February 26, 2025
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Joliet Catholic grinds out win over Yorkville to punch ticket to state

By Chris Walker - for Shaw Local News Network
Aurelio Munzo of Joliet Catholic Academy keeps a hold of Vincent Konecki of Yorkville during the 132-weight class on Tuesday Feb. 25, 2025, held at Yorkville High School.

Aurelio Munzo of Joliet Catholic Academy keeps a hold of Vincent Konecki of Yorkville during the 132-weight class on Tuesday Feb. 25, 2025, held at Yorkville High School. (David Toney for Shaw Local News /David Toney)

YORKVILLE – A broken wrist wasn’t on Joliet Catholic Academy sophomore Luke Foster’s Christmas wish list, but he got one just a few weeks before the holiday.

On Tuesday night at the Class 3A Yorkville team dual sectional, Foster pinned Yorkville sophomore Landon Jenkins in the 113-pound final to help the Hillmen punch their ticket to the state finals this weekend in Bloomington. The Hillmen beat the Foxes, 43-27.

“During our first tournament, my second match back, I broke my wrist on Dec. 6,” Foster said. “I broke it earlier in the summer so I’m going to assume that had something to do with that. It’s great to be back. We did great. It seemed some of my teammates stepped up who maybe lost to these kids in the past and won big, majors and bonus points and pins. We were just getting it done out there.”

Hillmen sophomore Derrick Pomatto was battling a back injury before the season got rolling. The multi-sport athlete bumped up for the sectional from 215 to 285 to assist in the effort to qualify for state.

The competition began at 285 so Pomatto got the Hillmen started with a 4-0 win over junior Xavion Ulloa.

Ramsey Barton answered for the Foxes with a pin of sophomore Jon Higueros, but the Hillmen followed with three quick pins with Foster getting it started in just 1:25.

Maddux Tindal followed with a pin of junior Liam Fenoglio in 1:23 in the 120-pound final and Matthew Laird finished sophomore Nathan Craft in 1:14 at 126.

Those three straight pins were the beginning of seven straight wins by the Hillmen, which helped them clinch their berth as early as Nolan Vogel’s 4-2 decision against Donovan Rosauer at 150 that made it 38-6.

Sophomore Aurelio Munoz won by decision at 132, sophomore Jason Hampton earned a tech at 138 and senior Elias Gonzalez got another pin at 144 pounds for the Hillmen.

Hampton just took third place at 126 pounds over the weekend. Like Pomatto, he sacrificed for his team and wrestled up.

“The team needed me to bump up to 138 and I ended up tech-ing the kid, and not many people expected a tech,” he said. “But I showed up and showed out. It’s easy to show up and wrestle good when you got teammates winning back-to-back-to-back. It’s an adrenaline thing.”

After Luke Hamiti’s tech fall victory at 165 pounds over sophomore Caleb Viscogliosi, the Hillmen were on the right side of the point differential that they’d mathematically won. It allowed them to forfeit the final three matches, which included particularly tough ones against state qualifiers Luke Zook (third at 175) and Ryder Janeczko (fourth at 190).

A rough way certainly for those two seniors to end.

“Going into it we felt it was going to be a really close match, maybe 7-7 and come down to bonus points,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. “We thought we were going to have an edge there. They stepped up and won the matches we thought we were going to win and some of those they got pins and it snowballed from there.”

Yorkville lost to JCA, 44-27, when the teams met at the Flavin at DeKalb on Dec. 28.