South sends 9 wrestlers to sectional

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MACHESNEY PARK – Crystal Lake South’s wrestlers looked at the brackets from the IHSA Class 3A Harlem Regional and thought big.

“We thought we could get all 12 of our guys in,” Gators coach Ross Ryan said.

South didn’t go 12 for 12, but the Gators came close. They won four weight classes and qualified nine wrestlers from Saturday’s meet at the Arthur W. Anderson Athletic Facility to next week’s Barrington Sectional.

Hononegah won the team title with 1861⁄2 points and will compete in the Barrington Team Dual Sectional after the IHSA individual state tournaments are completed. South was second with 1571⁄2 points. Nick Fontanetta (103 pounds) ran his record to 33-0 with a pair of victories for the regional title. South’s Mark Mohler (140), Kean Loupee (160) and Tyler Simmons (171) also won regional championships.

The Gators also will send Nick Peters (112), Cullen Smith (125), Tom Gerszewski (135), Anthony Woods (145) and Jason Liuzzi (152) to the sectional. The top three placers in each weight class advance.

“All in all, the kids wrestled excellent,” Ryan said. “We told them, ‘Here are your goals. You do that, the team thing will find itself.’ ”

Huntley’s Lucas Rogers (130) and Cary-Grove’s Josh Nelson (145) were the other two local wrestlers to win regional titles Saturday at Harlem. Rogers did not qualify for sectionals last year; Nelson advanced to the Class 3A state tournament.

Rogers (33-7) spent a great deal of time wrestling in the offseason, but he didn’t spend much time on the mat Saturday. It took him all of 4:30 to dispense of his three opponents by pins.

“This is awesome. I came in thinking I was going to win, and I wanted to wrestle well and get through to sectionals,” said Rogers, who pinned Harlem’s Kane Cunningham in 2:37 for the title. “It was hard work in the offseason. I wrestled a lot of tournaments, probably two seasons’ worth [about 60] matches.”

Nelson (25-5) got a late start on wrestling after helping the Trojans win the Class 6A state football championship but is ready for a return trip to state. He won with two pins and a 9-0 major decision against Boylan’s Lucas Schumacher in the championship.

“My goal was to dominate everybody here, and I felt like I did that,” said Nelson, a repeat regional champ.

Ryan was especially happy for seniors Mohler and Simmons, who are first-time sectional qualifiers.

“I came in with the No. 1 seed, and I’ve never been No. 1 before,” Simmons said. “The coaches calmed me down, and after the first match it was kind of relieving.”

Simmons (26-14) defeated C-G’s Collin Hansen, 11-1, in the finals. Mohler (30-9) was hampered by a shoulder injury at the end of his junior season but defeated Boylan’s Austin Smith, 6-1, for the title.

“It feels great to be able to win a tournament,” Mohler said. “I haven’t done that [this season]. Hopefully I’ll get a decent seeding at sectional.”

South’s Smith was coming off a long period of inactivity after suffering a fracture in his L5 vertebra during Christmas break at the Harvard Tournament.

“I could only do exercises to work my hips and work on core strength,” Smith said. “I just started practicing Monday. I felt a little out of shape, but I did pretty well. My back was good in the first two matches, but I tweaked it a little in the third.”

Smith won his wrestleback semifinal against Huntley’s Jeff Lucas, 4-0, and was awarded the third-place match in a walk-over. He had defeated Harlem’s Mitchell Kennington, 9-3, in a second-round match.