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As Jake Oster’s Yorkville wrestling team gets set to begin the postseason this weekend, he sees a group poised for big things.
The Foxes are certainly prepared.
By design, Yorkville beefed up its schedule this season. The Foxes competed in the Dvorak and Flavin tournaments in December, and the Cheesehead Invitational in Wisconsin and Illini Classic this month. Yorkville has five dual meet losses, to teams ranked No. 1, No. 2, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7.
“There was a reason behind making the schedule as it is. It wasn’t just luck of the draw having it happen like that,” Oster said. “What we have this year and the next couple years, we wanted to see our kids face adversity against the best competition in the state.”
The Foxes head into this weekend’s Southwest Prairie Conference meet as the favorite on their home mat with momentum.
Yorkville took second place behind St. Charles East at the Illini Classic last weekend. Yorkville saw 10 of its 13 wrestlers finish in the top eight and earn a medal, and the Foxes went 7-3 in the medal round. The Foxes had individual titles from Jack Ferguson (132), Luke Zook (170), Hunter Janeczko (195) and Ben Alvarez (220), while Ryder Janeczko took second at 145.
“It was good to see,” Oster said. “We had a little dip in the Flavin and the Cheesehead, some guys underperformed a bit but we’re rounding back into shape with the Illini Classic last week. It’s good to have those tough ones out of the way. They’re prepared for four weeks in a row of quality competition.”
The Foxes’ lineup looks whole with Hunter Janeczko and Dominick Coronado recently returning. Yorkville won the regular-season conference title, and now looks to repeat as tournament champions. Oster expects Dominic Recchia to have a challenging draw at 132 pounds, Jack Ferguson at 138 will have a Minooka kid who is a returning conference champion, Coronado at 145 will have a Minooka wrestler who is a returning state qualifier, Janeczko at 195 will have tough competition from Plainfield South and at 220 Yorkville’s Ben Alvarez could face Plainfield North’s Leo Tovar for the fourth time.
“As a whole, team-wise we should be OK,” Oster said. “Individually everybody will have a good one this year that’s in their bracket. We’re pretty confident in our team. We want to wrestle as good as we can, we do that we should win conference again.”
Looking ahead, Yorkville is also a significant favorite in the Class 3A regional at Moline Feb. 4, which with a team title would put the Foxes in a dual sectional and potentially a rematch with Edwardsville. Yorkville beat Edwardsville 35-30 in a dual this season.
“Hopefully that sets us up for a quarterfinal at state,” Oster said. “As a team our goal is to get back to where we were last year, and get farther and get to state and bring home a trophy. We have a good shot at doing that if we compete well.”
Sandwich, Plano set for I-8 meet
Sandwich and Plano, meanwhile, will be in action this weekend at the Interstate 8 Conference meet at Sycamore.
Sandwich won the conference championship last year, but graduated 10 seniors off of that team. This team is much younger, with 5-7 freshmen filling out the Indians’ dual meet lineup. Sandwich’s lone conference dual win came against Plano. Sandwich coach Derek Jones projects Rochelle as the meet favorite this weekend.
“We’ll wrestle a handful of kids at the varsity level,” Jones said. “We’re more focused on regionals.”
Jones said that Kaden Kern at 126 pounds has a banged up shoulder, and will be held out for regionals which is Feb. 4 at Plano. Ashlyn Strenz, a conference runner-up last year, has a losing record but Jones is excited to see how she does as she’ll be competing in the girls state series this year.
At 138 Sandwich’s Miles Corder was a conference champion last year, and Jones expects he’ll do well as will Sy Smith at 145, Nolan Bobee at 152 and Bryce Decker at 170.