys have success today. Hopefully for those guys they can keep things going in the right direction, and for the guys who didn’t win, hopefully they can take something away for it and work on improving in the areas that they struggled with.”

Kaneland, which coach Kenny Paoli said was missing key starters in Kamron Scholl (120 pounds) and Kyle Rogers (150), grabbed the early lead with a technical fall win by Alex Gochis at 126 and a 13-8 triumph from Will Lindgren at 138 sandwiched around Ottawa’s Wyatt Wheeler’s 11-3 decision over John Havroh at 132.

“I felt like I was in control of the match, on the way to at least a technical fall, and then we had the accidental head butt that stopped it,” Gochis said. “I normally work out after every practice, and it’s something I’ve always done, but this season I haven’t been doing that on days before matches. I feel like it’s helped me this season stay just a little fresher for competition.

“I am working very hard on not only reaching state again this year, but I want to place. Last year I was wrestling up a weight class, but I lost in the blood round. Getting there was great, but the way I finished has me very motivated to do whatever I can to reach my goal.”

“My last couple of matches haven’t been very good, so I wanted to come out tonight and get things back on track. To be honest, I’ve been wrestling very sloppy recently, so putting together a solid first period and then being able to get the pin has my confidence back.”

—  Malachi Snyder, Ottawa's 144-pound wresler

Ottawa 144-pounder Malachi Snyder then preceded pinfall wins by Marek Duffy (at 150 over Wyatt Yakle) and Malikhai Stayton (at 157 over Mason Kelly) with a pin of Josh Karther with 23 seconds left in the second period to give the hosts a 22-9 lead.

“I know I got the pin, but that was a very tough match,” Snyder said. “It came down to spinning to his back when I had the chance and then making sure I didn’t give him a chance to escape. My last couple of matches haven’t been very good, so I wanted to come out tonight and get things back on track. To be honest, I’ve been wrestling very sloppy recently, so putting together a solid first period and then being able to get the pin has my confidence back.

“I sprained my wrist before Christmas, so that’s been something I’ve been having to overcome. I thought the break, two weeks without competition would help it heal, and it did a little, but then during practice last week it acted up again. I have it wrapped, but that is also a huge bullseye for my opponent when he sees it. It’s something I’m just going to have to deal with and just know that guys I face are going to use it as an advantage.”

The Knights took back the lead at 22-21 with consecutive victories by Caden Vanik (at 165 over Andrew Ristau), Apollo Gochis (at 175 over Wyatt Reding) and Rogan O’Neil (at 190 over Owen Kearfott).

Ottawa’s Hector Valdez then defeated Kaneland’s JR Warfel 8-7 at 215 before the Knights’ Levi Herst pinned the Pirates Ethan Day at 285.

Kaneland’s Angelina Gochis earned a technical fall win at 106 to push the visitors ahead by one before the pair of wins by Munoz and Laitila.

Against Dwight, Kaneland won 66-24 and Ottawa 72-4. The Trojans’ Dylan Crouch won both of his matches at 144.