Inside wrestling

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Athlete of the Week

JACK DECHOW

Richmond-Burton, jr.

Dechow won the Antioch sectional Saturday at 171 pounds to remain perfect on the year at 28-0. He returns to state for the second time, placing second last year at 160. This year will be a little different for Dechow who will be joined by nine of his teammates.

“It feels awesome,” Dechow said of the company. “It should be a sweet experience for sure.”

Noteworthy

Sectionals by the numbers: The 37 area wrestlers who qualified for state Saturday at sectionals is the most since the IHSA moved to three classes for the 2009 state tournament. Last year, 22 local wrestlers qualified and in 2009, the area sent 29.

By class, 1A had four, 2A sends 24 and 3A nine. The biggest jump was at 2A, which qualified 14 last year. The difference is even greater when you factor in that Prairie Ridge, which sent four last year, moved to 3A this year. Richmond-Burton led area schools with 10 qualifiers and Crystal Lake Central had nine.

Most ever: Richmond-Burton coach Bret Wojcik and Marengo coach Mike Crane both said that their programs set school records for the number of wrestlers who qualified for state. The Rockets’ 10 blows away their previous best of three qualifiers. The number is even more astounding because R-B technically only qualified nine out of regionals. Zach Boettjer finished fourth at 285 but replaced Antioch’s Lee Shannon who was injured in the semifinals of the Grayslake North Regional. Marengo sends three with a previous best of two, which Crane said was 15 or 20 years ago.

First time in Champaign: Of the 37 area wrestlers who qualified for state, 21 did so for the first time. The list included eight seniors. First-time qualifiers are:

Class 1A

Alden-Hebron: Tyler Henken, sr.
Harvard: Chance Shelton, so., Nathan Cowan, jr.

Class 2A
Crystal Lake Central: Mike Zelasco, fr., Kyle Fugiel, fr., Frank Abitua, sr.
Richmond-Burton: Garrett Sutton, fr., Mike Hrdlicka, fr., Matt Ellis, jr., Brett O’Kane, jr., Connor Graves, sr., Joe Dedick, so., Zach Boettjer, sr.
Johnsburg: Zak Didricksen, sr.
Marengo: Jake Keefer, sr., Mark Hendricks, jr., Angel Botzoc, sr.,

Class 3A SFlbJacobs: Austin Ryan, fr.
Huntley: Josh Symbal, jr.
Crystal Lake South: Tom Gerszewski, jr.
Cary-Grove: Trent Atkins, so., Corey Meyer, sr.

This week’s top meets

Friday and Saturday

IHSA State Finals in Champaign

The only question that remains in the boys wrestling individual season is how many of the 37 area wrestlers will get a place on the awards stand.

– Rob Smith
rsmith@nwherald.com