Boys wrestling: Yorkville places second, St. Charles East third in Class 3A at dual team state

BLOOMINGTON – The Yorkville and St. Charles East boys wrestling teams each earned hardware for the second straight season at the IHSA Class 3A dual team state tournament at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.

The Foxes, who placed fourth last season, finished second, falling 59-6 to champion Mount Carmel on Feb. 24.

St. Charles East, last year’s state champion, bounced back from a semifinal setback to Mount Carmel to earn a 37-22 triumph over Libertyville in the third-place match.

“They are good,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said of Mount Carmel after his team finished 22-5 in duals on the season. “They [the Caravan] are not only one of the best teams in the state of Illinois but the entire country. We knew this was going to be a very tough match, but my guys kept scrapping from start to finish and wrestled as hard as they could.

“The whole team was able to see there are different levels to things. Mount Carmel is just on a different level. They are very solid in every fundamental of wrestling all the way through their lineup. There really isn’t a weak spot. My guys were able to see what big-time wrestling is and hopefully take something away from today.”

Yorkville reached the championship match with a 36-20 win in the semifinals.

In the victory over Libertyville, the Foxes received wins from Liam Fenoglio (113 pounds, 7-3 decision), Daniel Martino (120, 14-2 major decision), Dominic Recchia (138, 6-2 decision), Dominick Coronado (144, pinfall in 5:16), Jack Ferguson (150, 21-6 technical fall), Cameron Peach (157, 9-4 decision), Ryder Janeczko (165, 12-5 decision), Luke Zook (190, 5-3 decision) and Luke Chrisse (215, pinfall in 2:38).

Yorkville’s finish at state is its best since taking second in Class 2A in 2012.

“We’ll lose a couple starters in Dominick Coronado and Ben Alvarez, both state qualifiers, but we’ll have a lot coming back and a pretty good freshmen class coming in,” Oster said. “I think we’ll be pretty good again next year and hopefully can get down here for a third straight year.”

St. Charles East captured seven of the opening 10 matches in the win over Libertyville (13-3).

Saints finding the win column were Kaden Potter (106, 9-7 decision), Dom Munaretto (113, 22-6 technical fall), Gavin Woodmancy (126, 16-0 technical fall), Ben Davino (138, 22-7 technical fall), Jayden Colon (150, pinfall in 1:35), Gavin Connolly (157, pinfall in 5:06), Anthony Gutierrez (165, 17-5 major decision) and Matt Medina (285, 8-3 decision).

“We had a couple of younger guys come up a little short in some close matches, but that’s why they are here to experience this,” St. Charles East coach Jason Potter said. “Today was some really high-level wrestling with the four teams left. I’m proud of the effort my guys gave today and all season.”

The Saints fell to Mount Carmel 35-30 in the semifinals. St. Charles East wins came from Davino (138, 21-6 technical fall), Colon (144, 11-3 major decision), Gutierrez (165, pinfall in 1:36), Brody Murray (190, 7-4 decision) and Brandon Swartz (215, pinfall in 3:58).

“We knew Mount Carmel, Joliet Catholic and us were all going to be in the hunt for this,” Potter said. “It was going to come down to who had a good day and who could stay the healthiest. The dual with Mount Carmel earlier [Feb. 24] was a great dual. Both teams wrestled super tough. We lost Tyler Guerra [138] to an injury in last week’s individual state tournament, which was tough for us this weekend, but the guys all really stepped up and fought to the end.”