Warriors earn 8 wins in a row, defeat Trojans

McHenry’s Cam Pait (right) attempts to turn Cary-Grove’s Emerson Kersten on his back during their 160-pound match Thursday in Cary. Pait, a freshman, won by major decision, 11-3. (Lauren M. Anderson - landerson@shawmedia.com)

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CARY – McHenry flexed its wrestling muscles in defeating Cary-Grove on Thursday and is looking like the team to beat in the Fox Valley Conference this season.

The Warriors downed C-G, 50-12, in an FVC Valley Division dual meet and improved to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in the Valley.

The meet was close early, with the Trojans’ Garrett Glueck winning at 145 pounds in the opening bout. The Warriors came back with a 5-3 decision by Jake Pait (152) and an 11-3 major decision by Cam Pait (160).

Pat O’Malley gave C-G its last lead of the night with a pin at 170, before McHenry rattled off eight consecutive wins to put the meet out of reach.

Warriors coach Will Gaddy said Cam Pait doesn’t look or wrestle like a freshman. The thing that impresses Gaddy the most about his young wrestler is his confidence. Cam Pait won a state title as an eighth-grader.

“[Cam Pait] is smooth. He looks like a veteran,” Gaddy said. “Normally, you put a freshman at 160 and he’s not confident.”

Having brothers as wrestling partners has benefited McHenry.

“It’s kind of fun. They work each other hard,” Gaddy said. “It’s good to have brothers pushing each other.”

Jake Pait, a senior, got takedowns in the first and second periods but was not able to capitalize for a pin, holding off Matt Hughes with a 5-3 decision.

“[Hughes’] had some big legs,” Jake Pait said. “He was really strong.”

Jake Pait said his brother is gaining experience from wrestling him and Wade Lardy in the practice room. Lardy won a 7-0 decision at 138 against Matt Fina.

“It’s nice. He’s learning a lot in practice with me and Wade,” Jake Pait said. “He’s getting tough.”

The Warriors also have brothers at the light end of the lineup, with freshman Britches Sikula at 106 and junior Mike Sikula at 113. Britches won a 10-2 major decision and Mike got a pin in 55 seconds to win.

Britches Sikula is 15-3 on the year. He wrestled club last year, but said the competition is a lot tougher at the high school level.

“The people are bigger and tougher,” Britches Sikula said.

Also winning for McHenry were Brad Ostdicke (120), Mike Infelise (126), Kody Olejniczak (195) and Ryan Wykes (220) by pin, and Jeff Nykaza (182) and Angel Hernandez (285) by decision.

Trojans coach Ryan Ludwig said it was a tough loss, but he was confident his team will rebound and improve.

“Our kids wrestled hard and have a good attitude,” Ludwig said. “There’s just some stuff we need to clean up, and we will.”

Also winning for C-G was Mike Underwood at 132, with a 7-5 decision against Tony Lopez.