April 19, 2024
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Boys wrestling: Marmion makes statement with win at Don Flavin Invitational

By Eddie Carifio
Marmion Academy Zach Stewart gets a hold of Mt. Prospect wrestler’s in the 120 weight class where Zach took the win 19-3 during the first round of Friday’s Dec. 30th The Don Flavin wrestling Invite held at DeKalb High School.

Marmion Academy's Zach Stewart gets a hold of Mt. Prospect's Ronin Umali in their 120-pound match. Stewart took the win 19-3 during the first round of the Don Flavin Invitational on Friday in DeKalb. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

DeKALB – Heading into the Don Flavin Invitational, Marmion 126-pounder Jameson Garcia, a senior, said he felt the Cadets were being overlooked when it came to discussions about the best in the state.

After a perfect showing by the Cadets against some of the top teams in Illinois to win the Champion’s Pool and first place overall in the tournament Dec. 30, Garcia said he feels a lot better about how people view Marmion.

“It’s pretty cool,” Garcia said. “All year, there’s been all this talk about all these other teams being the best in the state. This just proves we’re the best and we’re the ones to beat.”

Garcia won all three of his matches by fall Dec. 30, helping the Cadets knock off Prospect 42-24, Marist 47-17 and Joliet Catholic 41-20.

“Wrestling Marist, Prospect and JCA is fun,” Marmion coach Nathan Fitzenreider said. “That’s what we prepare for and that’s why we want to wrestle the best guys. To come out here and do that was fun.”

The Cadets rolled on the final day while the other three teams in the pool all beat up on each other. The other three teams all finished 1-2, with Prospect taking second, Marist third and JCA fourth.

Nicholas Garcia, Zach Stewart, Santino Scolaro, Collin Carrigan and Ed Perry joined Jameson Garcia with 3-0 records on the day.

“He’s phenomenal,” Fitzenreider said of Jameson Garcia. “He’s a leader on our team, a senior looking for a third state title. We expect a lot of big things from him and he always answers the bell. I’m just trying to cherish this last year I get to coach him.”

St. Charles East Dom Munaretto pins DeKalb’s wrestler Eduardo Castro in the 106 weight class during the first round on Friday Dec. 30th in The Don Flavin wrestling Invite held at DeKalb High School.

St. Charles East wrestler Dom Munaretto pins DeKalb’s Eduardo Castro in their 106-pound match Friday. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

St. Charles East ended up winning the Gold Pool, which was made up of the four second-place teams from bracket play Dec. 29. The Saints lost to Joliet Catholic 36-32 to wrap up bracket play. St. Charles East dominated DeKalb 57-11, Lockport 45-27 and Yorkville 61-9 on Dec. 30.

Eight of the 14 wrestlers had perfect second days for the Saints, who took fifth overall. Ben Davino was one of four wrestlers in the tournament to have a pin in all six matches over the two days. Dom Munaretto had five pins over the two days.

Saints coach Jason Potter said the team learned a lesson after the loss against Joliet Catholic. He said duals are much different from individual tournaments and all 14 wrestlers have to do their part, whether it’s getting bonus points or mitigating the other team from scoring extra points.

“I think we wrestled much better,” Potter said of the Dec. 30 performance. “We stubbed our toe with JCA, but I think it was a good lesson for our guys to learn. We haven’t had a lot of tight dual meets. They haven’t had to wrestle as a team like they need to when the time comes at the end of the year for us to do something special.”

Long-term, he said he thinks the Dec. 29 loss will help the team.

“Obviously you’d like to win that dual, but I think it’s going to be the best thing that’s happened to this team,” Potter said. “If we can reach our goals it was because it was a wake-up call for us.”

Prospect ended up second overall. In addition to the loss to Marmion, the Knights beat JCA 34-29 and lost to Marist 38-34. They were losing by one heading into the last match, but Jaxon Penovich fell at 195, 7-4. It was his only loss of the tournament.

“If you told me coming in we’d take second, I’d be happy,” Prospect coach Dan Keller said. “But this team has really, really high aspirations. Second place isn’t what this team wants. The good news is it’s only Dec. 30, so we still have a month and a half before the state series. We have improvements to make. Marmion is unbelievable. We have to find a way to switch some of those matches up.”

Nathan Craft of Yorkville wrestles against Jalen Airhart of DeKalb in the 120 weight class on Friday Dec. 30th during The Don Flavin wrestling Invite held at DeKalb High School.

Yorkville's Nathan wrestles against DeKalb's Jalen Airhart during their 120-pound match Friday. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

Yorkville went 0-3 in the Gold Pool and took eighth overall in the 32-team field. The Foxes lost 38-26 to Lockport and 45-24 to DeKalb in addition to ending the day with the loss to St. Charles East.

“It was a rough end of the day there,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. “But overall we fought hard and competed for it. ... It was a good two days of wrestling. Down the road in February we’re planning on making some moves in the team race and win the regional and go to the sectional, punch our ticket to state and get a trophy. This is the experience these kids needed.”