Cary-Grove’s Class 6A state title tops the list of local sports stories for 2023

The 2023 sports year in the McHenry County area saw two local pitchers reach the major leagues, two girls win track and field state titles for a third consecutive year and one of the most accomplished football coaches in the state step down.

To top it off, Cary-Grove won its fourth football state title in school history only one year after going 3-6.

Here is a look at the top 10 local sports stories for 2023 as voted on by the Northwest Herald sports staff. Stories were ranked 1-10 with No. 1 receiving 10 points, No. 2 nine and so on. Voting points are in parentheses.

1. Trojans do it again (50)

Cary-Grove had a remarkable string of 17 consecutive playoff appearances stopped last season when it finished 3-6. The Trojans had beaten East St. Louis 37-36 in the 2021 Class 6A state championship game, but were hit hard by graduation and then, in the 2022 season, hit hard by injuries to their most experienced players.

C-G bounce back strong this fall though. The Trojans finished third in the Fox Valley Conference – with one-point losses to champion Prairie Ridge and runner-up Huntley – but they really hit their stride in the playoffs.

C-G rolled through to the championship game mostly unchallenged, then faced East St. Louis again and won 23-20 with one of the greatest drives in state history. Trailing 20-15 after the first play of the fourth quarter, the Trojans went on a 19-play, 71-yard drive that consumed 10:37 off the clock. Fullback Logan Abrams slammed into the end zone with 1:19 remaining and Trojans defensive back PJ Weaver picked off a Flyers’ pass a couple plays into the final drive to seal the victory.

It was the third time since 2018 that C-G brought home the Class 6A state championship.

2. Miller, Priester make it big (40)

On May 23, 2017 McHenry graduate Bobby Miller made his major league debut in an 8-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Miller, called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City to help the Los Angeles Dodgers’ beat-up starting rotation, quickly became a key figure in their drive for the NL West Division title.

Miller finished 11-4 with a 3.76 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 124 1/3 innings and started an NLDS playoff game against Arizona.

Miller’s 99.1-mph fastball average was the third-fastest among MLB pitchers in the postseason. Miller was taken No. 29 overall by the Dodgers in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Quinn Priester, a 2019 Cary-Grove graduate in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, made his major league debut on July 17, in Pittsburgh against Cleveland.

Priester, who was taken No. 18 overall by the Pirates in 2019, went 3-3 with a 7.74 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 50 innings.

Both Miller (2017) and Priester (2019) are former Northwest Herald Baseball Player of the Year winners.

3. Hail to the Gators (36)

Crystal Lake South won the Class AA Boys Golf State Tournament in 1980, its first year playing varsity sports, and had to wait another 37 years for another.

The Gators baseball team won the Class 4A state championship in 2017, then the soccer team won the Class 2A state tournament about 18 months later.

South did it again this season, taking the Class 2A state title with a 2-1 victory over Peoria Notre Dame. Gators coach Brian Allen always has his team in the hunt, South has won six consecutive regional titles and finished as Class 2A state runner-up in 2019.

The Gators thrived with strong defense and by winning tight games. From the South Regional championship game on (a 1-0 win over Lake Forest), the Gators won every game except one by one goal.

South beat Timothy Christian 2-1 for the Grayslake Central Supersectional, then defeated Rochester 1-0 in the state semifinal.

Nico Velasquez and Nick Prus scored goals in the title game.

4. Two of a kind (34)

Huntley’s Alex Johnson and Prairie Ridge’s Rylee Lydon burst onto the local high school track and field scene as sophomores in 2021, setting local records and winning state titles.

The area had not seen two athletes of their caliber before. Johnson won three consecutive Class 3A long jump state titles, along with the triple jump her junior season. Only her sophomore sister Dominique Johnson kept her from repeating in the triple jump as well last May.

Lydon won the Class 3A 400 meters state title as a sophomore, then won the high jump her last two years. She scored 32 points all by herself with seconds in the long jump and 400 and a fourth in the 100 high hurdles.

Johnson is now competing at Arizona State in long and triple jumps; Lydon is doing heptathlon at Texas A&M.

5. Schremp steps down (32)

Prairie Ridge football coach Chris Schremp headed a program that became one of the best in the state, winning three Class 6A state championships since 2011 and appearing in two other state title games.

Schremp decided after this season he was resigning his position as football coach, after leading the Wolves for 22 seasons and piling up an amazing 187-64 record (a .745 winning percentage).

Schremp has been with the program since the school opened in the fall of 1997, first for five years as offensive coordinator under former head coach Dave Whitson, then for 22 more as head coach.

Schremp wants to become an athletic director and applied for the position at Prairie Ridge, where current AD Mark Gilbert is retiring after the 2023-24 school year.

The Wolves sent Schremp out with the FVC championship as they finished 9-0 in the regular season. They were knocked out of the first round of the Class 5A playoffs by Nazareth, a strong 4-5 team that went on to win the Class 5A state title.

6. Marian Central wrestling hit with penalties (27)

The IHSA announced on Friday, Dec. 15 that Marian Central wrestling co-coach Jordan Blanton and freshman Jimmy Mastny had been suspended.

However, a judge upheld Marian’s appeal and Blanton and Mastny both were reinstated, although the case it not yet final.

Blanton was suspended for a year and Mastny can never wrestle at Marian, the IHSA said, for violating the IHSA’s 3.070 recruiting by-law.

Jimmy Mastny lives in Oregon, Ill. His parents, Jim and Renee Mastny, transferred his guardianship to Stacey Blanton, Jordan Blaton’s mother, so he could live in the McHenry County area, attend Marian and wrestle for the Hurricanes. Jimmy Mastny, a nationally ranked wrestler, liked Marian since he wrestled there in a youth tournament as a sixth grader.

7. A lot Moore (21)

McHenry wrestler Chris Moore was one of five Warriors’ wrestlers who had finished as state runners-up. After last year’s Class 3A State Tournament, he was the first to win a title.

Moore was frustrated at coming so close as a junior. That drove him through the offseason with his training and he finished 43-0 and beat Mount Carmel’s Colin Kelly, whom he lost to the previous year, for the 170-pound state title.

Moore, who now wrestles at Illinois, helped the Warriors to the FVC team championship as well.

8. Tigers make history (11)

Crystal Lake Central’s girls soccer team won its second sectional in school history and advanced to the state tournament for the first time.

The Tigers (19-4) finished third in the Class 2A State Tournament, beating De La Salle 5-1 in the final game.

The Tigers graduated only three players from that team and should have a chance to do something special again in 2024.

“It means a lot to them and it couldn’t have happened to a better group of kids,” Tigers coach Sarah Fack said at the state tournament.

9. Uhl’s state haul (10)

Crystal Lake South co-op swimmer Abby Uhl, a junior from Prairie Ridge, brought home four medals from the IHSA Girls Swimming and Diving State Meet.

Uhl took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle, 16th in the 100 freestyle and anchored the Gators’ 400 freestyle relay (eighth) and 200 freestyle relay (12th) for one of the best state finishes in area history.

10. Tonyan comes to the Bears (9)

Robert Tonyan, a 2012 McHenry East graduate, signed with the Bears this offseason as a tight end, meaning he is playing this season for the team he grew up rooting for and near to his hometown.

Tonyan, who started in the NFL on Detroit’s practice squad, thrived in six seasons with the Green Bay Packers, first as a special teams player and later at tight end. He caught 52 passes for 586 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2020. He caught 53 passes for 470 yards and two touchdowns last season.