DeKalb wrestling wins conference tournament

DeKALB – DeKalb wrestling coach Sam Hiatt said he fought for Austin Johnson to earn the No. 3 seed in the Northern Illinois Big 12 Tournament, held Saturday in Geneseo.

The 160-pounder showed why the other coaches should have listened to Hiatt.

Johnson defeated the top two seeds en route to claiming the title, joining Christian Komitas, Fabian Lopez and Blah Dahnweih as conference champions for DeKalb as the Barbs took the team title.

“I tried to get him the three seed over the four, and I kind of got laughed at,” Hiatt said. “It’s nice to see him finally healthy, finally have a weight figured out that’s good for him. Right in time, no doubt.”

DeKalb finished with 221 points, 20 ahead of last year's champion Yorkville. Sycamore was with 133 points in fourth, eight behind LaSalle-Peru, on the power of conference champs Trevor Boryla and Justin Montani. Kaneland's lone wrestler, Nathan Orosco, took second.

Johnson beat Yorkville's Zack Katula, the No. 1 seed in the semifinals, 6-4. Up next was Sterling's Turner Garcia, and Johnson quickly found himself down 5-0 after a takedown and nearfall.

But he answered with his own takedown and nearfall in the second period after Johnson started the frame neutral, and added a late takedown for lead after two. He started the third on bottom, and Garcia said he went for the reversal but never got it, spending the whole period on the bottom in the 7-6 win.

“Coach says never give up til the final whistle blows,” Johnson said. “So I just didn't’t give up and wrestled my heart out. I gave it everything I got.”

Hiatt said it was a nice culmination of hard work for Johnson, who was injured last season and is now 11-4.

Johnson was one of three champs for the Barbs, including Lopez at 126 – who had to face an undefeated Ethan Harsted from Ottawa to do it. After a high-energy but scoreless first quarter, Lopez got a pin 42 seconds into the second frame.

Instead of letting Harsted go, Lopez felt he had to attempt the pin right away.

“Most of the time my parents and coaches tell me to cut him,” Lopez said. “At that time, the kid’s too good to cut him. So I decided to stick him right then and there.”

Sycamore had a pair of champions on the day,including Montani at 113 – who lost decisively to Cole Ferguson earlier this year but flipped it around for a 10-3 win in the finals against him Saturday.

“I was really happy with the way I performed today,” Montani said. “I actually wrestled that kid earlier this year, lost to him, I think it was 11-3. I wanted to come out and stay on the gas pedal.

Montani said he noticed a hug attitude change in himself between the two matches.

“I think the last time I just kind of broke,” Montani said. “He turned me once and kind of blew the match wide open. I think I kind of gave up after that. So I went back, watched the film, and knew what I had to going into this. I think I wrestled smart, wrestled hard, got the win.”

Sycamore coach Alex Nelson said Montani has been working on the rematch ever since he lost to Ferguson.

“He turned that match around. It was the opposite of the last time they wrestled -- I think he lost by seven or something,” Nelson said. “That shows what he’s been doing the last month or so. I know after that match he wanted to change some things and he has. He wanted that rematch and it was nice to get the win in the finals.”

Orosco was down 3-2 early in the third but suffered a takedown. After the escape he had a chance to tie, but surrendered another takedown to Ottawa's Rafael Munoz at 120.

“The same mistake two times kind of cost him four points,” Kaneland coach Joe Orosco said. “You take those away, it was a different match.”

The coach also said the Calvin McDonald was sick with the flu and was supposed to be the second Kaneland representative at the meet.

“Nathan kind of caught a bout of that,” Orosco said. “We tried to get some liquids in him. He did OK with that.”

By the numbers: Other all-conference honors for DeKalb wrestlers, went to Jacob Lindemann (third at 132), Michael Clayton (second at 138), Cobe Schmerbach (second at 170), Logan Roach (second at 182) and Niels Lewrentz (third at 220). Matthew Hunter was second for Sycamore at 220, and his teammate Joey Beaudoin was third at 285.

They said it: "I'm up two weight classes, so I have nothing to lose," said Johnson, who missed a lot of the season with an injury and normally wrestles at 145. "I just went out there and did everything I could."

They also said it: "That's why we train as hard as we do and why we wrestled as stiff competition as we do," Hiatt said. "It's been a grind, some people are banged up, some people are a little bit sick, but we got everybody here and they performed well. We were tested, we were ready. There were some matches we could have won that we didn't but overall it was great."

Up next: DeKalb hosts Hononegah on Thursday, Sycamore heads to Sterling on Thursday and Kaneland is at Batavia.