Wrestling: Dixon crowns four champions, takes DeJarnatt title for second straight season

STERLING – With a 20-point lead and seven wrestlers in the finals, things were looking good for the Dixon Dukes on Saturday at the 44th annual Carson DeJarnatt Tournament at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

Four champions, three runners-up and two hours later, the Dukes were celebrating their second straight team title, and third in the last four seasons the tournament has been held.

“We’ve won it a couple of time the past few years, and we all wanted to try and come back and win it again this year,” said junior Cade Hey, who took second at 138 pounds. “We wrestled well today and got it done.”

“Our coaches were pushing us all week to really come out and here and hit everybody home, and I think we really came out and showed everybody what we’re made of,” added senior Ethan Mick, who took second at 195 pounds. “We’ve got to keep it going, and keep winning the championships here. It’s always a good feeling.”

Dixon scored 217 points to defeat runner-up Galesburg (187) and third-place Sterling (186). The Dukes led Galesburg by 20 and the host Golden Warriors by 20.5 points entering the final round, and extended the lead by 10 points with those seven finalists; they also had three third-place finishes as well.

Dixon won the title last season, and also in 2018; the tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to COVID-19.

“That’s incredible, honestly,” senior heavyweight Sean DeVries said. “Being invited to the Sterling Invite, that’s pretty cool in itself. But being able to defend the title, being invited and taking it twice, that’s a pretty cool experience.”

DeVries capped the Dukes’ championship performance with a title of his own, pinning Fulton’s Braiden Damhoff in 1:33. Damhoff looked to throw the lighter DeVries early in the match, but DeVries fended it off and ended up getting Damhoff in a tough spot to finish the heavyweight title bout in the first period.

“He was about 20 pounds bigger than me – I’m kind of a light heavyweight, about 240 – so I knew that he was going to try to throw,” said DeVries, who was seeing his first action on the mat since recovering from a broken right hand suffered during football season. “I was watching him in pre-meet practice, I was watching him during his matches, and he’s a big throwing guy, so I knew he was going to try to throw me, and I was right. My main objective there was just keeping my feet and waiting for an opening to reverse it, and that’s what happened.”

“I thought I had a throw there, but I messed up, and he took advantage,” Damhoff said. “But I definitely feel like I set the tone for my season by making the finals, and I feel like I’ve got a lot more confidence now.”

The bout of the tournament was the 160-pound championship between Erie-Prophetstown’s Jase Grunder and Sterling’s Tommy Tate, both past DeJarnatt champions.

The two wrestled to a scoreless tie through the first period, then Grunder took the lead with an escape midway through the second and a takedown with 30 seconds left in the period. But Tate escaped right at the horn to cut the deficit to 3-1, then scored a reversal with 25 seconds left in the third period to tie the match 3-3.

Looking like things were headed to overtime, Grunder fought out of the bottom position and managed to escape with nine seconds remaining and secure the 4-3 win.

“I knew I had to get a takedown. I got an escape to go up 1-0, and I’m really strong on my feet, and once I got that 3-0 lead, I knew I could relax a little bit with a nice lead,” said Grunder, who was voted by the coaches as the most outstanding wrestler of the upper weights. “He scrambled a little bit there, and he’s really good at scrambling, and he got the reversal. But I’m really strong on the bottom, and even with nine seconds left, I knew I was probably one of the best escapers here, and I went and got it.”

Tate said he was doing everything he could to keep Grunder from getting away, but couldn’t match the E-P senior’s strength in the waning moments.

“I was aware of the time, and I was trying to hold him down, but he’s just so much stronger. He was able to stand up with nine seconds left. It was tough, but he pulled through,” said Tate, who still didn’t feel like he was in wrestling shape following football season. “I had the chance to go into overtime, then with nine seconds left I just made a mistake and let him get up. It was a good match overall.

“I like seeing those matches against good competition early. It gets me ready. Better matches prepares me for going ahead, just knowing how I have to wrestle every match. It was a good match, he just finished it off better.”

The next bout was also close. Dixon’s Steven Kitzman took on Sterling’s Gage Tate at 170 pounds, and ended up pulling out a 6-3 decision.

Kitzman scored a takedown with 15 seconds left in the first period, then after Tate escaped 14 seconds into the second, the Dixon junior scored another takedown with 33 seconds left in that period for a 4-1 lead.

“Once I got a few points on the board and got up a little bit, it gave me confidence to just settle in a little bit and get the job done,” Kitzman said. “It gives me a lot more confidence to be ahead, for sure. If I’m winning the match, I’ve just got to keep it going and not give up a lot of points, and I’m good. It helps a lot.”

