Marian Central co-coaches Jordan Blanton and Ryan Prater built the team’s schedule so it would face different types of teams from different-sized schools to prepare for the playoffs.

A month into the season, the Hurricanes have passed their tests, including a successful Saturday where they won all three of their duals at the Dundee-Crown Quadrangular.

“That’s what we try to build our schedule out with: opportunities to compete against great programs, great teams, great individuals,” Blanton said. “This weekend was a great weekend to showcase that.”

The Hurricanes defeated Montini (45-35), Waukegan (65-12) and D-C (58-24) on Saturday to build off of a strong start to the season where Marian Central won the Ted DeRousse Invitational. Marian Central also beat New Trier and West Aurora earlier in the year.

The team showed off its strength against the Chargers when the Hurricanes won eight straight matches with pins. Kaden Harman, Vance Williams, Nicolas Davidson, Charlie Fitzgerald, Dan French, Ethan Struck, Max Astacio and Hunter Birkhoff each won by pin.

Blanton thought that stretch was a prime example of how good the Hurricanes can be once one wrestler wins and starts to build momentum.

“The core of our lineup is good to go with anybody in the state in any class,” Blanton said. “When we can create the momentum and get on a roll like that, it starts to rub off.”

That core will continue to be tested because the schedule doesn’t get any easier. Marian Central will compete in the highly competitive Al Dvorak Invitational this weekend and then will take on Marist in a triangular next week.

Blanton and the Hurricanes aren’t worried about the schedule as they look to keep passing tests.

“We don’t want the easy way. We want to take the hard way in everything that we do,” Blanton said. “We understand that to be the best, you have to be the team that’s willing to sacrifice the most, push yourself the hardest, go the hardest, wrestle the highest pace, do all the difficult things well, and our guys have taken that challenge and built a strong foundation on it.”

Whip-Purs win DuBois Classic

Hampshire finally got over the hump Saturday after years of coming in second or third at Richmond-Burton’s Tom DuBois Wrestling Classic.

The Whip-Purs won the tournament thanks to a strong showing from a freshman group that has impressed early in the season.

“We’ve always been right there but couldn’t get over the hump,” Hampshire coach Matthew Todd said. “Saturday was kind of the day that we got over the hump and gave our kids confidence moving forward.”

Senior Niko Skoulikaris led the way at 170 by winning all three of his matches, claiming the championship by taking down Winnebago’s Charlie Murray 8-2. Hampshire’s heavyweight Joey Ochoa won all of his matches by pinning his opponents, including taking down Quincy’s Todd Smith for the 285 title.

Hampshire had six freshmen in the lineup led by Aric Abbott at 132, who finished second, and Michael Brannigan’s fifth-place finish at 152.

Todd has been impressed with how his young team has performed this season and hopes Saturday’s win can lead to more success.

“We gave them the idea that we can win some of these big tournaments, we can win some of these matches, we just need to continue to believe that we can,” Todd said.

The key moving forward for Todd is for his team not to get complacent. As a first-year coach, Todd studied other successful coaches and learned that in order to maintain success, the Whip-Purs can’t be happy with just winning Saturday’s tournament.

“We can always find something to get better at each and every day,” Todd said. “There’s no one truly perfect, but if we can improve 2% each day, we’re going to be even better.”

Wolves looking for balance

Prairie Ridge is trying to find a balance between having its core group of guys compete well in tournaments while also remaining competitive in dual meets.

Coach Justin Peete said it’s been tough since there have been wrestlers out because of illnesses, eligibility and the football team playing for the Class 6A state title, but he’s enjoyed trying to find a balance and watching the Wolves step up.

“We have a good core lineup of six, seven guys who we know are going to make it deep into the sectional and state series, but then we want to be extremely competitive [in duals],” Peete said.

The Wolves were forced to call up a few wrestlers up from the freshman and junior varsity teams early in the season, including in their win over Crystal Lake South on Thursday. Tyler Evans and Mikey Meade also moved up weight classes against the Gators, with Evans winning at 132 pounds.

Prairie Ridge must also overcome having a smaller team, having about 30 wrestlers while its opponents can have 70 or 80. Peete is encouraged by what he’s seen and is looking forward to his team once it’s at full strength.

“It gets a little stressful, because we want to win, we want to win at a higher level,” Peete said. “It is very exciting because we have a great core of guys.”

South’s early learning lessons

Crystal Lake South coach Ross Ryan is approaching this season differently with a less-experienced group.

Ryan is more nurturing this year compared to last season when he had state champion Shane Moran and state placer Josh Glover as he tries to help the Gators develop good habits that will lead to success.

“This is a young group that wants to learn,” Ryan said. “It’s just how quickly they are willing to learn.”

The Gators went through some tough lessons early in the season with their 1-7 start. South took losses against Prairie Ridge on Thursday where they earned some early leads but couldn’t hold on to win.

Ryan thinks time on the mat is what’s going to help his wrestlers become more confident in themselves. Junior Andy Burburija has provided strong leadership after qualifying for the individual state meet last season, but Ryan knows it’s up to the Gators to want to grow if they want to be successful.

“Right now, it’s got to be a lot more nurturing and a lot more teaching and team-building in that regard,” Ryan said. “As the experience comes, then we can start pushing it a little bit further.”