First year of high school wrestling.

First Marquette Academy state finalist.

First Crusaders state champion.

Marquette freshman Wesley Janick on Saturday evening captured the Class 1A 120-pound state championship, wrapping up a 4-0 weekend at the IHSA Individual State Finals at the State Farm Center in Champaign-Urbana with a dominating 10-0 major decisioning of Fithian Oakwood’s Weston Frazier.

“It means a lot,” said Janick, who broke a scoreless tie through one period with an escape and a takedown in the second, then iced Marquette’s first wrestling IHSA state championship with another takedown and then a nearfall in the third and final period. “I’m the first person to make the finals from my school and the first person to win it. I’ve set out to achieve this goal since I was 4 years old. ...

“I knew he was going to take doubles from space, so I just had to stay low and keep my hands in front of me. When he shoots, I had to circle, get to my re-attacks and execute.”

Prior to the title match, Janick won a 4-3 semifinal thriller over Hope Academy’s Nolan Callahan, a 15-3 major decision of PORTA’s Kainin Fillbright and a 5-4 opening-round decision of Murphysboro’s Paxton Pyatt.

Janick began the postseason winning the 1A Princeton Regional, but narrowly made the IHSA State Finals. He finished fourth, losing his opener and his finale but most importantly winning the three bouts in between, to claim the fourth and final advancing spot out of the Class 1A Byron Sectional.

He did not lose a single match when it counted most, including the state championship.

“Staying calm, looking for all of my attacks and my re-attacks,” Janick said of what carried him to victory. “I knew he was after something I wanted and he was in the way, so he had to be moved.”

Sandwich’s Cooper Corder won his first state title as well after taking down Unity Christian’s Clinton VerHeecke in a 10-9 decision in the Class 1A 150-pound title match. The Sandwich junior decided to take a moment and embrace his opponent for a few moments before getting his hand raised as a state champion.

For Corder, it was a sign of respect for the only wrestler that was able to beat him this season.

“I know he’s been at the state tournament many times and that we were both first-time finalists,” Corder said. “I knew this meant a lot to him, and how much this win means to me. So I sat there, prayed with him and told him he’s got his college career to look forward to. He’s a great kid, and it was nice to go out there to be able to go battle him again.”

Corder lost to VerHeecke earlier in the season via fall, the only blemish to an otherwise spotless record on the season. And VerHeecke looked more than ready to put another on it, getting the first takedown in the first period.

Corder would go on to respond with a reversal, one of two he implemented in the match. His second one came with just 44 seconds remaining in the final period to give Corder a 10-8 lead, one he would not let go of.

“I felt that title there,” Corder said. “I could have easily pushed him away and just gotten the one point, but I felt the reversal, and I thought I could keep my toe in and get some more time off the clock.”

It’s the first individual state title for the Indians since 2012, when Alphonso Vruno won the Class A 138-pound title. Corder fourth place as a freshman and fifth as a sophomore.

Also Saturday, Marquette 215-pound junior Alex Schaefer opened with a 11-2 consolation quarterfinal victory over Richmond-Burton’s Shane Falasca, then dropped a 14-0 decision to Lena-Winslow’s Oliver McPeek in the semifinals, before topping Yorkville Christian’s Jackson Allen 10-5 in the fifth-place match to medal.

Sandwich sophomore medal winner Joshua Kotalik was defeated 1-0 by Johnsburg’s Duke Mays in the fifth-place match at 175.

Seneca senior Landen Venecia fell just short of a medal after falling 10-1 to Byron’s Will Julian in the 190-pound consolation quarterfinals.

In Class 2A, Ottawa junior Wes Weatherford dropped an 18-2 decision to Marian’s Dan French in the 190-pound consolation quarterfinals, finishing a 2-2 showing at the IHSA State Finals and a 37-8 season. Both of Weatherford’s losses at state came at the hands of eventual medalists.

— Russ Hodges and Drake Lansman contributed to this report.