Boys wrestling: Marian Central, Richmond-Burton qualify most of their lineups from Class 1A Johnsburg Regional

JOHNSBURG – Marian Central senior Anthony Alanis created some nice symmetry with his 113-pound championship at Saturday’s Class 1A Johnsburg Wrestling Regional.

Alanis’ title win was also the 150th of his career and was part of a strong performance by the Hurricanes, who took the team title for the second consecutive year with 235 points.

“A lot of our guys did really well,” Alanis said. “We competed every single match, and that’s what we’re looking for. We’re going to win the regional, we’re ready for team sectional and team state.”

Alanis pinned Richmond-Burton’s Kristian Gersch, who initially was set to compete at 106, for the 113 championship. Alanis, who won the Class 2A 106 state championship at Grayslake Central, got a late start to the season as the IHSA examined the transfer of three Marian wrestlers.

“Finally, halfway through I was able to come back and do those matches, I’m very excited to get 150 now,” Alanis said. “I feel like I’m at my best. All the work our team put in the last couple of weeks is crazy and we’re able to show it in our final tournaments. It’s one of my last high school tournaments, so I’m excited to put on a show for everyone.”

Marian had seven champions and qualified 11 wrestlers for next Saturday’s Byron Sectional. As team champs, the Hurricanes advanced to the Sterling Newman Dual Team Sectional on Tuesday, Feb. 20 against Byron.

The top three regional finishers advance to the sectional; the top four at sectionals qualify for the state tournament.

R-B finished second with 199 points and also is sending 11 competitors to the Byron Sectional. Johnsburg qualified six wrestlers and Marengo will send five to the sectional.

Marian’s Max Astacio won the 165 title and talked about the Hurricanes’ aspirations this month.

“We’re doing the same thing we came to do last year. We’re going to finish what we started last year,” Astacio said. “We have a good lineup, a bunch of guys, I’m pretty sure we can win at least seven state titles and a (dual) team state title too.”

Brayden Teunissen (120), Vance Williams (132), Andrew Alvarado (138), Jimmy Mastny (157) and Nic Astacio (175) joined Alanis and Max Astacio as champions. Austin Hagevold (106), Dan French (190), Connor Cassels (150) and Kaleb Eckman (285) also qualified.

“Not perfect, but today’s not about being perfect, it’s about advancing,” Hurricanes co-coach Jordan Blanton said. “We did a really good job of doing that. In the big matches, we performed really well. A lot of our guys dominated. We lost some close ones too, but I told the kids, ‘It’s better to lose the close ones this week than next week.’ "

R-B’s Emmett Nelson (43-0) remained unbeaten with an 18-7 major decision over Wheaton Academy’s Tyler Jones. Nelson, Brody Rudkin (150) and Alex Reyna (190) won titles for the Rockets. Gersch, Clay Madula (120), Kyan Gunderson (126), Dane Sorensen (138), Isaac Jones (157), Colin Kraus (285), Dominick Dickens (165) and Dylan Falasca (175) also qualified.

“Our guys wrestled well today. It was a good day, 11 out of 12 is not bad,” R-B coach Tony Nelson said. “It would have been nice to walk away with a championship, but we’re advancing almost our whole lineup. That’s great.

“Kristian Gersch bumped up last minute to wrestle 113. He’s been sick all week. He missed the entire week of practice. The plan was to go 106, he didn’t get a workout in, he wasn’t feeling well, we didn’t want him to lose those couple pounds to get down there, so he wrestled at 113 and made the finals.”

For Reyna, who pinned Marian’s French at 190, it was only his second career tournament championship.

“It was pretty exciting,” Reyna said. “I was feeling pretty confident going into the match and got humbled a little bit. I’m glad I was able to come back and hit a pretty big throw. I was going in a little too cocky and too energetic. (French) slowed me down and brought me down to where I needed to be.”

Rudkin had a tough match at 150, beating Wheaton Academy’s Chasen Kazmierczak 3-0.

“I was kind of tired today,” Rudkin said. “My championship match came off a little slow, but I came out first, so I was happy. Just wanting the process of making sectional easier by getting the first seed again. That’s really pushed me through, make sectional easier and get first.”

Johnsburg freshman Eric Bush beat Hagevold 7-6 for the 106 title. The Skyhawks also will send Duke Mays (165), CJ Ameachi (215), Micah Klos (113), Landon Johnson (132) and Erik Bate (138) to sectionals.

“We knew Eric (Bush) would get to the finals,” Skyhawks coach J.D. Sylvanus said. “He’s continued to show up in his final matches with state-ranked competition. We knew going in he was going to have a fighting chance. He’s just continued to get better throughout the year. All the work he put in came to fruition in the championship match.”

Marengo qualified Maverick Quatroke (175), Jonathon Seebring (106), Gavin Prudlick (120), Mason Lampe (144) and Frankie Solis (215).

Alden-Hebron’s Logan Crowell qualified at 190.