High school wrestling: Area's best ready for All-Star meet

Sitting around at December's Dvorak Invitational, Crystal Lake Central wrestling coach Justen Lehr proposed an idea to his Fox Valley Conference colleague BJ Bertlesman of Huntley.

The idea was a local postseason meet to celebrate the area's best outgoing seniors.

That thought evolved throughout the rest of the season and eventually turned into the Fight for the Fox All-Star wrestling meet, scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Saturday night at Huntley.

"I was a little cautious, being that we didn't plan it before the year, but we thought we'd let it ride and see what happens," Bertelsman said. "When I was in high school, I was from Southern Illinois and I was lucky enough to wrestle in the Illinois-Indiana Duals and we also had a Metro East vs. St. Louis dual.

"It's a good way to kind of outgoing congratulations to the senions and especially in our area we have a lot of good kids and we cover the map in terms of 3A, 2A and even some 1A. Get these kids together and see what would happen."

Bertelsman said the idea had initially been to put together an all-McHenry County All-Star dual, but they struggled with the depth and numbers. Their next idea was a local rivalry of sorts: east vs. west, Lake (with some Cook) County vs. McHenry County.

The McHenry County lineup will be headlined by seven state placers, including undefeated state champions Travis Piotrowski of Prairie Ridge and Christian Brunner from Dundee-Crown.

Other local state placers participating are Michael Petersen of Crystal Lake Central, Wylie Allen from Hampshire, Kevin Zange of Woodstock, Austin Parks from Crystal Lake Central and Dereck Pearson from Prairie Ridge.

Filling out the local side of the lineup will be: Trace Conlon (McHenry), Derek Neises (McHenry), John Cullen (Cary-Grove), Chris Dranka (Jacobs), Dean Lane (Jacobs), Randy Kline (Woodstock North), Nick Sundberg (Woodstock) and Dom Swanson (Huntley).

"I grew up with these kids, some for more than just these for years," Petersen said. "It's really cool to be able to wrestle with them one more time."

The East lineup will feature four state placers, led by 3A runner up at 170, Sage Heller of Deerfield.

"There is a problem of a lot of these guys saw each other at sectionals or even during the year, but we're trying to mix it up with 2A vs. 3A and stuff like that," Bertelsman said.

Bertelsman understood that some of the top-tier guys, like those headed for college wreslting, were weary at first, but said that as he and Lehr went through their list of possible participants, they got nearly all of their first-choice selections.

"It's great to promote the sport even more," Brunner said.

Brunner said he was enticed by the chance "Just to be on a different team with people I've wrestled alongside thoughtout high school. It's kind of cool."

Since the season and its strict conditioning are more than a month behind them, the wrestlers will be given a 10-pound weight allowance and Bertelsman said even that might be able to flex in the name of a good event.

"The way me and Justen see it is, it's our first year doing this, there's a lot of kinks that we're working out as we go and next year we're going to have it earlier, not wait until April," Bertelsman said. "You're over a month out of the season and some kids just forget about wrestling, especially seniors. Next year we're going to have it in March, closer to the season."

While there have been some first-time stumbling blocks like that, Bertlesman said he hopes Saturday's event ends up being a good first step toward establishing a tradition.

So what would count as a success in year one?

"Hopefully we get a crowd, not expecting a huge crowd, but parents, maybe some friends, hopefully the coaches come to watch their kids one last time," Bertelsman said. "There's some decent matches tomorrow, so hopefully it'll be interesting."

Even if it's an exibition, the competitors involved guaranteed they want to win.

"Whoever we're representing we're going to go out and wrestle our hardest to try to win," Petersen said. "We don't want to go out and lose our last match."

Fight for the Fox All-Star Wrestling Match

McHenry vs. Lake County

6 p.m. at Huntley High School

Tickets: $5 for adults, $3 for students and children

Local wrestlers participating: Travis Piotrowski (Prairie Ridge), Trace Conlon (McHenry), Derek Neises (McHenry), John Cullen (Cary-Grove), Chris Dranka (Jacobs), Michael Petersen (Crystal Lake Central), Wylie Allen (Hampshire), Kevin Zange (Woodstock), Dean Lane (Jacobs), Randy Kline (Woodstock North), Nick Sundberg (Woodstock), Christian Brunner (Dundee-Crown), Austin Parks (Crystal Lake Central), Dom Swanson (Huntley), Dereck Pearson (Prairie Ridge)