Tate let Kitzman up to start the final period, then scored a takedown of his own with 46 seconds remaining to get within 5-3. He let Kitzman up again right away to try and score another takedown, but ran out of time in his comeback bid.

“It got hard at the end. Me and him have always really been friends. For IESA state for fresh-soph, me and him were always wrestling partners, so we kind of knew our weaknesses and strengths,” Tate said. “It makes me feel better knowing that I have better chances. Last year, he pinned me in the first period, and this year, I went out and only finished three points down. I did pretty good this year.”

The Dukes set the tone early in the championship round when Jacob Renkes notched a 9-4 win over Galesburg’s Josh Larkin for the 106-pound title, then teammate Ayden Rowley followed that up with a pin of Galesburg’s Christian Delacruz in 1:04 to claim the 113-pound crown.

After Dixon’s Jayden Weidman dropped the 132-pound title bout in a second-period pin, Hey wrestled Newman’s Carter Rude for the 138-pound championship. Rude, who won a DeJarnatt title last year, got an early takedown to take a 2-0 lead through the first period, then notched an escape and takedown in the second period to take a 5-0 lead.

“My plan was always to take him down, get that confidence. Then once you break a guy, you’ve just got to keep going after him, not let him back up,” Rude said. “He was actually very good at defending my shots, so it was just knowing where I was and what I needed to get. It was just positioning, really.”

Hey started on top to open the third, but Rude escaped again, then recorded a takedown and added a back point to finish the bout with a 9-0 major decision.

“I tried my hardest, but he’s a great wrestler, a really good guy. I just kind of gassed out on the bottom; he’s pretty tough on top,” Hey said. “I tried my hardest; maybe next time I can put up a better fight against him.”

Mick faced off against Erie-Prophetstown junior Luke Otten in the final, but got in a bad spot early on. Otten finished off the bout with a pin in 3:32 to claim his first-ever high school tournament crown.

“I came in with my head on straight, and just wrestled like I knew how. I took him down, and I knew I could get it. I just kept working at it, and ended up with the pin,” Otten said. “It feels really good. I can’t really say that I’ve won a tournament before, so I’m off to a good start this year. I’m excited for the season. I’ve won JV tournaments, but nothing like this. It feels nice.”

“I just felt like I misplaced myself, and it just allowed him to get good openings on me and be able to maneuver his moves,” Mick said.

Wyatt Goossens joined Otten as a runner-up finisher for Erie-Prophetstown, taking second at 126.

Dixon’s third-place finishers were James Simpson at 126, Jayce Kastner at 160, and Owen Brooks at 182. Alex Reuben finished fourth at 220.

Sterling had a pair of champions in Zyan Westbrook at 120 pounds and Isaiah Mendoza at 152. Westbrook won a 5-4 decision over Oak Lawn’s Eduardo Nunez to take his second straight DeJarnatt crown, and Mendoza pinned Galesburg’s Anthony Makwala in 3:12.

Oswaldo Navarro added a runner-up finish at 220 for the Warriors, while Cael Lyons (106), Landon Kenney (132) and Javier Luna (285) all won third-place bouts. Dylan Ottens (138) and Austin Clemens (145) both finished fourth.

Daniel Kelly was a runner-up for Newman, losing a 9-5 decision to Luke Jennings of Clinton (Iowa); Jennings was named the most outstanding wrestlers at the lower weights. The Comets also got a fourth from Briar Ivey (120).

Fulton finished fourth as a team with 133 points, led by its lone champion Zane Pannell. After placing second as a freshman and third last season, the senior finally got over the hump and took home the title.

“I enjoy this tournament; it’s tough, always has been, and it’s nice to get on top for once,” Pannell said. “I enjoy facing people who have been wrestling their whole lives. They teach me a lot about my style, what I can do to improve myself, and it helps me work on my moves. Wrestling them earlier in the season when you don’t have as big of lungs and you’re a little rusty, that’s even better.”

Pannell pinned Oak Lawn’s Hani Odeh in 4:29 at 182 pounds, and said he felt his style matched up well with the game plan Odeh was using in the bout.

“That match was a lot of tying up and some throwing, and I think for me, my style worked really well against his, just because my whole life I’ve had really good hips, and that’s always what I’ve been used to is hipping people over,” Pannell said.

Damhoff was the only runner-up for the Steamers, but Ben Fosdick (145), Skylier Crooks (152) and Chris Carroll (220) all took third, and Justin Heck (106), Camryn Lippens (113), Broden VenHuizen (132) and Mason Kuebel (170) all finished fourth. Fosdick won the award for most pins in the least amount of time, pinning three of his opponents in a total of 5 minutes, 31 seconds.