Boys wrestling: Young Plainfield North rolls to dual win over Plainfield South

PLAINFIELD - Coming off a strong freshman season, Luke Grindstaff is ready to make a run to state.

He also wants to be a leader of a young Plainfield North team, in spite of his own youth.

“I’m 15, but I feel like I’m still one of the best and I feel like I bring the most,” Grindstaff said. “I definitely want to be a state qualifier this year. I think I’ve got a good shot at state, and I think I can even place at state this year.”

Grindstaff and the Tigers are off to a great start. Plainfield North opened the season with four straight dual-meet wins, the latest coming Wednesday night with a 52-27 victory over crosstown rival and host Plainfield South in the Southwest Prairie opener for both teams.

“We’re a young team,” Plainfield North coach Adrian Cervantes said. “We have eight sophomores and a freshman in our lineup. What I really love about this young team is they’re always together. They always wrestle for each other in the room. They’re never messing around. They’re always pushing each other.

“Usually, with a young team, you expect to be kind of messing around and not taking it seriously. But this young team, they want to win. They’re showing it.”

Grindstaff (138 pounds), Brayden Johnson (120), Lucas Frydrychowski (144), Jack Tota (150) and Jack Nowicki (175) all had pins for the Tigers (4-0, 1-0).

Rocco Silva (132) and Ian Portillo (285) had pins to lead Plainfield South (0-4, 0-1).

Grindstaff finished off Kyle McCormick with a first period fall.

“I wanted to take him down a few times at first and work on some shots,” Grindstaff said. “Then I wanted to go for the pin. He got out of my first move, but I was able to finish it off.”

Grindstaff won 30 matches as a freshman on varsity last season and was a sectional qualifier, falling a couple wins short of state.

Now he feels he’s ready to take that next step.

“Having the experience helps,” Grindstaff said. “Last year, I wasn’t as confident. This year, I’m coming in with confidence. Last year, sometimes I didn’t know if I was going to win and I had doubts, but this year I’m pretty confident.”

Cervantes certainly has faith in Grindstaff.

“He wants to win,” Cervantes said. “We never have to tell him, ‘Do this, do that.’ He puts in the work himself over the offseason. He had a lot of matches over the summer.

“We truly believe he’s one of the best kids in the state and we’re going to get to see that this year.”

Frydrychowski waited until the waning moments of his match with Damian Anguiano before getting the pin with 3.2 seconds left.

Frydrychowski, a junior, had a big lead in the match but wanted to finish it off with a pin and bonus points.

“He was fighting,” Frydrychowski said. “I just kept working it and made sure to scoop his head at the end and secure the pin.”

Frydrychowski was hampered by a knee injury last season. He is healthy now and looking to do big things.

“I’ve been looking forward to this, going through the offseason putting in work and getting in the weight room,” he said. “Just doing what I can to be ready.”

Also winning for Plainfield North were Nathan Alli (126) by major decision, and Jacob Syfert (106), Tristen Garbis (113) and Leo Tovar (190) by forfeit.

Plainfield South’s other winners included Colin Bickett (165) by technical fall, Chase Pierceall (157) by major decision and Matt Janiak (215) by forfeit.

“We’ve got some guys who are working hard,” Plainfield South coach Danny Saracco said. “We’ve got a long way to go, obviously. This year is all about building the culture and getting back on track to where we want to be.

“I just want them to have the heart and fight. The goal is to be ready to go by the time regionals roll around.”