December 04, 2024
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Wrestling: Yorkville Christian wins third straight Reaper Classic championship

Mustangs win five individual championships to out-distance runner-up Oregon

By Chris Walker
Ty Edwards of Yorkville Christian pins St. Ignatius during the 120-pound championship match up on Saturday at the Plano Reaper Classic held at Plano High School.

Ty Edwards of Yorkville Christian pins St. Ignatius during the 120-pound championship match up on Saturday at the Plano Reaper Classic held at Plano High School. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

PLANO – Jeremy Loomis helped Yorkville Christian win a state wrestling title a season ago, but prior to Saturday the senior hadn’t won a high school tournament.

He defeated Hope’s Uriah Martin-Velez, 8-1, at 195 pounds, to give the Mustangs their seventh championship during the Plano Reaper Wrestling Classic and help the team win the team title for the third straight year.

Yorkville Christian finished comfortably in front of runner-up Oregon, 247.5 to 184 points. The Mustangs met the Hawks in four title matches and won all of them including at 170 pounds where Jackson Gillen pinned Gabe Eckerd at 3:41.

“Watching those guys have success after success after success is nice, especially when it’s all of your friends,” Loomis said. “I feel like I’m up-and-coming, but it’s so nerve-wracking. Before the match I was psyching myself out about whether I was actually good enough to win or not, and obviously I was capable of it. It’s just hard to be like them when they’re so much better than I am.”

If Loomis is in need of a nickname, The Modest Mustang would be a great choice.

“Wrestling with these guys is an experience none of us are going to forget,” Loomis said. “It’s more than wrestling at the end of the day. It’s a fun experience with all your friends and something to look back and tell you kids about, how we did it and it was back-to-back-to-back-back.”

Loomis had already watched Ty Edwards (120) win by pin as well as a far from 100% healthy Noah Dial (132) blank Tremont’s Mason Mark, 6-0, before the four straight victories over Oregon wrestlers, beginning with Grason Johnson’s major decision over Lane Halverson.

“I didn’t like the way I was wrestling (on Friday),” Dial said. “I’m still coming off an ankle injury so that’s something I still have to work on.”

Yorkville Christian Noah Dial wrestles during the 1322 weight class during the championship match Saturday Dec. 10th where he took first at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano High School.

Yorkville Christian Noah Dial wrestles during the 1322 weight class during the championship match Saturday Dec. 10th where he took first at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano High School. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

Other champions for the Mustangs included Drew Torza (152), who scored a 7-2 win over Oregon’s Grant Stender and Tyler Martinez (160), who earned a major decision over Stender’s teammate, Anthony Bauer, to improve to 18-0.

“It’s nice to keep the momentum going and we keep feeding off of each other in the finals,” Martinez said. “When you see your teammates go out and win the tournament it just pushes you to go out and do the same. It’s nice to have the environment of champions in the room and the mat.”

It was especially fun for Martinez to win in his hometown.

“Coming back here where it’s my parents’ old high school and my sister’s old high school, I wanted to come out and put on the best show that I could and work as hard as I could and come out with another ‘W,’” he said. “Each match I was trying to get a tech or a pin or a tech pin, if I could. I was just trying to score as much as I could and put on a show for the fans.”

Other notable teams included fifth-place Princeton (125.5), Sandwich (115), Plano (109.5), Dixon (100), Amboy (59), St. Francis (31) and Somonauk (25) among the 20-team field.

Princeton’s Augustus Swanson (105) pinned Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley’s Gage Martin while Augie Christiansen found enough strength to bounce back from an illness to edge Oregon’s Seth Stevens, 6-4, in overtime.

Drew Torza of Yorkville Christian goes head to head with an Oregon wrestler during the 152 weight class during the championship round on Saturday Dec. 10th where he took the win at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano High School

Drew Torza of Yorkville Christian goes head to head with an Oregon wrestler during the 152 weight class during the championship round on Saturday Dec. 10th where he took the win at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano High School (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

Last year, Christiansen defeated a much-smaller Loomis for the 145-pound title.

“I was sick all week so I haven’t been doing much wrestling,” Christiansen said. “I didn’t get to practice on Wednesday and didn’t wrestle in our dual on Thursday so I just came here (on Friday) and it was very rough, but I got some work in. I got everything out of me today and was feeling good.”

While his stamina tank was nearly empty at the very end, he had enough left to prevail.

“You’ve got to just keep telling yourself that you’re not sick, you’re fine,” he said. “Even in the last match I was more tired than I usually would be, but I kept telling myself ‘You’re fine, keep going, keep going,’ and it ended up paying off.”

Chicken wings paid off for Amboy’s Landon Blanton (113) who beat De LaSalle’s Raymond Alvrado, 8-2.

“When I was on top I knew I had the chicken wing like twice, so I went for it,” he said. “He just kind of stopped when it happened. I’m glad I won. I had a tournament before this one which I got third which was pretty good and this was nice to win.”

Another strong finish for Amboy came from Levi Near (132), who edged Hope’s Sammy Saez, 3-2, to take third place.

Sandwich wrestler Kadin Kern competes during the 126 weight class championship match Saturday Dec. 10th at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano high school where he took second.

Sandwich wrestler Kadin Kern competes during the 126 weight class championship match Saturday Dec. 10th at the Plano Reaper wrestling classic held at Plano high school where he took second. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

Sandwich was led by Kadin Kern (126) who took second place. Nolan Bobee (152) placed third while Ashley Strenz (113), Miles Corder (138), Sy Smith (145) and Bryce Decker (170) were fourth.

Plano saved its best for last, although both Eliyas Peray (220) and Alex Diaz (285) came up short in their respective bouts.

“I got fourth freshman year and then the last two years COVID happened and I wasn’t able to do what I wanted,” Peray said. “I wanted to show up today and I got to the championship. I wrestled my hardest. It wasn’t the outcome I wanted but it’s better than nothing.”

Diaz lost for the first time of the season, dropping a 7-4 decision to St. Francis freshman Jaylen Torres.

“Hopefully this will be my only loss of the season,” he said. “I feel like I still have to work on a little bit of my technique and hopefully get a little bit stronger and to work on not getting my knee on the ground against big kids. That’s my no. 1 worst thing that I do and they execute off that.”

Dixon’s Owen Brook (182) dropped a heartbreaking 8-7 decision to Tremont’s TJ Conner to lead the Dukes. In addition, Jayce Kastner (160) took third for the Dukes while Gavin Kramer (120), Ethan Mick (195) and Sean DeVries (285) were fifth.

Somonauk’s Aiden Rowan (126) beat Hoopston’s Aiden Bel, 10-4, to take third place and pace the Bobcats. Mason Smith (113) took sixth.