Kane County Chronicle Boys Wrestling Athlete of the Year: St. Charles East junior Dom Munaretto

St. Charles East’s Dom Munaretto was forced to show how much he’d grown as a wrestler early in his junior season.

On Dec. 6 at the Ironman Wrestling Tournament in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Munaretto, a second seed in the 120-pound bracket, suffered an upset loss in the quarterfinals to Rivan Dickman of Brownsburg, Indiana, by a 7-1 decision.

The loss to end the first day of the tournament put Munaretto on his back. The junior could either let the loss have a negative effect on him for the rest of the tournament or he could regain his focus and climb his way through the consolation gauntlet ahead of him.

His choice?

“You’ve just got to always push through and persevere, no matter how hard it gets,” Munaretto said. “It’s just part of the sport. I had to get myself mentally right and physically right with the training I do outside of competing.”

Munaretto locked in. And not just for the rest of the tournament, where he wrestled his way back to third place.

He locked in for the rest of the season.

Munaretto’s loss to Dickman was his only one of the season. He finished with a 52-1 record and won the Class 3A 120-pound bracket for his second state championship in three seasons.

Considering the accolades, Munaretto is the 2024-25 Kane County Chronicle Boys Wrestler of the Year.

“Dom from a couple of years ago probably wouldn’t have bounced back as quickly as he did in that tournament,” St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said. “He woke up the next day refocused with the mindset that he was going to go out and prove everybody wrong. And not only did he bounce back, he proved that he could get away from some of the best kids in the country.

“It was just a completely different kid. And I think at that point, he kind of let go of all fear of failure and just started executing to his capabilities.”

After falling just short of his second state championship the season before at the same arena, Munaretto came in this time boasting a glass half-full mindset that had been a glass half-empty just a season ago.

“When you’re staying positive, the universe brings more to you,” Munaretto said. “And you bring more to yourself as well because when you’re constantly thinking positive, it makes you more likely that positive things will happen to you.”

The mindset worked for him. Munaretto won all of his matches in the tournament via technical fall, including a 19-3 victory over Schaumburg’s Brady Phelps in the Class 3A 120-pound final. He finished the tournament recording 25 takedowns while not giving up a single takedown to an opponent.

“He’s one of the most dominant wrestlers from a single tie that I have ever seen,” Potter said. “He is so aggressive, but he also did a good job being stingy with his defense, too. It’s very rare that you can sit back in a chair as a coach in the state finals and feel no pressure.”

For both Munaretto and Potter, the defining moment of the season came in the championship match against Marmion at the Loffredo Duals on Jan. 11. Munaretto got his rematch against Nicholas Garcia, who had beaten him for the Class 3A 113-pound state title the season before.

Much like the state title bout, Garcia got the early jump on Munaretto, building a 9-3 lead midway through the final period and forcing Munaretto to the bottom.

As the match was drawing closer to an end, Munaretto was faced with another choice – let Garcia ride out the clock and get another victory over him or find a way out and turn the match around

Munaretto’s answer this time?

“When I’ve gotten in tough spots in the past, sometimes I’ll go to my head,” Munaretto said. “But this time around, I was a lot better at staying composed and just focusing on getting the next point and just keep wrestling.”

Keep wrestling he did. Munaretto went on to score six points with a reversal and near fall in the final 15 seconds of the match to force the bout to overtime, where he secured a 10-9 victory in the second overtime.

For Potter, it wasn’t just a win that could define Munaretto’s season, but his career as well.

“That [state title] match could have haunted him forever, but instead he used it as something to learn from and was kind of able to get his redemption,” Potter said. “That was kind of the moment in the season when I feel like he finally got over the hump of where we had struggled.

“We had to get rid of the question mark that not only could he get away, he can do it against some of the bigger and best wrestlers in the country. And there’s nothing like proving a point against your rival in a high stakes, high leverage situation.”

Munaretto, who is 156-4 in his career, is focused on working his way onto the U.S. national U20 team and hopefully compete in the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, in August.

Once he gets back to the mats for his final high school season, he hopes to get his first undefeated season since his freshman year and eclipse the 210-career win mark.

“I just want to improve everything and just constantly keep growing and getting better and hopefully get all bonus point wins at that,” Munaretto said.