High school wrestling: Harvard envisions bright future after Class 1A state quarterfinal loss

BLOOMINGTON – Senior Brett Lovell grew up watching his older brothers wrestle in Harvard black and gold.

A four-year varsity wrestler, Lovell didn’t qualify for the individual state finals last week in Champaign. For him, Saturday was his state moment.

“We have a lot of good guys on the team,” Lovell said. “When everybody can come together and pull their own weight to get us this far, it’s a little bit special.”

Unfortunately for Harvard, the IHSA Class 1A state quarterfinals was as far as it went. The Hornets (25-6) lost to Coal City, 57-18, ending their season Saturday at Grossinger Motors Arena. Harvard was making its first appearance at dual team state since 2014.

The Hornets ran into a Coal City team that, with a quarterfinal win, assured itself its fifth state trophy in the past six seasons.

Lovell lost the 145-pound match to Coal City’s Gabe Ludes, 11-5. Harvard’s only real win came via a pin from Ivan Rosas at 126. Bryce Fiegel (120) and Nik Jimenez (132) won by forfeit.

Harvard coach David Schultz said he hopes his team uses Saturday as a learning experience. Even the seniors were in junior high when Harvard last went to dual team state.

“Some of our young guys stepped up in situations that maybe they weren’t ready for, but they went out there and they wrestled hard anyway,” Schultz said. “I was really happy with how the kids performed overall.”

Harvard won the Kishwaukee River Conference, along with its first regional title since 2015. It also had its first individual state medalists in three years in Jimenez (second at 126) and Nathan Rosas (fifth at 195).

Jimenez and Rosas are both only sophomores.

“A lot of our guys really like wrestling, especially in our younger grades,” Schultz said. “They’ve been around it for a while and they’ve got some abilities. I’m looking forward to them continuing to grow, continuing to mature as wrestlers, continuing to get better and seeing what they can do moving forward.”

Lovell echoed Schultz. He said that in the past it has usually been the seniors leading the team, but this year the leaders came in all shapes, sizes and grades.

“[It’s] every guy just showing up every day at practice,” Lovell said. “Even if you’re not a starter, it’s trying to get the starters ready.”

IHSA Class 1A state quarterfinal: Coal City 57, Harvard 18

138: Huston (Coal) def. Bischke (Hvd), 18-5.

145: Ludes (Coal) def. Lovell (Hvd), 11-5.

152: Breneman (Coal) tech. fall Van Deveer (Hvd), 15-0.

160: Papach (Coal) p. Parra (Hvd), 3:33.

170: Harvey (Coal) p. Livdahl (Hvd), 4:42.

182: Dearth (Coal) def. Sanchez (Hvd), 7-3.

195: Jezik (Coal) p. Flores (Hvd), :24.

220: Leake (Coal) p. N. Rosas (Hvd) 1:09.

285: Miller (Coal) p. Roman (Hvd), 2:28.

106: Rivera (Coal) p. Hernandez (Hvd), 3:48.

113: Blessing (Coal) p. Merida (Hvd), 3:35.

120: Fiegel (Hvd) by fft.

126: I. Rosas (Hvd) p. Rolley (Coal), 3:24.

132: Jimenez (Hvd) by fft.