Blanton befriends Benefiel

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Blanton befriends Benefiel; up next - Russia

By: Joe Stevenson, Northwest Herald

Richmond-Burton junior Jordan Blanton kept his distance from Montini’s Mike Benefiel during the high school wrestling season.

It was nothing personal. Blanton just understood the awkwardness of the situation as everyone in the state anticipated their 171-pound matchup in the IHSA Class AA State Tournament championship.

Now, the guard is down. Two of the best wrestlers in state history are working out together at Montini and could meet again at a competition in Las Vegas between April 4-7.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Blanton, who suffered the only loss of his high school career to Benefiel, 8-2, in the 171 state title match. “During the season I didn’t talk to him. Now we talk on the Internet and I get advice. He’s the best wrestler in the country.”

Adding to the uneasiness during the season was the fact that Blanton’s summer coach, Israel Martinez, was an assistant at Montini. Blanton traveled to Lombard and worked out with Martinez at Montini on days when Benefiel, one of 10 four-time individual state champions in state history, was drilling at Overtime School of Wrestling in Naperville. Benefiel will attend Northwestern on a wrestling scholarship.

Blanton finished his junior season at 40-1, running his career record to 111-1 with two Class A state titles.

Blanton has other big plans for the summer. He will travel to Russia with Martinez and wrestle in tournaments for 10 days. The reputation of the competition level already has reached McHenry County.

“They’ll probably see me warm up and laugh at me,” Blanton said. “I’ve heard there are 14-year-old kids [over there] who can beat me. Basically, it’s a miserable 10 days. The food’s horrible and you just live wrestling for 10 days. But what you learn in 10 days there you can’t learn in 10 months in the U.S.”

Blanton said he will travel to Florida for a dual team tournament with wrestlers from Dakota High School for about five days in June. After that, he’ll fly to New York, then to Moscow and take a small plane from there to Belarus.