Marmion wins first IHSA Class 3A dual team state title after defeating Hononegah

BLOOMINGTON — Marmion junior Demetrios Carrera was itching for a rematch against Hononegah’s Rocco Cassioppi.

After falling to the eventual Class 3A 132-pound state champion in a 7-1 decision at the individual state meet the weekend before, the junior was given that opportunity, this time in the Class 3A dual team title match.

But it was different for Carrera. He had his team right behind him, and they were hoping that he would be the one to lock up the team title.

Luckily for them, he delivered and the Cadets claimed the first dual team state title in program history with the 42-31 win over the Indians.

“I can’t even tell you how it feels,” Carrera said. “This whole team is family, and to have your family back me up gave me a huge boost. I wasn’t doing it for myself this time, I did it for my family. And I got it done.”

Carrera used a reversal in the final 15 seconds to secure his revenge over Cassioppi with a 6-3 decision.

“I told him before all this that if there was anyone to do it, I wanted it to be him,” Marmion coach Nathan Fitzenrider said. “He told us he wanted this match, so I made him make me a promise to come ready and get it done. And he did it, and that was awesome to see.”

After wrestling one more match, which ended in a major decision victory for sophomore Grayson Garcia (138), the Cadets forfeited the 144 bout to finish the dual with a 42-31 decision.

“This has been something that I’ve dreamed about since I got into coaching, and I got to do it with my little brother,” Marmion coach Anthony Cirrincione said. “It’s a total family thing and it’s unbelievable. Every single kid did their job.”

“They decided that they were going to do it for each other, and I’ve never seen anything like it. In 25 years of coaching, I’ve never witnessed such a team performance, and it was so cool.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Marmion in their quest for the first title. After juniors Zach Stewart (150) and Ashton Hobson (157) won their matches via tech fall and fall to take an 11-0 lead. Hononegah would go on to win four straight bouts, with the final win coming after Joey Favia was disqualified from the 215 matchup, to give the Indians a 19-11 lead.

But even with the team trailing, the Marmion coaches reminded their wrestlers that it was far from over, especially wrestlers like senior Anthony Haddad (165) and junior Vincenzo Testa (175) forcing major decision losses after originally being penciled in to lose their matches by fall.

“All week, we gave them a specific job to do, and that was to help out the team,” Fitzenrider said. “We were specific in what they needed to do. And even while we were losing, we told them it didn’t matter, because they were going to do their job.”

“They decided that they were going to do it for each other, and I’ve never seen anything like it. In 25 years of coaching, I’ve never witnessed such a team performance, and it was so cool.”

—  Marmion coach Anthony Cirrincione

And there couldn’t have been anyone the Cadets wanted to be up there to start the turnaround than senior Mateusz Nycz.

In his final high school match in the 285 bout, Nycz got a win by fall to get Marmion back on the board, which would be followed by back-to-back pins by sophomores Colton Wyller (106) and Preston Morrison (113) to get them back out in front.

“We had a lot of adversity throughout the season, and we’ve just kind of built our way up to get past that adversity,” Nycz said. “We’ve been through that before, and I just knew that I had to do my job.”

After Honnonegah’s Jackson Olson snapped the streak by getting a fall victory of his own over freshman Aidan McClure (120), 126-pound individual champ Nicholas Garcia responded with a victory by fall in the corresponding match, setting the stage for Carrera to clinch the title.

Before the match began, the Marmion coaches, wrestlers and fans all sported shirts with the word ubuntu, an ancient African word meaning “I am because of you.”

And in their quest to become state champions, the Marmion coaches all agreed on one thing — the kids embraced that mantra fully to make history.

“We asked kids to do things out of their comfort zones, and we told them that we can’t be champions without them,” assistant coach Jimmy Garcia said. “It’s been our theme this entire year. We wanted to buy into the team aspect of everyone buying in, and they did that. And if the wrestlers didn’t do what they did, we wouldn’t be able to call ourselves champions.”