WRESTLING: Pair from Newman take sectional crowns

SANDWICH – The Newman wrestling team came away from Saturday’s 1A Sandwich Sectional with a pair of championships.

Brady Grennan started things off for the Comets by winning the title at 113 pounds. In the championship match, he faced Yorkville Christian’s Isaac Bourge and came away with a 9-3 decision, getting a takedown late in the first period for the opening points and leading the rest of the way.

“He was leaving his elbow hanging, so I just threw over,” Grennan said.

Grennan’s days started off with a pair of pins, stopping Rock Falls’ Aaron Meenen in the third period of their quarterfinal and pinning Dixon’s Chris Sitter in 56 seconds of the semifinal.

Sitter did bounce back to punch a ticket to state, beating Orion’s Luke Moen in the blood round with a 6-2 decision. He then went up against Oregon’s Edwin Estrada in the third-place bout and led that one 3-1 before Estrada answered. After scoring a point to get within 3-2 with 21 seconds left, Estrada scored a takedown with five seconds left to take a 4-3 lead. With very little time to do much of anything, Sitter fought his way to an escape to force overtime, but it was Estrada coming away with the overtime win.

“It was all mental, I think,” Estrada said. “My body wanted to stop, but my mind wouldn’t let me.

“Honestly, my mind was just blank [late in the third period]. All I could think about were those two points.”

Estrada got to the third-place bout with a third-period pin of Meenen in the blood round.

Newman’s other champion came at 138, where Will Rude needed a total of 49 seconds to get a pair of pins in the quarterfinal and semifinal to beat Sandwich’s Nolan Bobee and Kewanee’s Kadin Rednour. In the final, he made it 3-for-3 with a pin of Dakota’s Tyler Simmer in 3:18.

West Carroll has the 132-pound champion in Ethen Doty, who pinned Rock Falls’ Pahyton Smith in 31 seconds, pinned Harvest Christian Academy’s Bryce Fiegel in 1:57, then scored a 5-2 decision in the title bout over Dakota’s Maddux Blakely.

At 145 pounds, Oregon’s Andrew Herbst claimed the sectional title with a 4-3 decision over Lena-Winslow’s Simon Rillie.

Down 3-2 late in the championship bout, Herbst scored a takedown with three seconds to go to pull out the win.

“I just needed to stay calm and do what I knew I needed to do,” Herbst said. “His defense was greatly improved from last time. He was stopping most of my shots.”

He got to the title bout with a pin of Richmond-Burton’s Royce Heaney and a 6-0 decision over Rockridge’s Reese Finch.

“Just going out controlling the match the way I wanted it controlled and staying on my offense,” Herbst said.

Morrison’s Kayden White is state-bound at 182 pounds. He took second, beating Marengo’s Sebastian Palka 5-3 and Gavin Robertson of Seneca 9-3 before dropping a 6-3 decision to Lena-Winslow’s Jaden Rice in the final.

White had a shot in the final seconds, with both wrestlers on their feet and Rice leading 4-3. A White takedown would have secured the title for the Mustang, but Rice fended him off and got the takedown instead.

“I’m just looking to keep moving. That’s my problem lately,” White said. “I just need to continue my offense, can’t stop. I need to grow my gas tank and keep wrestling. He kept wrestling, and that’s where I lost.”

West Carroll’s Kelden McCombie took second at 152 pounds. He scored a 15-7 major decision in his first bout of the day facing Stillman Valley’s Randy Manos, then he beat St. Bede’s James Sanchez 6-4 in the final. He fell behind early in the championship bout with Lena-Winslow’s Griffin Luke and lost 7-0.

Newman got a third-place finish from Carter Rude at 120. Rude beat West Carroll’s Wyatt Doty with a 3-1 decision in overtime in the third-place match.

