St. Charles East girls use six consecutive falls to win first ever home dual over Wheaton North

ST. CHARLES – For the first time in school history, St. Charles East has hosted a girls wrestling meet.

Although from the way their wrestlers went out onto the mat, it looked like they’ve been doing it for years.

In their first-ever home meet, the Saints secured six fall victories in seven matches to secure a 48-6 victory over Wheaton North on Thursday.

“I think these girls have done a great job, they’ve really prepared,” St. Charles East girls coach Chad Theis said. “There’s been a lot of challenges that they’ve worked through, but they’ve done a great job coming together as a team.”

Liv Pearson was the first Saints girls wrestler to ever secure a home victory, as she got a victory by fall over Ash Klobischer in 35 seconds in the 135-pound match.

Pearson’s result seemed to spark something in the rest of East’s wrestlers, as they went on to win their next five matches via pin, with only one of those (Liz Brodenau, 190) coming outside of the first period.

“The drive for these girls right now is trying to figure out how they can dominate,” Theis said. “Learning new moves and how they can continue to grow in that and not let them go. If we have a chance to get the pin, we’re going to take it.”

Jiana Forbes had the only win on the girls side for the Falcons on the night with a fall victory over Aubry Hobbs in the 125-pound match.

Boys wrestling: While the girls team proved that they can be a dominant force on the mat, St. Charles East’s boys team proved that they’re still a force to be reckoned with in their showing.

The Saints picked up victories in 12 of their 14 matches on the night to secure a 63-10 victory over the Falcons. Of their wins, nine of them were bonus-point victories.

“When you’ve been doing this a long time, especially in the team aspect you put a lot of emphasis on those bonus points, because they’re the key to everything,” East boys wrestling coach Jason Potter said. “That’s how guys get trophies and how others go home. As we’ve gotten more competitive as a team over the years, we’ve put a focus on that. But we preach it all the time.”

Six of those bonus-point victories for East came from falls on the night. The Saints had falls from Liam Aye (132) and Logan Tatar (144) before rattling off four straight from 175 to 285.

The Saints final fall victory of the night was probably the most electric. In the 285-pound match, Matt Medina was squaring off with Wheaton North’s Carl Givens, who eliminated him in the sectionals tournament a season ago. After Givens got a takedown on Medina, the junior pulled a reversal and secured the pin with 5.9 seconds remaining in the second period.

“It’s been 10 months since then, but Matt’s been thinking about that one ever since then,” Potter said. “He was a little frustrated, so we knew he was going to be amped up going out there, but we wanted him to stay calm. Both guys were out there wrestling hard, and he stayed calm.”

Wheaton North only managed two victories on the night, with both earning bonus points. Ryan Rosch got a win by fall in the first period of the 150 match over Isaac Lenard, while Danny Hyde (106) had a 15-3 major victory over Parker Lee.

“We knew they were a tough team heading into this,” Wheaton North coach Tim Walker said. “We tried to physically and mentally prepare ourselves with a good week of practice and focusing on re-attacking and looking for opportunities. But some of the matches just didn’t go the way we wanted them to go, so we’ve got to continue to improve.”