CL South controls FVC Valley dual

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CARPENTERSVILLE – Crystal Lake South’s Mike Romanelli was coming off being sick to wrestle Thursday, so it figured his match nearly went the maximum time.

Romanelli defeated Dundee-Crown’s Ray Griggle, 7-5, at 220 pounds in an overtime tiebreaker. The Gators won the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division dual meet, 56-18.

Romanelli said the illness affected his endurance more than he expected.

“I was [more] tired than I thought I would be. I was gassed,” Romanelli said. “I need to work on that.”

After three periods and a one-minute overtime, the match was tied at five. In the first 30-second tiebreaker, Romanelli was in the down position looking for an escape, but he got a reverse to go up by two.

“I was going for a standup and I just fell into the switch,” Romanelli said.

Gators coach Ross Ryan said his team wrestled smart and to its strengths.

“Up and down the lineup we controlled the center of the mat,” Ryan said. “We were wrestling at our pace and our style.”

South’s Nick Peters defeated Dillon Muscat, 9-3, at 138. Peters got a takedown at the end of the first period and then got three takedowns in the second to put him up by six heading into the third.

Peters said he tried to keep Muscat from getting in the dominant position where he could use his strength.

“I just wanted to make sure I wrestled my style. I didn’t want to get into a lot of tie-ups. I wanted to keep [Muscat] off balance. He’s a strong kid.”

The Chargers will wrestle in the tough Al Dvorak Memorial Tournament next week at Harlem. Ryan said wrestling in that two-day tournament is the kind of challenge his team needs.

“We are looking forward to [Dvorak],” Ryan said. “Long term, it will be beneficial. We need that competition.”

South won 10 matches, including five by fall. Getting pins for the Gators were Garrett Dziedzic at 106, Joe Fetherling (113), Nick Gil (126), Jake Peters (160) and Travis Dziedzic (170).

The Chargers got wins from Elijah Velez-Kraemer, who pinned Nathan Furtek at 145 and Christian Ochoa, who pinned Vinny Emory at 285.

Chargers coach Bob Skillman said Ochoa is undersized as a heavyweight but competes hard.

“We expect [Ochoa] to do well,” Skillman said. “He goes out and does it for the team.”

Skillman said he hoped that Griggle would used the loss as motivation heading into the Harvard tournament today.

“He’s definitely capable of taking it up another notch,” Skillman said.