Coal City celebrates senior night in style with dominating dual wins over Peotone and Lisle

COAL CITY — As the Coal City wrestling team looks to make a third straight IHSA Class 1A Team Wrestling State Finals, the Coalers have embarked on their 2024-25 season relatively young with just four seniors.

Those seniors, led by defending state champion Landin Benson, celebrated their senior night in style in Thursday’s Illinois Central Eight Conference quad meet that included Wilmington, Peotone and Lisle, besting the Blue Devils 79-0 and the Lions 76-0.

Coalers head coach Mark Masters said that this year’s approach is one with all hands on deck, but it all starts with Benson (175 pounds), John Keigher (215), Culan Lindemuth (120) and Alec Waliczek (215).

“Obviously our seniors lead us, especially in the practice room,” Masters said. “They take charge in practice, where all this happens at. ... We’re this good due to this leadership that goes through.”

Fresh off their third-place finish at ABE’s Rumble at the end of December, the Coalers continued to show they’re as deep a team in Class 1A by blanking both the Blue Devils and Lions Thursday. But there were some thrilling matches throughout the night, including an overtime match at 126 pounds.

The Coalers' Cooper Morris, last year’s 113-pound fifth-place state finisher, led Lisle’s Alexander Ferari, a state finalist at 120 pounds last year, 5-4 in the third period when Morris, being faced with a stalling call, cut Ferari, tying things at 5 and sending the match to overtime.

“I didn’t want to give up a stall call, the kid get away from us and us to lose 6-5,” Masters said.

In overtime, Morris was able to seal the deal with a takedown with around a minute left in the period, keeping the Coalers' perfect night intact with one of the most entertaining, exciting matches they’ve seen this season.

“Coop was hard on his feet and is hard in the practice room,” Masters said. “He’s got a big gas tank and is really, really tough mentally. He’s one of those guys, you tell him it’s gonna be OK and he’ll believe it.”

Also in their first action since ABE’s Rumble, where a shorthanded group of six grapplers made the trip, Wilmington returned to full form with a full roster for the first time since before the holiday break Thursday.

Even at full strength, a young, small Wildcats team still has a few holes on the roster that lead to a handful of forfeits and double forfeits on the night, but what head coach Nick Dzubian expects from the grapplers he does have on the mat is toughness and competitiveness. As they looked to see where they stacked up against some of their ICE foes Thursday, that wasn’t something he saw on a consistent basis.

“Today we pretty much learned we struggled to be a tough out on the mat tonight,” Dzubian said. “We know we’re kind of short-handed, young and inexperienced. Sometimes we struggle competing, but sometimes we just need to figure out that we can be tough and still lose a match.”

The Wildcats did find some impressive performances, with Dzubian crediting a 2-0 night from 190-pounder Logan Van Duyne a big win from Memphis Iween at 285 over Lisle as the major highlights, as well as senior and Wildcats wrestling rookie James Ziegler earning his first two Wilmington victories via forfeit.

Both the Coalers and Wildcats will head to the Lyle King Princeton Invitational Tournament this weekend, one of the most prestigious high school wrestling tournaments in the state. Per Bureau County Republican sports editor Kevin Hieronymous, there are seven defending or former individual state champions, 24 state finishers and 59 state qualifiers set to hit the mats in Princeton this weekend.

“It’s kind of a who’s who kind of thing,” Masters said. “It will be good, it will be fun.”