Huntley’s Colin Abordo continues checking off goals, leads Red Raiders to share of FVC title

HUNTLEY – Colin Abordo made a checklist on his phone before the start of his junior season at Huntley with three things that he wanted to accomplish.

He planned on placing at the Dan Gable Donnybrook, Al Dvorak and IHSA individual state tournaments.

[ Photos: Huntley vs. Prairie Ridge wrestling ]

Abordo achieved two of those goals earlier this year when he placed seventh at Donnybrook and third at Dvorak. And while he still has roughly a month left until he can accomplish that final goal, Abordo helped Huntley reach a major milestone against Prairie Ridge on Thursday night.

The Red Raiders defeated the Wolves, 52-23, to capture a share of their seventh Fox Valley Conference title in nine years.

“It feels really good because we keep winning it,” Abordo said. “We definitely want to keep it here for the next couple of years.”

Huntley (21-3, 8-0) won another title despite not having its best night. But like Abordo overcame adversity in his match at 113 pounds, the Red Raiders pushed their way through to pick up a win.

Abodo trailed 3-0 early but regrouped and led 8-5 after the first period. He picked up three more points in the second as he struggled to find his positioning before finally picking up a win by fall in the finals seconds of the second period.

“You can’t get too high when you’re on the highs and you can’t get too low when you’re having a bad match,” Abordo said. “But it’s all just in your mind and how tough you are. You definitely have to fight through. It’s a long season, so you gotta fight through that stuff.”

Part of the resiliency comes from his tough battles with his brother Cameron during practices. The two juniors started wrestling at the beginning of high school and built off of each other to reach success.

Those tough battles gave Colin Abordo experience when he needed reach success this season and something to draw upon to pick up a win Thursday.

“He’s very driven,” Huntley coach B.J. Bertelsman said. “Both him and his brother, they go hard at each other in the practice room. I’ve got to pull them off each other sometimes. But yeah, they’re great wrestlers.”

Sophomores Gavin Niscke (138) and Waylon Theobald (175) and junior Mason Maldonado (285) each won by fall while senior Alex Gutierrez (132) and junior Matt Keaty (144) took their matches by technical fall.

Freshman Cael Saldana (106), sophomore Radic Dvorak (157) and junior Lucas Bittman (165) each won by forfeit.

Although Thursday was an uneven performance for the Red Raiders, Colin Abordo looked for the positives.

“Even though we didn’t wrestle our best, all that matters is we won,” Colin Abordo said. “We know we could do better, so we look forward to getting it back tomorrow.”

Senior Walter Pollack (215) and sophomore Frank Matviychuk (190) each earned a win by fall for Prairie Ridge (3-4, 3-4) while senior Mikey Meade (126) won by technical fall. Senior Jake Lowitzki (120) and sophomore Matt Moritz (150) each won 7-4.

Wolves coach Ross Ryan was proud of the way his team battled Thursday, especially Moritz, who overcame an early 3-0 hole. Despite dropping three matches to forfeits, PR only lost one more match than it won.

“We knew this was going to be tough, but we wanted to see if these kids would show up and compete,” Ryan said. “I feel like they did that.”

The Red Raiders will have a chance to win an outright FVC title with a win against Dundee-Crown on Friday.

Colin Abordo and the Red Raiders are looking forward to an opportunity to win Friday. But he’s also determined to check off that final goal when regionals start in a few weeks.

“Just come to practice every day and work hard,” Colin Abordo said. “[Just do] the extra stuff after practice to make it where I want to go.”