“I could tell that he was tired, and in a front headlock, it’s the guy on top’s job to make sure he’s moving, and he’s going to wear himself out doing that,” Carter Rude said. “So I just needed to make sure I kept the pressure on him, because holding onto that for a while is really going to tire a guy out, so I needed to make sure I could catch him in the front headlock and make a move.”

He got to the third-place bout with a 4-2 decision over Yorkville Christian’s Noah Dial on a takedown at the buzzer.

Doty got there with a 6-1 win over Oregon’s Grant Stender.

Erie-Prophetstown’s Elijah Friedrichsen took third at 285 pounds, getting a 1-0 win in the third-place match against Plano’s Alex Diaz.

Diaz beat Amboy’s Justin Wicaryus in the blood round on a first-period pin.

Friedrichsen won his blood-round bout 9-0 against Rock Falls’ Tristan Shaw, getting a takedown and some back points late in the first period and leading the rest of the way.

“I was just working my moves, like my underhooks,” Friedrichsen said. “Bigger guys can’t really shoot, but you can get your underhooks and your Russians, and I was just working those. I want to make my coach proud and I want to make my God proud, so I was working as hard as I could.”

Fulton’s Ethan Rash was fourth at 182. He pinned Wheaton’s Hunter Kazmierczak in 3:56 and scored a 5-3 decision over St. Bede’s Ethan Flemming, but lost to Rice in the semifinal 12-0, then was pinned by Robertson in the third-place bout.

“I was getting into my shots, getting into my angles,” Rash said. “I was having trouble finishing them today, but I was getting into most of them. Now if I can figure out how to finish them, I’ll be better off at state.”

Oregon’s Seth Stevens took fourth at 138, falling in the quarterfinal against Harvest Christian Academy’s Ivan Rosas on a 4-2 decision, then rallying back with three straight wins, capped off by a second-period pin of Rednour in the blood round.

Rock Falls’ Anthony Reyes reached the blood round at 106 before being pinned by Kewanee’s Ryan Welgat. Dixon’s Ayden Rowley also fell in the blood round at 106 on a second-period pin by Harvest Christian Academy’s Zeke Schroeder.

A pair of local wrestlers lost in the blood round at 126 pounds. Erie-Prophetstown’s Carter Jepson dropped a 7-1 decision to Dakota’s Jason Bowers, while Oregon’s Lane Halverson dropped an 8-6 decision to Seneca’s Owen Feiner.

The blood round at 160 also featured two local wrestlers, with both of them nearly able to punch tickets to state, only for it to slip away. In one wrestleback semifinal, Erie-Prophetstown’s Gunnar Wuebben wrestled to a scoreless first period against Lena-Winslow’s Jason Hermann, but Hermann scored three points in the second period en route to a 5-2 decision. The other wrestleback saw Oregon’s Gabe Eckerd lead Yorkville Christian’s Tyler Martinez 2-0 after the first period before Martinez fought back to tie it in the second and win it 5-2 in the third.

The blood round saw another local bow out at 195, where Dixon’s Mitchell White dropped a 12-1 major decision to Lena-Winslow’s Andrew Haas.

Another Duke, Justin Dallas, fell in the blood round at 220 on a pin by Sherrard’s Josh Bynum in 3:05.

2A GENESEO SECTIONAL

Sterling’s Drew Kested and Maricio Garcia are through to state after second- and third-place finishes at 145 pounds at the Geneseo Sectional.

Kested took second at 152 pounds, pinning Burlington Central’s Gavin Underhill in 3:02 and scoring a 1-0 decision over Kaneland’s Lane Robinson. He fell in the title bout 2-1 to Geneseo’s Bruce Moore.

Garcia beat Dunlap’s Vivek Panicker on a tech fall to reach the semifinal, where he lost on a 5-1 decision to Sycamore’s Brayden Peet. Garcia then beat Rock Island’s Aime Iranyibuts in the blood round 15-5, and pined Joliet Catholic’s Connor Cumbee in 2:51 to win the third-place bout.