Polo's Ethan Cain rolls through wrestling regional

By Andy Colbert

acolbert@oglecountynews.com

In a battle for the wrestling team title at the Class 1A Polo Regional on Feb. 6, Dakota and Byron gave performances worthy of a dual meet state finals championship.

Ethan Cain of Polo gave a performance worthy of being a state champion. Nearly overshadowed by the star pedigree of wrestlers from the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state in his hometown gym, Cain still had everyone buzzing about his title at 195 pounds.

It wasn’t so much the title, but how he did it.

In his semifinal match, Cain needed only 12 seconds to get a pin. Not to be outdone in the finals, he dispatched of Chris Jenson of Dakota in an identical 12-second pin. Coming into the regional, he had a 10-second pin in Polo’s last meet.

“I want to be a state champion,” said Cain, who improved to 35-1. “I’ve been working for that since kindergarten.”

To get a 12-second pin over a senior from Dakota with 25 wins is a statement-type win. This was no run-of-the-mill opponent.

“Ethan has been working so hard for this,” Polo coach Justin Zigler said. “He’s only missed 2 days of lifting all year, and that was because he was sick. He’s so coachable, and has that desire to win.”

Cain looks forward to the sectional, where he’ll have chance to see Dallas Appleman (28-3) of Amboy, the only wrestler to beat him. It was also be the next stop on what Cain hopes will be his third trip downstate.

“The last two times, I lost just before the medal round,” Cain said. “I want to change that.”

Polo also got a title from freshman Noah Paul (30-4) at 106. Paul edged a member of the Alber wrestling dynasty (eight state titles by four different family members) at Dakota, freshman Caleb Alber, 7-6.

Alber took an early 4-2 lead, but Paul demonstrated superior riding strength and controlled the rest of the match.

“They had a good game plan against Noah,” Zigler said. “They tried to get him to win it on his feet, but Noah is better on top.”

Paul’s win helped Byron in its quest to unseat 3-time state champion Dakota. Byron had a slight lead going into the finals, and was still ahead 183-180 midway through the meet.

That’s when the meat of the Indians’ lineup took control. Defending state champs Greg Krulas (145) and Nate Olsen (160) easily won, and Jared Packer pinned Polo's Jesse Ditzler at 152.

However, the meet wasn’t decided until 220 pounds, when Dakota’s Maverick McPeek pinned Oregon's Anthony Marchetti. That gave the Indians 201 points to 194 for Byron.

“What a community of wrestling we have here,” Dakota coach Pete Alber said. “Byron made this a heart-stopper for us. We killed them in a dual, but they gave us all we could handle today. Things were going their way early, and we needed all we could to stop that momentum.”

A former anchor of that small-school wrestling community, Oregon, had sectional qualifiers in Konner Wilson (138), Matt Stevens (182) and Tyler Burke (195), but returning state medalist Matt Crandall could only watch from the sidelines.

In the 285-pound bracket, in which Crandall would have been the top seed, Josh Anderson of West Carroll won in overtime over Isaac Lawson of Lena-Winslow 2-1.

“It’s a big disappointment,” Crandall said. “Two weeks ago, I felt something in my knee at the Orion tournament.”

An MRI indicated medial meniscus tears. Last year, Crandall suffered an ACL injury in the same knee at the state meet. He tried to return for football, but never was fully recovered.

“I talked to Coach [Mike] Guzman about wrestling [in the regional], but we decided not to. I want to be able to play football in college and not do any more damage,” Crandall said.

West Carroll also had second-place finishes from Andrew VanKampen at 113 and Kaleb Hartman at 145.