Wrestling: Lots of locals advance out of Class 1A Polo Regional

LANARK – For 15 area wrestlers, the dream of winning an IHSA state championship continued on Saturday at the 11-team Class 1A Polo Regional at Eastland High School.

For all four of the Sauk Valley area teams in attendance, the chance of having a state champion remains.

Oregon, the top local team at the regional, finished third with 149 points, trailing champion Lena-Winslow/Stockton (203) and second-place Dakota (200).

Preston LaBay (120), Lane Halverson (138) and Seth Stevens (145) nabbed second-place finishes for the Hawks, while Grant Stender (152), Anthony Bauer (160) and Gabe Eckerd (170) secured third-place finishes to round out a six-wrestler qualifying group. Jackson Messenger (113) narrowly missed the cut with a fourth-place finish.

In their third-place matches, Stender pinned Byron’s Carsen Behn in 1:38, Bauer pinned Winnebago’s Lucas Cowman in 1:05, and Eckerd took a 5-2 decision against Le-Win/Stockton’s Eli Larson.

For the senior Stender, it would have been unthinkable to end his final year of high school wrestling without at least making it to sectionals.

“I don’t know, I guess I got lucky. I kind of just caught him,” Stender said about how he won the third-place match. “I’m so glad. I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like if I had lost and had my season ended.”

Dixon was the second-best area team, finishing fifth with 120 points. Steven Kitzman (170) and Ayden Rowley (113) led the qualifying group with a pair of second-place finishes. Gavin Kramer (120), Cade Hey (138) and Shaun DeVries (285) added third-place finishes for the Dukes.

In their third-place matches, Kramer pinned Princeton’s Kaydin Gibson in 2:59, Hey pinned Le-Win/Stockton’s Carson McPeek in 5:31, and DeVries pinned Stillman Valley’s Blake Mollet in 5:43.

“Really just keeping it moving. Going straight for the pin,” Kramer said about the keys to his third-place win. “It feels good [to be moving on]. It’s nice to have some of the team coming with me.”

For DeVries, the regional was a nerve-wracking experience, but at the end of the day, it was a rewarding one, too.

“The key to winning was staying in the match the whole time. We came in, I was scared because this is my senior year. You don’t want to be losing in regionals and have wrestling be over forever, because when you love the sport so much, you get so in your head about it,” DeVries said. ”So the first match I lost, I lost to the same guy I wrestled third. And then I got through my second match, it was a bigger guy, I pinned him with a cradle. Got into the third match and I had to really realize that this is crunch time. This is the time that you’ve gotta put everything into it. Every match you do that, but I realized that as long as I’m smart, and I don’t go in without thinking, that’s what’s gonna win me the match.”

[ Photos from the Class 1A Polo Regional wrestling tournament ]

Seniors Owen Brooks (182) and Ethan Mick (195) finished fourth, leaving DeVries as the last senior standing for Dixon. Although he was disappointed his senior teammates didn’t make it to sectionals, DeVries was happy to have four other teammates advance with him.

“It’s an incredible feeling. The rest of the seniors in Dixon, they unfortunately didn’t make it to sectionals, so it’s almost like an honor to carry on the senior title,” DeVries said. “I’m doing it not only for me, my family and my team, I’m doing it for [the seniors] as well, because they don’t get the chance even though they wrestled for so long, some of them even double the time I’ve been wrestling. And they just got an unfortunate draw.”

The Polo co-op finished eighth with 57 points. Freshman Josiah Perez was the 106-pound champion, taking a 3-2 decision against Princeton’s Augustus Swanson in the championship match. Wyatt Doty came in second at 132 pounds, and Lucas Nelson added a third-place finish at 126, taking an 11-5 decision against Le-Win/Stockton’s Mauricio Glass.

“It feels pretty good to do it all as a freshman. Everyone’s got a couple years on me; I started wrestling late, fell in love with the sport and just never stopped wrestling,” Perez said.

“I came into the [championship] match with aggression. I’ve lost to him once already. Today was kind of revenge. I stayed calm to make sure my moves were right. I had smooth moves. Didn’t let him do what he wanted to do.”

Nelson credited endurance for his third-place win.

“I would say my conditioning was key. We’ve been working on it for the entire season, and I think I held out longer than the other guy,” he said. “It feels really good [to be moving on]. I feel like we have a tough regional, and it feels good to see my hard work over the season pay off.”

Amboy came in ninth place with 33 points. Freshman Landon Blanton was the only Clipper to qualify for sectionals, as he won the 120-pound crown. In the championship match, he took an 11-2 major decision against Rowley.

“Just trying my hardest and listening to my coaches,” Blanton said about how he won his weight class. “Very exciting [to win the regional], and I hope I can win sectionals, too. And do good at state.”

Levi Near added a fourth-place finish for the Clippers.