Wrestling: Lincoln-Way Central takes second at McLaughlin Classic

JOLIET – Charles Walker had a big smile on his face when he was atop the podium Saturday at the McLaughlin Classic, hosted by Walker’s school, Joliet Central.

Walker, a junior, beat Deerfield’s Max Drumke 15-2 in the championship match at 215 pounds, giving the home crowd a thrill and receiving the largest ovation of the night.

“It feels pretty cool to win a tournament like this in my own school,” Walker said. “I’ve been wanting to do it since my freshman year. I went 2-2 and didn’t place my freshman year, but I placed last year, and now this year I won the title. I feel pretty good for the rest of the year now, and I hope to bring home a medal from Champaign.

“I feel like I’m better on my feet, but I’ve been working on being on the mat, getting back points and stuff like that.”

Walker went 4-0 on the day, improving to 10-0 on the season.

Walker was not the only local champion. Others were Romeoville’s Brian Farley (120), Tommy Banas of Providence Catholic (126), Peotone’s Ian Kreske (165) and Lincoln-Way Central’s Tim Key (175). Taking second were Lincoln-Way Central’s Eric Hoselton (106), Lincoln-Way Central’s Ameer Alamawi (144), Lincoln-Way Central’s Jalen Byrd (150), and Plainfield East’s Niko Duggan (157).

Marist won the team title, followed by Lincoln-Way Central and Normal Community.

Farley beat Normal Community’s Cole Gentsch 7-2 in the title bout at 120, a win that gave him a piece of satisfaction and upped his reord to 7-0 on the year.

“Gentsch beat me in the semis at this tournament last year,” he said. “I knew we would be on opposite sides of the bracket this year, so I was glad to see him in the finals and beat him this time. There’s good competition here, and it was exciting.

“It’s great to be off to a good start of the season. I hope to keep it going and make it to state and place there.”

Banas, a freshman, won his second tournament in two weeks, having won the title at Barrington last week. He edged Marist’s George Marinopoulos 2-1 in the title bout, scoring the winning takedown with just 16 seconds left in the third period and moved his season record to 12-0.

“It feels good to win a big tournament like this,” Banas said. “The final was a tough match, but I was able to get that takedown late and win it. I feel like I’m best on my feet.

“We are starting to rebuild the program at Providence and we should be really good in a couple of years. We are heading in the right direction.”

The tournament was the first competition of the season for Kreske, who finished fourth at 145 in this tournament last season. He beat St. Rita’s Gio Secor, Morton’s Colton McKee, Plainfield East’s Jerry Nino and Marist’s Kevin Tomkins to claim the title, beating Tomkins 7-3 in the title bout.

“I moved up a couple of weights since last year, but I handled it pretty well,” Kreske said. “It feels good to win a tournament like this with all these schools bigger than ours. We only brought five guys to this tournament.

“I feel like this sets me up pretty good for the rest of the season. It’s good to see a lot of different teams. I feel like I am better on the mat. I was able to escape and get a takedown in the semifinal that helped me a lot.”

Key was one of four finalists for Lincoln-Way Central and won the title by injury default over Marist’s Ricky Ericksen. Before that, Key beat Carlos Pedilla of Belleville East, Kevin Sabau of Deerfield and Mason Gougis of Romeoville and improved to 6-1 on the year.

“I didn’t want to win that way [by injury default],” Key said. “But, I was feeling like I was starting to get my mojo back in that match before he got hurt. Overall, I wrestled pretty well today. There’s still a lot to work on, though. We are training for the state tournament.

“It’s good to wrestle in a tournament like this because you get to see a lot of kids you might not otherwise face. We did pretty good. We had four in the finals and seven in the semifinals. We’re kind of young, so we hope to get better as the year goes on.”

The four finalists and seven semifinalists helped the Knights rack up enough points to finish second in the team competition.

“I would have liked to have seen us fare better in the finals,” Lincoln-Way Central coach Tyrone Byrd said. “But, we had a solid day overall. Some wrestlers exceeded what we thought they would do and some fell a little short. But, we got a lot of data we need in order to get better.

“As a whole, we are going home happy. We look at the regular season, duals and tournaments, as practice for the state series. A tournament like this shows us what we are doing well and what we need to work on. We’ll get to work and keep improving.”