Four area wrestlers win titles at R-B tournament

Richmond-Burton's Zach Schuler signals neutral against Johnsburg's Josh Jewell on Saturday in the semifinals of the Tom Dubois Wrestling Classic at Richmond-Burton High School. (Daniel J. Murphy – dmurphy@shawmedia.com)

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RICHMOND – Marian Central had only one wrestler in a championship match but capitalized in the back draw to finish third at the Tom DuBois Wrestling Classic at Richmond-Burton on Saturday.

Joe Klinger took first at 152-pounds for the Hurricanes, decisioning Hampshire’s Nick Brown, 6-3. Heading into the third period, Brown was up, 1-0, but Klinger got a reversal to start the period and went on to win.

“I knew I just had to score,” Klinger said. “I hit the switch and I knew I had it.”

Marian coach Buck Riedinger said he was impressed with the way his wrestlers performed in the consolation bracket. The Hurricanes captured two third places, one fourth, five fifths and one sixth place.

Riedinger said he was particularly happy with Nick Remke at 132, Tom Klinger (160) and Tim Dwyer (220), who all lost their first match but came back to take fifth place.

“They didn’t get down. They all came back and wrestled tough,” Riedinger said. ”They didn’t give up because they lost their first match.”

Richmond-Burton’s wrestling team at this point in the season could be called lightweights, but it has nothing to do with how they’re wrestling. Because the Rockets still are waiting on football players to return to the lineup, they only wrestled six at the Classic with the heaviest at 152.

Five R-B wrestlers placed including championships from Cameron Kennedy at 120 and Garrett Sutton (138).

In the 120-pound finals, Kennedy decisioned Grayslake North’s Angel Cabrera, 7-2. Kennedy said he likes to mentally plan his matches before getting on the mat.

“I knew he was a tough kid,” Kennedy said. “Once I felt him out there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.”

Kennedy was awarded the most outstanding wrestler in the lighter weights for the tournament.

Sutton rolled in his finals, defeating Jacobs’ Collin Zaio by technical fall, 17-1. Despite winning his first two matches by pin and technical fall, Sutton said he still felt the pressure going into the championship match.

“It’s always tough going into the finals,” Sutton said. “[I was] a little bit nervous.”

Austin Ryan won a title for Jacobs at 106, defeating North Boone’s Brandon Briggs, 4-2. Ryan got a first period takedown and then was awarded stalling points in the third to get the win.

“I was expecting to win but I knew it was going to be a grind,” Ryan said. “I knew that if I got the first takedown I’d win the match.”

Grayslake North won the team title with 219 points. Marian was third with 144.5, followed by Jacobs in fourth (126), Johnsburg in fifth (123.5), Hampshire in sixth (113) and Richmond-Burton in seventh (101). Marengo finished tenth with 66 points and Alden-Hebron was 14th (22).

This was the first year the tournament had been called the DuBois Classic. Rocket’s coach Bret Wojcik said it was named in honor of the school’s retiring principal, who he characterized as the “man behind the curtain,” for R-B athletics.

“[DuBois] is a big reason why Richmond-Burton wrestling is where it’s at,” Wojcik said.