Barrington takes it to Rolling Meadows

[Larsen]

By Gary Larsen
Illinois Matmen

With a 13-3 dual meet record, a second-place finish at Rockford East and fourth-place finishes at this year’s Hinsdale Central and Conant tournaments, Rolling Meadows is a fine team having a fine season.

But Barrington took the Mustangs to the woodshed on Thursday night.

“Barrington deserves their (No. 5) ranking,” Rolling Meadows coach Dave Froehlich said afterward. “I was wondering how good they were and in all the close matches tonight they had the energy at the end of the match, every match.

“They’re the best team in our conference. No one in the MSL is going to beat Barrington. They’re at another level.”

Barrington (12-0, 4-0 in MSL duals) rolled into town for an MSL showdown and never let the host Mustangs be a part of the conversation, winning 47-9.

And not only did the Broncos win 11 of 14 matches; they didn’t even give up a single takedown in any one of those 11 wins.

“We wrestled very well tonight. They’re a very tough team and we came out and wrestled hard,” Broncos coach Alex Strobl said. “We rose to the occasion. I’m very proud of our kids. They wrestled very hard today.”

Nick Shealy’s match at 152 against Rolling Meadows’ Marc Herff embodied the fight that the Broncos brought throughout the dual. The two wrestlers traded escapes through three periods before Shealy’s persistence paid off with a takedown on the edge at the end of the first overtime period.

“It was an outside single,” Shealy said. “There was only four seconds left and it was on the edge of the mat, and I was able to sweep the other leg and keep my toes inbounds. I was hurting. I had strep throat today but I wanted that win so bad, I wasn’t going to let it get to me.”

Strobl liked what he saw from his junior against a tough competitor in Herff.

“I’d say it was about heart. All of our kids are well-conditioned and Nick works very hard in the room,” Strobl said. “(Herff) is a tough kid and Nick has lost to him twice, but he came out and obviously wanted to pull that bout out and win, and he did. (Herff) is a strong, tough kid, and Nick got the job done.”

Ryan Wilt kicked off the night for Barrington with a second-period pin at 189 over the Mustangs’ Tom Devona. Up next was Daniel Davidson, who shed his defensive ways en route to a 14-5 major decision win at 215 pounds over Jordan Diaz.

Davidson posted multiple takedowns in each period in the win.

“I’m usually used to staying a little more defensive and countering off my (opponent’s) mistakes,” Davidson said. “I was opening up with more shots and I was just glad to get more points for the team.”

“Davidson came out of his shell a little bit today,” Strobl said. “He was taking shots, he controlled the match pace and he was very aggressive tonight. He was excellent.”

Barrington’s Aaron Castagna squared off with the Mustangs’ Martin Markovski in the heavyweight match, and led 1-0 on a second-period escape to start the third. Castagna rode Markovski out in the third and earned a stalling point along the way to a 2-0 win.

Rolling Meadows’ Aaron Kohlberg took the mat at 103 with his squad trailing 13-0, and he stopped the bleeding with a 5-0 decision over the Broncos’ Matt Sheehy. Kohlberg has reached a tournament title mat at both Conant and Hinsdale Central this season, and Sheehy battled him throughout.

The next four matches effectively buried the Mustangs in a 31-3 hole. Barrington’s Adrian Gonzalez and Jared Parvinmehr have been flip-flopping at 112 and 119, with Gonzalez getting the nod at 112 on Thursday.

“They go back and forth periodically and there’s no strategy to it. They just switch once in a while,” Strobl said. “They’re both tough and they’re excellent partners in the room.”

Returning state medal-winner Gonzalez led 3-0 after two periods, Sanchez escaped to start the third, and Gonzalez scored off a low Sanchez shot en route to a 5-1 decision.

At 119, Rolling Meadows’ Mike D’Aquisto battled near the edge for a takedown early against Parvinmehr, but the Broncos’ junior won the battle, earned three back points, and led 5-0 after a period.

Parvinmehr has a pair of tournament titles at 112 to his credit this year, won at Prospect and the Dvorak, and after another takedown early in the second period he stuck D’Aquisto at the 2:40 mark.

Connor Mannina won the third of Barrington’s five simple decision wins with a 5-2 win at 125 over Rolling Meadows’ Zurabi Khornauli, and Coord Wiseman completed the four-match run with a pin at 2:46 in his match at 130 against Carl Beranek.

The Mustangs’ Kory Jauch continued his fine season at 135 with a 9-3 win over Barrington’s Steve Polasik.

At 140, Barrington’s Joe Adreani used a first-period takedown and back points to build a lead on Nick Calandra on the way to a 7-1 decision win that put the lead at 34-6 and clinched the dual win for the Broncos with four matches left to wrestle.

Barrington’s fourth pin of the night was also the quickest, as the Broncos’ Dakota Wapotish stuck Kishor Krishnan just 30 seconds into their match at 145 pounds.

The Shealy-Herff battle at 152 featured a good handful of Shealy takedown attempts that Herff shook off before the decisive overtime takedown.

“I was going for an outside single on the right side but when I’d go to finish I’d come up on the hip and he was too strong in his base,” Shealy said. “He’s so strong so it was just about keeping at him and keeping at him, until I could get a takedown.”

Barrington’s Cameron Thomson came next, getting in some work on his feet at 160, posting six takedowns in a 13-5 major decision win over the Mustangs’ Dennis Caravello.

Rolling Meadows’ Joe Caprio ended the night on a good note for his squad, in an 11-4 decision win at 171 over the Broncos’ Michael Weisshappel that gave his side its third simple decision win of the night.

“I’m pleased with everybody, even in our losses,” Strobl said. “Kohlberg at 103 – Sheehy went out and tried to win that bout. At 171 they have Caprio who’s very tough, and Weisshappel went out and tried to do something with him. Every kid on our team tonight wrestled very hard.”

Froehlich was pleased with the effort that Mustangs’ heavyweight Markovski put forth against Castagna, and liked what he got from his winners on Thursday.

“Joey Caprio won 40 matches last year and he’s not going away, and Kory Jauch could be our best wrestler. When he’s on he’s pretty hard to beat,” Froehlich said. “Kohlberg is 19-3 and he only loses to the best guys. He may be our toughest competitor, all around.”

The Mustangs will roll up their sleeves and get back to work, with a lesson Froehlich hopes will be taken to heart.

“I’ve always felt that you always learn more from a loss than a win. Wins make you feel better, but losses teach you,” Froehlich said. “One thing our guys learned is how to wrestle on the edge. We lost about seven takedowns on the edge of the mat tonight, and that’s an important lesson, and I think they learned a little bit about how to be more physical.

“Barrington was very physical. They weren’t out-techniqueing us, necessarily, but they were more physical and their intensity was higher.”

Barrington squares off with Schaumburg in an MSL dual on Friday, and the Broncos intend to keep their shoulders to the wheel in chasing the conference crown.

“We stay humble and coach is always working us hard in the room, but we’ve been practicing hard and we’re just more confident now,” Davidson said. “Schaumburg is tough and Hersey is tough but if we just keep working hard I think it will be hard to stop us.”

Despite a few key losses to graduation from a team that placed fourth in Illinois at last year’s 3A state finals, the Broncos are priming for another run at a downstate berth.

“We knew we’d be tough again this year because our lineup is so deep,” Shealy said. “A lot of our competitors thought we might not come back as strong, but in the room we knew we were good. Everyone is working hard.”