Prep wrestling: Providence claims one last trophy for Healy

BLOOMINGTON – Not many coaches in Illinois history have been as successful in a state tournament setting as Providence Catholic’s Keith Healy.

The Celtics wrestling coach set a standard that few will match when he led his teams to eight straight dual team finals, which was highlighted by six consecutive titles from 1997 to 2002.

So it only seemed appropriate that Healy and his squad once again assured themselves of a full day of competition in the Class 3A finals at Grossinger Motors Arena. And as was so often the case over the years, Healy did his best to juggle his lineup as best as he could.

Providence defeated Barrington, 33-30, in the quarterfinals to capture its 14th trophy in 14 state appearances during Healy’s 26-year career at the school. He not only is one of the leaders in taking teams to state, but also one of the very few to never lose in the quarterfinals.

After falling to eventual champion Montini, 47-29, in the semifinals, the Celtics beat Huntley, 37-25, in the third-place meet to give the program its second trophy in three years and cap a 22-11 season and conclude Healy’s legendary career at 557-125-3.

“I’m so proud of these kids since they came out and just wrestled really hard,” Healy said. “We were nowhere on the radar due to this, that and the other thing. But we came out and wrestled at regionals, had a good sectional, did a great job down at Edwardsville and came here and beat some really good teams. Every time that you get an opportunity to get excited about how well the kids are doing, that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time.

“I’m extremely proud of winning a trophy each year at state. I’ve talked to a lot of coaches over the weekend and probably the biggest compliment was that I was able to move my lineups around over the years as good as anybody. So it was fun to move the lineup around as much as we did this weekend, and against Barrington, that was huge. When these seniors came in as freshmen, we were struggling. But they believed in what was going on and worked extremely hard in the offseason and the results show.”

In the quarterfinals against Barrington (25-4), Matt Pirc and Dominick Ambrose won close decisions to get things started and after a close loss, Kevin Countryman won, 13-1, to put the Celtics up, 10-3. A pair of falls put the Broncos in front before Cole Smith won, 21-8, and Daniel Rasmussen won, 6-2, over Antonio Tuminello to make it 18-14.

But then the Celtics took over as Logan Anderson and Tom Farley recorded falls, Nick Matthias followed with a 16-6 victory, and Jacob Lindsey sealed the deal with a 5-0 win. Barrington got pins in the last two matches to make the final score appear a bit closer.

Providence put up a good fight against Montini in the semifinals after falling behind, 35-9, through eight matches. Countryman, Farley and Pirc recorded falls, Alonso Serrano won by technical fall, and Smith and Matthias both won decisions.

In the third-place match, Providence opened with decisions from Josh Ramos and Countryman and Smith added a forfeit win a short time later. The lead grew to after Brennan Geers won, 17-4, Anderson was an 11-3 victor, and Farley recorded a fall in 17 seconds. Alonso Serrano and Ambrose wrapped up the victory by also winning decisions.

“It was exciting,” Anderson said. “We were happy to be here, and it was a total team effort. Jake, Tom and I weren’t here, so things weren’t looking that hot. But some football players came out and then, we had a full lineup, and we knew if we had a full lineup that this was possible. The same thing happened when we were sophomores when people thought that Providence wouldn’t be back at state anytime soon. We had experience coming here, and Coach Healy worked his magic with who to put out there.”

In its first state trip since 2013, Minooka got off to a good start, but the tide soon turned the other way as Oak Park-River Forest won the next 11 matches to capture a 53-8 victory. The Indians (25-3), who had won their past 19 dual meets, were a staple of the dual meet finals from 2004 to 2013, when they appeared eight times in
10 years and won a title in 2010.

In the opener at 132 pounds, Dominic Ruettiger won, 9-6, over state runner-up Eddie Bolivar and then Adam McDowell owned a late 2-1 lead over Torry Early in the next match. But Early got a takedown with one second left to claim a 3-2 win and the Huskies were on their way to their sixth title meet appearance in the past 10 years.

“We thought that we’d get the momentum going, and they pulled out at the end and kept wrestling,” Bernie Ruettiger said. “But like I told these kids, ‘Who would have thought three years ago that we’d be here?’ I’m proud of these kids. Wow, what a match Dominic wrestled, huh? That kid was the runner-up, and he beats him to start the meet. That was outstanding.

“These seniors paved the way. We’ve been here before when we went one-and-out six other times. So now, hopefully these younger think that we’re supposed to be here, it’s what we do. We’ve got some good kids that can wrestle, so we’re just going to have to keep competing.”

In the next few matches, Eddie Ordonez won, 6-4, over Noah Boles, Joe Chapman beat Jake Ryan, 8-2, at 152 and Jack Fisher won by technical fall. Then the Huskies received pins from Daemyen Middlebrooks and Jake Cagnina.

Brian Ziech beat Drew Gutknecht, 8-2, at 195 and Elijah Osit edged Connor Briley, 3-1, in overtime. Then Ashford Hills, Jake Rundell and Josh Ogunsanya followed with pins. After Austin Markee won by forfeit, Raymond Hernandez beat Zach McDowell, 6-3, in the finale.

“I’m proud of this team,” Adam McDowell said. “Last week we beat the defending state champs, Lockport, to get here, and that was a huge victory for us since the way we came back against them was amazing. I think we brought back our program back and in future years, we’re going to be tough. We’d been working since freshman year for this, and I’m proud of the team since we did good. It was a good season.”