Boys wrestling: Yorkville crowns five regional champions, takes team title

YORKVILLE – Yorkville sent nine wrestlers into the finals and four others onto the third-place mat during Saturday’s Class 3A Yorkville Regional.

The Foxes finished with five regional champions, four others who placed second and three more who took third. All 12 of them are advancing to the Quincy Sectional.

“Coming into this these guys knew our goal is not to just win a regional title, it’s to make the state finals,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. “It starts with wrestling well at regionals, and these guys taking care of themselves, takes care of the team. Now they can focus on that for the next couple weeks and aspirations for state titles and state place winners, and then we got the other guys continuing training with us and we’ll focus on that team sectional and ultimately team state. Right now is a little bit of a focus on individuals.”

Winners for the Foxes included Nathan Craft, Dominic Recchia, Dominick Coronado, Jack Ferguson and Luke Zook.

In a battle between sophomores at 126 pounds, Craft (26-20) knocked off Moline’s Dominick Diaz (10-7) by.a 5-3 decision.

“I wrestled 120 last year and didn’t qualify,” Craft said. “I put in a lot of hard work in practice and off-season work, and I have more confidence in my shots. I’m glad it paid off.”

Recchia (27-14) scored a major decision win over Moline’s Kayden Serrano (24-18) to take the 132-pound championship. The junior attributes his success to the commitment to putting in the time behind the scenes to get better.

“The more work you put in the better you’re going to get always,” Recchia said. “I think that’s pretty much what I’ve done this whole off-season. I’ve been putting in a lot of work, hit the gym and that’s why I’m at where I’m at right now.”

Coronado (26-4) earned a 6-1 decision over Plainfield Central junior Matthias Hautzinger (21-8) at 144.

“I had a similar result when I wrestled him before,” Coronado said. “I’m coming back from a shoulder injury so I’m just working hard to punch my ticket to state.”

Ferguson (38-10) won by fall over Oswego East’s Noah DeMarco (35-8) for the 150 title. He was the only wrestler to pin their opponent in the finals at the regional.

“I dominated him on top at conference last week and knew it was going to be case today,” Ferguson said. “I knew if I got to my stuff I would be good.”

Zook (41-4) knocked over Oswego senior Colin O’Grady (30-10) by major decision at 175 to become the Foxes fifth regional champ.

Donovan Rosauer (138), Ryder Janeczko (157), Caleb Viscogliosi (165) and Ben Alvarez (215) placed second for the Foxes while Ramsey Barton (106), Liam Fenoglio (113), and Luke Chrisse (190) took third.

Yorkville finished with 245 points. Moline followed with 175 and Oswego was third with 171.

Brayden Swanson, Joey Griffin and Brodie Slou each claimed regional titles for the Panthers.

Swanson (29-7) edged Rosauer (30-14) by a 3-2 decision to win 138.

“I’ve been working all year for this moment,” Swanson said. “I just wanted to be doing better than I did last year without getting stuck in stupid positions and winning good matches like that, so it was really cool.”

Griffin (33-4) blanked Yorkville’s Caleb Viscogliosi (23-13) in the 165 final by a 7-0 score.

“We’ve known each other forever,” Griffin said, “We used to go to the same club. I just had to keep the pace up and keep him down and that’s all there was to it.”

Slou (24-16) escaped Plainfield South junior Ian Portillo (20-20) by sudden victory to claim the 285 title.

Last year Slou lost both of his matches at the regional.

“We wrestled for fifth place at conference and it was 1-0 so I knew it was going to be another tough match,” Slou said. “I only had like nine wins last year so it was a rough year, so to win my regional feels great. I’ve got to give credit to my practice partners for being there every day and for my coaches, they are very good about pushing me and they know what I can do and they helped me see that this year.”

Jonathan Theodor (113), Aiden Ortiz (120) and Colin O’Grady (175) took second for the Panthers while Vincent Manfre (126) and Ethan Essick (150) were third.

Plainfield North junior Maddox Garbis (38-3) jumped ahead 6-0 before beating Theodor by an 8-6 decision for the 113 title.

“I feel the score doesn’t really tell how I wrestled,” Garbis said. “I’ve wrestled him like eight times in the past so we know each other. I’ve never lost to him but he’s a great competitor.”

Tovar took second at 190 while Aiden Durell (120), Luke Grindstaff and Liam Corona (285) placed third for the the Tigers.

Plainfield East senior Aiden Villar (31-8) beat Ortiz 6-0 for the 120 championship.

Camden McCloskey (132), Niko Duggan (157) and Jerry Nino (165) took third for the Bengals.

Plainfield South senior Matt Janiak (38-4) earned a 7-3 decision over Yorkville senior Ben Alvarez (37-4) at 215. Alvarez was last year’s Class 3A state champion at 220.

“He’s a good friend of mine so definitely the respect goes both ways,” Janiak said. “I’ve known him forever but never really wrestled because he was always heavier, but now we’re in the same weight class and have been able to meet a couple of times.”

Alvarez won in double overtime at conference when they last squared off.

“I was definitely able to wrestle my style instead of going into his style of wrestling this time,” Janiak said. “I changed it up to constantly be in his face and constantly shoot him to get him a little unwired so I felt like I was successful with that.”

Portillo took second for the Cougars at 285.