High school wrestling: Crystal Lake Central's Lenny Petersen, Richmond-Burton's Gavin Sutton win state titles

CHAMPAIGN – Gavin Sutton had waited long enough. The Richmond-Burton senior had waited through three years of near misses at the state tournament – third place in 2014, missing out on a medal in 2015 and losing in the finals in 2016 – and on Saturday he waited through every other state final for his last shot.

When the Class 2A 145-pound championship match finally came around, the final weight of the night, Sutton wrestled all six minutes and beat top-seeded Mikie Hartnett of Morton, 7-3, to end his high school career with his first state title.

“I was so relieved just to know that all my hard work throughout my high school career came up to this and ended my career on a high note like I wanted to,” Sutton said.

Sutton was one of two local wrestlers to take state titles on Saturday. In the 2A 138 finals, Crystal Lake Central senior Lenny Petersen won his second consecutive state title. A year ago, Petersen beat Sutton in the 2A 138 pound finals.

“I took that as motivation for (the) next year,” Sutton said. “I knew I had one more year and one more to prove myself, and I felt like I did that this year.”

In this year's finals, against a previously undefeated Hartnett, Sutton used an early takedown to go ahead and then scored five points in the third period to seal his title.

“There’s not a kid that deserves it more than that kid right there,” Rockets coach Tony Nelson said. “He works tirelessly, he worked his whole life for this moment. I knew he was good enough, he knew he was good enough, it was just a matter of making it happen out here and having that night and he’s had that whole tournament. We’re just so proud of him, all of us.”

Petersen, as the defending champion and top seed in his bracket, took everyone’s best shot and advanced to the finals with relative ease, recording a tech fall and two pins.

“I just tried to dominate them so they couldn’t even get a shot off," Petersen said. "Especially in my final, they really tried to get to me, but as long as I’m getting to my offense I don’t really let it affect me.”

In the final, Washington's Blaize Punke didn't give Petersen much to work with, but after a 0-0 first period, Petersen eventually went up 2-1 heading into the third and went on to win, 7-4.

Petersen’s win maintained a streak of every Central wrestler who has won a state title as a junior and returned to wrestle the next year repeating as a champion. Even though his coach had made him aware of that trivia before the season, the senior said he felt less pressure this year because he expected to win and knew he worked hard enough to deserve it.

“Honestly, I can say this without question, Lenny is one of those kids, he gets the butterflies like any one of us, he’s competitive, but I don’t think he feels pressure,” Central coach Justen Lehr said. “Maybe pressure to do the best he can, which I think is why he’s done so well. The way he’s grown up from freshman to senior year is he just understands he has to be the best Lenny, not better than him or better than him, and he does a good job with that.”

The other two local finalists – Marengo's Joe Mier and Marian Central's Anthony Randazzo – came up short in the first placement matches of their careers after qualifying three times.

In the 2A 170 final, Mier faced top-seeded and undefeated Jake Lanning of Pontiac. Lanning took Mier down early in the first, reversed him and scored back points in the second then eventually pinned Mier with 35 seconds left in the match.

“In my head, I was like, 'Everyone is beatable,'” Mier said. “Maybe being there for the first time kind of got to me a little bit, but I mean, I tried my best.”

Randazzo also said he felt some effects of his big-stage debut.

“At the beginning, it’s new to me. I didn’t know how it would be,” Randazzo said. “I felt a little unprepared, and once I realized it was just like any other match, I started getting up, but I was too far behind already.”

His opponent, defending champion We Rachal of Chicago Washington went up 7-1 in the first period and held on to beat Randazzo, 11-5.

“Anthony has closed the gap on a lot of these great wrestlers,” Hurricanes coach David Silva said. “Anthony has always been a good wrestler, he’s constantly improving, so now he’s closing the gap on those guys. So next year, I see him back in the (grand) march, and hopefully, we bring a bracket sheet home.”

Local state place winners

First place

Lenny Petersen (Crystal Lake Central, 2A 138)

Gavin Sutton (Richmond-Burton, 2A 145)

Second place

Anthony Randazzo (Marian Central, 2A 132)

Joe Mier (Marengo, 2A 170)

Third place

Josh Fiegel (Harvard, 2A 126)

Nick Fetzner (Prairie Ridge, 2A 170)

Fourth place

Keenan Brummett (Harvard, 2A 138)

Luke Silva (Marian Central, 2A 152)

David Ferrante (Huntley, 3A 152)

Jaden Glauser (McHenry, 3A 170)

Fifth place

Landen Pfeiffer (Marengo, 2A 106)

Trey Piotrowski (Prairie Ridge, 2A 138)

Sixth place

Chase Raap (Dundee-Crown, 3A 182)

Seamus O'Donnell (Crystal Lake Central, 2A 195)