Saturday will be a homecoming for Jordan Blanton and Ryan Prater when the Marian Central co-coaches lead their team to the Class 1A Richmond-Burton Regional.

Blanton was a three-time state champion with the Rockets and also served as a volunteer coach with the program along with Prater the past two seasons. Both first-year coaches are excited to show off the program they’ve built over the past six months.

“I’m very excited for the Marian Central wrestling program to go in there, and I think it’s going to be the best wrestling environment in the history of Richmond-Burton,” Blanton said.

Blanton isn’t too far off with the hype. Saturday’s regional will feature five wrestlers ranked top-five in the state according to Illinois Matmen and three wrestlers ranked sixth to 10th. Sixteen wrestlers in the regional earned an honorable mention ranking.

The Hurricanes feel confident after a strong win against Wheaton Academy to finish the regular season Friday. Charlie Fitzgerald picked up a strong win against an undefeated wrestler, and Austin Hagevold returned at 106 to win by fall and secure the win for Marian.

“We definitely ended on the right note and switched our focus to the regionals, which we’re really excited for,” Blanton said.

Marian now enters the most important time of the year after what Blanton likes to consider a practice round. In his mind, the Hurricanes had an entire season to compete against some of the best in the state and country in order to prepare themselves for a run at an individual and a state tournament.

The Hurricanes didn’t change their practice schedule this week from what they’ve done all season. Marian wrestlers only wrestle in live matches and only drill at practice, along with some conditioning to make sure they’re ready to compete during a grueling four-week stretch.

All of that hard work starts to pay off Saturday, as the Hurricanes attempt to make a statement in a gym Blanton knows very well.

“I’ve never lost in that gym as a competitor, I don’t plan to start anytime soon,” Blanton said. “I’m really excited for the Hurricanes to go in there, make a big splash and kind of announce our presence to the entire state.”

McHenry not worried about rust

Six McHenry wrestlers didn’t get a chance to end the regular season with a match because of injuries and illnesses for Dundee-Crown on Thursday.

Ryan Hanson (106), Jimmy Norris (113), Ruben Malgarejo (152), Chris Moore (170), Peyton Horowicz (182) and Jesse Saavedra (285) all won by forfeit and will have a two-week gap between their last tournament and Saturday’s Class 3A Grant Regional.

“It would’ve been fun to wrestle a full 14 matches, but you can only control what you can control,” McHenry coach Dan Rohman said. “I think we’ve taken care of that this season.”

Rohman wasn’t concerned about the two-week layoff for those wrestlers and won’t change his preparation plan in order to give them some live action. The Warriors have done less live action in practices this week with more drilling and plenty of conditioning to make sure the Warriors can compete in full matches.

Despite slight changes from their usual week, the goal remains the same heading into Saturday.

“We’re trying to make sure that everyone stays healthy and keeps themselves in shape,” Rohman said.

Dundee-Crown gaining full strength

D-C coach Tim Hayes decided to put the health of his team for the postseason ahead of an opportunity to upset McHenry from winning an outright FVC title.

The Chargers forfeited six matches Thursday because of injuries and illnesses and could have brought back a couple wrestlers for the dual, but Hayes decided to make sure they were ready for Saturday’s Class 3A regional at D-C.

“We knew that we were going against a team that was likely to win conference, and I knew we were going to give up a handful of forfeits,” Hayes said. “If I put in two more matches in there, it would not have helped the team out, and it might’ve hindered our individual’s progress.”

Hayes expects all six forfeits to return to the lineup when the Chargers start their postseason run. The Chargers won’t change their normal approach to prepare for the regional.

“It’s not changing anything up too much,” Hayes said. “It’s just doing what we’ve been working on. If we’re in shape, we’re not going to get in shape this week. Just focus on our technique, focus on our game planning and just get ready for the regional.”

Marian’s Harman looks for revenge against R-B’s Nelson

Saturday’s Class 1A Richmond-Burton Regional will feature one of the best matchups in the state.

The Rockets’ Emmett Nelson and Hurricanes’ Kaden Harman will compete in the 126-pound bracket. Illinois Matmen ranks Nelson No. 3 in the state and Harman No. 5. Nelson finished as the state runner-up at last season’s IHSA state tournament in Class 1A at 113, and Harman finished fifth after losing to the eventual state champion in the quarterfinals.

Harman will be looking for revenge after Nelson bested him twice in last season’s tournament, in the regional and sectional finals.

“The main mindset right now is training as hard as I can so I can win that regional title,” Harman said.

Crossing county lines

Nine McHenry County area teams will cross county lines to compete in regionals Saturday.

In Class 2A, Crystal Lake Central, Prairie Ridge, Woodstock and Woodstock North will all travel two counties over to compete at Rockford East, while Crystal Lake South and Cary-Grove will travel to Kane County and compete at Burlington Central.

In Class 3A, Huntley, Jacobs and Hampshire will all travel to Belvidere North in Boone County.

Despite all the traveling, Saturday’s regionals should make for some interesting matchups since many of the wrestlers won’t be familiar with each other.

“We’re going west this year,” Crystal Lake Central coach Justen Lehr said. “We don’t see a lot of those teams who will be at the sectional.”