Oswego wrestlers pin down four opponents

The Oswego wrestling team had a strong 48-hour performance, wrestling five duals and picking up four wins to improve to 9-6 overall.

The Panthers opened the whirlwind stretch last Thursday night with a 43-18 win over Oswego East in Southwest Prairie Conference action before welcoming Alton to the fieldhouse on Friday. The dual was decided by the last match, with the southern Illinois visitor taking a 31-24 win.

On Saturday, Oswego hosted the Orange and Blue Mega Duals and went 3-0 with wins over Stagg, Lincoln-Way East and Naperville North.

"We went 3-0 and we wrestled pretty well against three pretty good teams," Oswego head coach Andrew Cook said of Saturday's sweep. "Naperville North was coming off a real close loss to Glenbard North and Lincoln-Way East was also decided by the last few matches. It was exciting."

Oswego East forfeited at 126 and 220, and Oswego gave up a forfeit at 152. Jake Smith (120), Allen Swanson (132) and Gary Mosley (145) all won by pinfall while Michael Aguirre (106), Luke Pradel (113) and Victor Aguirre (182) won by decision and Josh Torres (170) clinched a win by major decision. The Panthers are now 3-1 in conference.

On Friday, Oswego took a 12-7 lead over Alton after major decision wins by Pradel, Gannon Hughes (120) and Blake Huffmon (126). The Panthers got 12 points after back-to-back pins by Dan Risley (160) in 2:46 and Torres in 1:48 to lead 24-19, but Alton won the final three bouts to take the non-conference dual win.

Oswego opened the Orange and Blue Mega Duals with a 54-19 win over Stagg before picking up a 43-17 win over Lincoln-Way East. The Panthers ended the day with a big 33-27 win over Naperville North.

With the final dual starting at 132 pounds, Dan Majewski gave the Panthers a 9-7 lead with his 5:28 pin at 152, and an 8-3 decision from Torres and a 5-4 OT win by Victor Aguirre pushed Oswego's lead to 21-7. The Huskies won the next five bouts to take a 27-21 lead over the Panthers, but Naperville North forfeited at 120 to tie the score. Huffmon capped off the day with a pinfall in 59 seconds to help Oswego to the win.

Majewski, Risley and Torres all went 3-0 on the day while Huffmon, Chandler Foss (138), Victor Aguirre and Josh Alatorre (195) all went 2-1.

"We're ready to keep moving forward and hopefully carry that down to Minooka on Thursday, and out to Bettendorf, Iowa on Friday and Saturday," Cook said.

Oswego will leave Friday morning for Iowa to prepare for the two-day tournament. Two SPC duals remain ahead on the schedule as the regular season ends on Jan. 27.

"I think we're pretty settled where we're at," Cook said. "We've got six duals left and one tournament, so we're getting near the end and making that final push for regionals, and that's what we train for – wrestling our best come regionals, sectionals and state. Those are our end goals. Right now we're on track, and I'm liking how we wrestle."