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MAPLE PARK – While Yorkville Christian dominated the Kaneland Class 2A Individual Wrestling Regional Saturday to win its fourth team title in a row, the other tournament schools will be well represented at next week’s Washington Class 2A Sectional.
With Mustang wrestlers placing third or better in all but one weight class, Yorkville Christian scored 240.5 points and advanced 13 to the sectional with five first-place and six second-place finishes.
Runner-up Plano (180) matched the Mustangs with top honors in five classes and qualified nine for the next round of the state tournament.
Morris wrestlers took home three first-place medals to come in third (122.5). Six Morris wrestlers will make the trip to Washington next weekend.
Host Kaneland won the 138-weight class and advanced six wrestlers for fourth place (115.5).
“We brought a lot of energy right off the bat, so it set up set kind of tone today,” said Yorkville Christian coach Mike Vester. “There have been times we’ve done tournaments and it’s either slow to start or slow to finish. Today we had a good start and a good finish.”
Yorkville Christian’s Aiden Larsen quickly won the 120 championship by pinning Morris’ Brandon Anderson at the 1:16 mark. Larsen, with a 27-3 record this year, took sixth place in the 113 weight class in last year’s Class 2A State Tournament.
“I wrestled him a few weeks and was almost an identical match,” Larsen said. “I just went and did my thing – stayed on offense and got my shot.”
Teammates Ryan Festerling (106, 27-4), Issac Gray (165, 33-9) and Jackson Allen (190, 29-3) all won their titles by pins. Ryan Alaimo (132, 31-12) took first place by a technical fall.
“Aiden showed his dominance again by winning by fall in the finals against a really good kid. Ryan, a freshman, took on the sixth rank wrestler in his weight class (Morris’ Owen Sater) and got a big takedown in the third period and Issac came up big,” said Vester,
In winning the 157 title match, Plano’s Caidan Ronning, a 2024 state qualifier, extended his winning streak to 35-0.
“I stayed on my offense and just scored points and had some fun today,” the senior said about the championship match.
Antione Gifford (150, 38-0), Luis Ballesteros (175, 35-2), Ridel Larson (215, 18-6) and Tyler Mast (285, 36-9) also took first-place medals back to Plano.
“The kids just work hard. They come out every day to wrestle. All the kids we brought to the mat today stepped up really well for us,” said Plano coach Dwayne Love. “I was proud of what they gave us.”
Brook Claypool, a Morris sophomore, took his first step to return to the state meet by winning the 126 title match by a technical fall.
Claypool, who sports a 36-3 record this season, said his winning strategy was “going right to my high crotch takedown, finishing it right away and then go to my turns on top.”
Wrestling in the 113 weight class, Claypool advanced to last year’s 2A state tournament
Teammates Paxon Valentine (113 36-6) and Carter Skoff (144 43-2) were Morris’ two other first place finishers. Skoff was also a state qualifier last year.
Knight senior Alex Gochis won the 138 championship by a technical fall.
“I had clean attacks and made sure I got the takedowns even if they’re hard-fought,” said Gochis, who has a 38-0 record this year. “The dude in the finals match (Yorkville Christian’s Adrian Wadas-Iuis) fought really hard but I just kept pushing through.“
Streator’s top finisher and sectional qualifier was Jesus Martinez, who took second at 132.