Antoine Gilford, Plano teammates ‘do something big,’ take second to Yorkville Christian at Reaper Classic

PLANO – Antoine Gilford was looking to do something big in his final Reaper Classic.

So were a couple of his Plano senior teammates.

Gilford (150), Caidan Ronning (157) and fellow senior Richie Amakiri (215) wrestled their way to the top of the podium to help the Reapers take second place with 159 points.

“Coming into this year I just knew that I had to do something important,” Gilford said. “I knew I had the potential and the strength and I worked hard enough to be able to get somewhere in this tournament. Freshman year and sophomore year didn’t go my way, I didn’t place. But junior year I came home with fourth place and knew this year with the work I put in during the off-season I should be able to take it home.”

Gilford earned an 8-4 decision over Glenbard South junior Jin Tai in his title match.

“I knew when I got into my ties he was a strong person,” Gilford said. “I knew his defense was going to be there so getting to my shots was really important. Being able to control him with my ties and everything, getting those important takedowns is what I think I needed, especially going into the third period, I knew I had to control the match from there on.”

Yorkville Christian won with 233.

The Mustangs were well represented in Saturday’s place matches, with 11 wrestlers advancing.

Jackson Allen (190) took down De La Salle’s Terrelle Jackson at 4:42 to take first place while Aiden Larsen (120), Nico Harris (132) and Robby Nelson (157) fell short in their championship matches. Larsen and Nelson were attempting to defend titles from the Reaper Classic from a year ago.

Ryan Alamo (126), Tyler Gleason (175) and Garrett Tunnell (215) won third-place matches for the Mustangs. Davin Torza (106), Christian Sandoval (113) and Isaac Gray (165) took fourth. Adrian Wadas-Luis (138) took sixth.

“We had some guys who did well and had some other matches where we expected more championships,” Mustangs coach Mike Vester said. “So we got some things we’ve got to work on, but it was a great team effort again and that’s the running theme all year - team - team - team - but we’ve got some things we’ve got to clean up.”

Ronning, who was the 150-pound champion at the tournament last year, became a two-time champion once he pinned Yorkville Christian senior Robby Nelson in 2:56.

“It’s a lot more nerve-wracking (after winning last year), because I feel I had a lot more to lose,” Ronning said. “But I just think I used that to motivate me. I’ve gotten a lot better at not letting the stress take over. I think the mental game was not there for me last year, especially at state I got in my head and let the long waits get to me and didn’t perform like I wanted to so in the off-season I put in a lot of work.”

Amakiri won by a 23-12 major decision over Ottawa Marquette sophomore Alex Schaefer.

“We decided to put in the work and we worked in the summer doing off-season and doing preseason work and it brought us up to this point,” Amakiri said. “It means a lot because when we started out no one knew who Plano was.”

Shane Downs (113) took second place for the Reapers and Trevion Gilford (144), Luis Ballesteros (175) and Tyler Master (285) were fourth.

“We are excited for our guys,” Plano coach Dwayne Love said. “This is a group that works hard. They hold each accountable for everything they do and they are a fun group. They’ve been working together for the last four years to get to this point, wrestling in summer, off-season wrestling, doing everything together.”

Princeton finished third with 131, Gibson City-Melvin Sibley edged Hoopeston 125.5 to 124.5 for fourth and fifth place respectively.

Freshman Kane Dauber took out Harris from Yorkville Christian to win the 132 title for Princeton.

Casey Etheridge (165) also won for the Tigers, slipping past Ottawa Marquette’s Reily Leifheit in a tiebreaker.

Brayden Bickett (106) took sixth for the Tigers while teammates Kaydin Gibson (126) and Ian Morris (216) placed fourth and Ace Christiansen (144) took second.

Christiansen dropped a 10-4 decision to Sandwich sophomore Cooper Corder in the finals. The two have quite the history with Christiansen having most recently beaten Corder for third place in the state in Class 1A last February.

“He’s really good and shows me what I need to work on,” Corder said. “And then today I knew he had the last one so I know in his head he’s thinking ‘I’m there,’ but really I thought there was no chance that I was going to lose today so I went out there and do what I do best and came out and did it. I think it was a good match.”

Sandwich’s Devon Blanchard (215) took third, Colten Stone (132) and Kaden Clevenger (190) were fourth, Dom Urbanski (113), Jaxson Blanchard (138) and Joshua Kotalik (157) were fifth and Jakob Gruca (126) was sixth.

Dixon placed seventh with 116.5. Jack Ragan (113) earned an 8-6 decision over Downs for the championship win. Riley Paredes (106) was second, Jayden Weidman (157) was third, Doolan Long (120) took fourth, Preston Richards (144) and Dylan Bopes (285) were fifth and Seth Shaffer (190) was sixth.

Ottawa Marquette was ninth with 106.5. Leifhart and Alex Schaefer placed second, Koby Clark (120) and Beau Thompson (132) were third and Shea Conner (113) and Brysen Manley (150) were sixth.

Amboy took 10th place with 97.5. Aden Spinelli (106) and Caiden Heath (144) took third, Ty Florschuetz (120), Chase Montavon (132) and Evan Flanagan (215) were fifth.

Glenbard South (83.5), Kaneland (73), St. Francis (43.5), Metea Valley (25.5), Marmion (11), St. Viator (6) and St. Ed (3) were among other notable area teams in action.

Wrestling for the first time this season, Kaneland’s Alex Gochis won the 138 title, earning a tech fall win over East Aurora’s Joshua Delgado in his championship match.

St. Francis junior Jaylen Torres saw his bid for a third straight championship victory upended by De La Salle senior David McCarthy with a 6-1 decision.

“There was a lot of good wrestling here today,” Love said. “Some state place finishers got beat here today and we had teams from all over and up to Chicago to up north to Glenbard South. We like to get more teams in here because we like that high level of competition for our kids.”