Wrestling: Oswego's historic season ends with sectional loss to Minooka

OSWEGO – Oswego knew it had a daunting task against Minooka during Tuesday’s Class 3A Oswego Sectional dual meet.

The Indians had already come in and ruined Oswego’s Senior Night in mid-January. This time they officially ended the Panthers' historic season, earning six pins to advance to this weekend’s state finals in Bloomington with a 47-15 victory.

On Jan. 15, Minooka beat Oswego, 49-16.

“We moved some guys around to try to change some matchups because we didn’t want to stay status quo,” Panthers coach Andrew Cook said. “We wanted to give ourselves a shot and we went out and competed. Our guys battled. It was a great environment with two great communities and both sides came out and gave great support. We just didn’t finish on some things that we needed to finish on.”

A lot of that is because Minooka is awfully talented and accustomed to winning.

“You don’t get to host one of these types of duals very often,” Cook said. “It’s few and far between and it was good to have this environment. We knew it was going to be crazy with two SPC teams coming into it. Didn’t matter how good somebody was – it was going to be competitive.”

Dalton Ferguson and Jake Mensik opened the sectional with consecutive pins at 138 and 145 pounds respectively, before Oswego senior Derek Torza slipped past Jack McClimon, 9-8, at 152 pounds.

“That’s the best feeling, especially seeing all my friends and family going crazy,” Torza said. “That’s why I love the sport. It makes up for all the cutting weight and all that. It’s worth it.”

Torza finished his high school career strong. He’ll continue wrestling at Missouri Valley College.

“Derek was in that 145-pound weight class at sectionals and things didn’t go his way so he wanted to make sure he finished on top as a Panther,” Cook said. “The same thing with Aiden Griffin as our other senior.They did what they needed to do.”

Oswego’s Andrew Johnson (160), Cole Pradel (182) and Griffin(195) followed Torza with victories, although Minooka’s Landon Jaime defeated Cruz Ibarra, 9-3, at 170 pounds so Minooka’s lead was just a modest 15-12 at the midway point. That’s when things changed drastically in favor of the Indians.

“It comes down to a few calls here and there, like a couple swing matches is what we call them,” Griffin said. “If we win those in a dual we get those points instead of them. And not get put on our backs and stuff like that. We preach that to the young guys and they’re going to learn as they grow.”

Minooka's Drew Gutknecht, fresh off a sixth-place finish in the state at 220, wasted little time in pinning Manny Gonzalez. Jake Shipla needed just 52 seconds to take of his opponent at 285 while Dylan Harder required just 1:47 to defeat Aidan O’Meara.

Literally in a matter of minutes the Indians went from being up by just three points to cruising, 33-12.

“I don’t know why we started at the weight we did, but those are their better weights while ours were better at the end,” Shipla said. “I pretty much just go out there and wrestle. That’s all you can do. I didn’tthink anything about last time.”

Minooka’s Joey Cecala won by major decision at 113, Michael Carey won by fall at 126 pounds and Michael Ruettiger closed the sectional with a 9-6 victory over Luke Barron.

“They changed their lineup a little bit to try to get an advantage on us,” Ruettiger said. “We didn’t think much of it. We were just hoping to take care of business and get out of here.”

Logan Guerrero won Oswego’s fifth match of the night at 120 pounds, besting Nathan Berta, 11-4.

Minooka earns a date with Mount Carmel on Saturday morning. The Indians' lone dual meet loss was a 51-12 decision to the Caravan.

“We got a tough first round matchup,” Ruettiger said. “We’re just going go out and wrestle the best we possibly can.”

Oswego’s season might be over, but after winning the program's first regional title since 1989, there’s plenty worth celebrating within the program.

“We had some ups and downs with guys in and out of the lineup and a lot of things going on,” Cook said. “We went into a valley midway through the year, but we knew once we got healthy come February we’d be peaking at the right time.”