Barrington Finishes 3rd at Moore/Prettyman

[Larsen]

By Mike Garofola
Illinois Matmen

Take a quick glance at who wrestled downstate for Barrington in the first three matches of last year’s fourth-place state finals dual between the Broncos and Glenbard North:

Luke Miller, Dan Santoro and Kalvin Argueta.

That’s 125-plus victories from 3 state qualifiers and 2 state medalists, and all three Broncos' stars were back inside the Barrington fieldhouse last weekend for the 20th annual Moore-Prettyman Memorial tournament.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, they weren’t wearing singlets but were in Barrington as spectators for the first time in 4 years.

But while Broncos coach Al Strobl would love to have this terrific trio back, he likes what he sees in his 2010-2011 club. In fact, although some might say he’s crazy to think so, the former Lake Zurich star and state champion suggests that his current team could be better equipped to make a serious run when the final month of the season rolls around.

"What this team is lacking (right) now is the leadership that Dan, Luke and Kalvin brought to our team," Strobl said, shortly after the Broncos held off Hinsdale Central to earn the 3rd place team trophy on Saturday.

"Each one of those guys were the type of leaders a championship team needs to have in order to compete and challenge for top honors in your conference, the post-season, and, if you’re fortunate enough, in the state tournament,” Strobl said. “And right now that's the one thing we don't have.

"But there's a lot of individual talent on this team, and once a couple of guys step forward to take on the leadership role, then you'll see this team make the strides needed to be a championship-caliber team."

One of potential leaders might be senior heavyweight Aaron Castagna, who isn't match-fit yet after just finishing up on the gridiron and only two weeks into training for what he hopes will be a highly successful senior year.

"I wasn't very happy with my performance here this weekend (he finished 5th overall) - but I know it will still take me a few more weeks to get back in shape, and fine tune the technical side of things," offered the affable Broncos' big man, who won 29 matches last year and advanced downstate, where he went 2-1 to cap a wonderful junior season.

"We don't have the stars like we've had the past couple of years or the great leadership … but I have a good feeling about this team because there's so much talent. If the young guys learn that doing that extra work will translate into victories later on, we should be in great shape in the second half of the season.”

Strobl was thrilled to see some of his varsity rookies get through his mega-tournament, and come out on the other side with top 8 finishes, helping the club to capture its third-place trophy.

While 2010 state medalist Adrian Gonzalez was the highest finisher over the weekend with a second-place trophy at 112 pounds, Matt Sheehy (103), Michael Lurz (160) and junior Daniel Davidson (215) each performed well in the back-draw on Saturday, and came through to win an individual medal while providing important team points to the cause.

"Matt stepped in for us at 103 after Adrian made the decision to move to 112 and did a great job for us,” Strobl said. “Daniel is in his first year on the varsity for us, and Michael is so strong. I’m sure he surprises people with his strength and he did an excellent job for his first time."

Others making a trip up the steps of the podium were Joe Adreani (fifth at 140) and Erwin Delarosa (fourth at 171). Jared Parvinmeher (112) was part of Barrington’s No. 2 team, which came together late to give the tournament an even 32 teams after Dunbar of the Chicago Public League was unable to attend.

Parvinmeher won 26 matches as a sophomore and he placed sixth at 112 on Saturday as the Broncos’ No. 2 team finished 16th overall with 69 points.

"We’re happy with our third-place finish but none of us here believe that we are that good of a team right now,” Strobl said. “There's a lot of work ahead of us. We'll get back into the room first thing on Monday and begin working hard on correcting some of the things our staff observed over the two days of competition.”

The Broncos have a busy week ahead of them starting on Thursday when they host Wheeling, and tournament champs Luke Smith and Chris Johnson, before going on the road for their first MSL West dual of the season at Fremd.

Saturday the team will be back on the bus to Grant, where the Bulldogs will welcome both Stevenson and Waukegan in a quad which begins at 9:00 a.m.