Wrestling: Yorkville routs Oswego in Southwest Prairie dual

OSWEGO – Luke Chrisse couldn’t find his mom in the stands so he found a photographer instead.

The Yorkville junior saw a camera pointing in his direction, so he naturally smiled just before pinning his opponent during the 190-pound match during Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference dual meet at Oswego.

The Foxes and Chrisse had plenty of reasons to smile in a 52-15 victory.

“My mom left to pick up my sister so I was looking for someone to smile at because I try to have a little bit of fun,” he said. “I want to have fun when I’m wrestling. I don’t want to hate what I’m doing.”

He certainly enjoyed taking care of Uzyar Mohammed to give the Foxes a 25-6 lead midway through the match.

“I kind of just took him down,” Chrisse said. “I don’t really think when I wrestle. I kind of just wrestle.”

Oswego received a 2-0 win from Brayden Swanson at 138 to open the meet but didn’t get its second victor until Joey Griffin earned a 3-0 decision over Caleb Viscoglioisi at 165 to pull the Panthers to within 13-6.

“Going against a top 20 team in the state, you just want to do your best,” Griffin said. “It’s tough for us, especially with the young team we have with kids coming up from JV and it’s their first year on varsity. I thought we did a pretty good job.”

Luke Zook wasted little time in the 175-pound match, taking down Cooper Wynn six seconds into the action. Despite a “Let’s go Cooper chant,” emitting from the home crowd, Zook got the pin midway through the second period.

Chrisse then followed with his victory before Xavion Ulloa won by forfeit at 215 and Ben Alvarez made the move to 285 where he pinned Brodie Slou.

“It’s good that we have the flexibility to go between two weights,” Alvarez said. “If our team needs it, I’m glad that I can bump up and do what’s best for the team.”

Alvarez, who won a 220-pound title last year, doesn’t change his approach regardless if he’s going at 215 or 285.

“I don’t really change much unless the kid is super huge and I’ve got to watch getting stuck underneath big guys,” he said. “Other than that it’s just wrestle my match like I usually do.”

LJ Petty’s 10-2 win over Nolan O’Grady at 106 extended Yorkville’s lead to 41-6.

Other winners for the Foxes included Nathan Craft (126), Dominic Recchia (132), Dom Coronado (144), Jack Ferguson (150) and Cam Peach (157).

Peach scored an 8-0 decision over Colin O’Grady.

“Coach said it yesterday at the end of practice to come in and take care of business and move onto the Dvorak (tournament) this weekend,” Peach said. “We’re just working hard in practice. We’re focusing on our mental state and when we’re tired. I think we kind of knew this was a kind of dual (meet) to work on our stuff, to compete and to learn and get better. And, like coach said, to come in and take care of business and keep getting better for the end of the season.”

Jonny Theodor was able to pin Quinn Ward in 49 seconds at 113 pounds to give the Panthers their third win of the night after the Foxes had prevailed in the prior five bouts.

Aiden Martinez followed with a decision win over Daniel Martino for the Panthers final victory of the night.

“We’re doing pretty good with all the young guys we have,” Griffin said. “We have to teach them the higher level wrestling that varsity is so we’re not as good now as we’re going to be in February, but we are in a decent spot.”

The Panthers were coming off victories last weekend against Glenbard East, Leyden and Waubonsie Valley.

“We have time for growth and other things we’ll work on in practice,” Griffin said. “We’ve got an individual tournament this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes and then we’ll have some time to refresh and heal injuries. We’re all kind of beat up right now so we’ll see what we’ll do after Christmas. I think we’ll do pretty good.”

Craft’s pin of Vincent Manfre at 3:35 was the fourth and final pin of the night for the Foxes.