April 25, 2024
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Wrestling: Yorkville, Lincoln-Way West have strong showings at Illini Classic

By Rob Oesterle
Yorkville’s Jack Ferguson celebrates a win over Lincoln-Way West’s Karter Guzman in the Illini Classic 132 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central.

Yorkville’s Jack Ferguson (right) celebrates a win over Lincoln-Way West’s Karter Guzman in the Illini Classic 132 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

NEW LENOX – There was strong competition at the 24-team Illini Classic held at Lincoln-Way Central, and Yorkville and Lincoln-Way West more than proved they belonged in the field. Both have the goal of advancing to the state dual team finals and showed they will be a force as Yorkville finished second with 243.5 points and Lincoln-Way West took third with 196.

St. Charles East won the championship with 318.5 points.

Yorkville saw 10 of its 13 wrestlers finish in the top eight and earn a medal, and the Foxes went 7-3 in the medal round. They got individual titles from Jack Ferguson (132), Luke Zook (170), Hunter Janeczko (195) and Ben Alvarez (220), while Ryder Janeczko took second at 145.

“My slide-by was working the best today in the neutral position,” Alvarez said. “We want to score early in the match and then, if the other guy makes a mistake, capitalize on that and keep the advantage.

“It feels good for the team to do as well as we did today. We want to get to the dual team state finals and bring home a trophy, so a tournament like this with the competition that’s here prepares us pretty well.

“I didn’t have that hot a start to the season, but I have been working hard in practice. It helps to have a partner like Hunter Janeczko. We push each other in practice, and it makes each of us better.”

Zook recorded two pins and two major decisions en route to his championship, including an 8-0 decision over St. Charles East’s Lane Robinson in the title bout. He shared the same strategy as Alvarez.

“I like to attack and get the first points of the match,” Zook said. “My blast double or single in the neutral position was working pretty well. My conditioning hasn’t been great recently, so I worked on that a lot, and it was better today. I just stuck to what I do best and didn’t get sloppy.”

Lincoln-Way West got second-place finishes from Anthony Sherman at 195 and Karter Guzman at 130. Sherman pointed to his work during practice for his strong showing.

Lincoln-Way West’s Anthony Sherman works over Yorkville’s Hunter Janeczko in the Illini Classic 195 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central.

Lincoln-Way West’s Anthony Sherman works over Yorkville’s Hunter Janeczko in the Illini Classic 195 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

“There’s a line by Johnny Cash that says, ‘What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light.’ To me, that means what you do in the practice room will show up in the matches. If you slack off in practice, you will see it in a match, so I have been working really hard in practice.

“I lost to the kid from Oswego [Cruz Ibarra] twice last year, and I lost to him at a mega dual earlier this year. I faced him again in the semis today, and I was able to beat him, so that felt good. Our team is doing really well this year. We have great chemistry, and our coaching staff has done a great job. We want to get to the team state finals this year.”

That was a sentiment echoed by Warriors coach Brian Glynn.

“We had a good two days,” Glynn said. “The goal is to get to the team state finals, and having success at this tournament will be a confidence booster for our guys. We had a tough schedule early and got beat up a little bit, but the kids have kept working hard.

“We had a lot of matches at this tournament that were rematches of losses from earlier in the year, and we had quite a few where we reversed the result. Our senior leadership with guys like Anthony Sherman and Karter Guzman has been great. We also had four freshmen all get places here today, and the leadership was a big part of that.”

Lincoln-Way Central’s Nathan Knowlton faces off against St. Charles East’s Ben Davino in the Illini Classic 126 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central.

Lincoln-Way Central’s Nathan Knowlton faces off against St. Charles East’s Ben Davino in the Illini Classic 126 weight championship match at Lincoln-Way Central. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

Yorkville coach Jake Oster is hoping his team can take the next step after losing in the team sectional last year to Lockport, his alma mater.

“We had a nice showing and competed well,” Oster said. “We lost a close match to Lockport at the sectional last year, and the goal is to get down to state as a team this year. We beefed up our schedule in order to prepare us for that top-level competition, and this tournament is part of that.

“It was nice to see Hunter Jeneczko back on the mat. This was his first action since he was injured at the Dvorak [over Christmas break]. We didn’t know how long he’d be able to go, but he just kept going and won the championship. Jack Ferguson and Luke Zook got their first tournament wins of the year, and we got what we expected out of Ben Alvarez.

“This tournament gives us a good idea of what we have and what we need to work on.”

Lincoln-Way Central’s Nathan Knowlton finished second at 126 to help lead the Knights to a ninth-place finish. Lincoln-Way East finished fifth, Plainfield North was 12th, Minooka 13th, Providence Catholic 17th and Morris 19th.