Blackhawks throw their weight around

Prior to Thursday's dual meet at Waubonsie Valley, West Aurora senior Mario Gonzalez was hoping his weight, 215 pounds, would not be picked to start the meet.

You see, he had other motivation at that time.

"I was telling my friends that I was hoping it wasn't me because I was really hungry," Gonzalez said. "They called me and I was like, 'Oh, man.'"

But that didn't slow down Gonzalez, who set the tone for a 49-15 win with a pin in 3:53 of Kevin Carter. Heavyweight Marcos Hernandez followed with a pin, and so it went as the Blackhawks (1-0) rolled to a 46-0 lead to start the meet.

Gonzalez had seven takedowns and allowed five escape points to Carter before finally earning the pin, moving to 4-0 on the young season. He is on his way back down to 189 pounds, weighing in at 194 prior to Thursday's meet.

"He was like all the other wrestlers I've faced this season," Gonzalez said. "He was backing up the whole time. I have to get used to that because a lot of people will do that to me this year. I just have to get past that."

Despite the win, West coach Mike DiNovo, with an eye toward the end of the season, saw plenty of room for improvement.

"I think the guys that lost, and even the guys that won, we have some things to work on, tighten things up," DiNovo said. "I think we made some mental errors. But they wrestled well."

Other than Gonzalez and Hernandez, Josh Zinzer (130) and Vince Morris (145) also earned pins for West, who lost only three matches all night.

The first of the wins for Waubonsie (1-2) was arguably the most exciting match of the meet, with Preston LaRoche pinning Sam Pealstrom at 152 in 5:05.

LaRoche had two near-falls in the first period before Pealstrom had a stunning reversal, with LaRoche getting saved by the buzzer from getting pinned. Pealstrom nearly pinned LaRoche again in the third, but LaRoche escaped and pinned him later in the period.

"We knew we had to pick our spots, and that was one of the ones we were looking at to get some points," Waubonsie coach Brad Caldwell said. "It was kind of an ugly match, showed some bad hips at times and it could have gone either way. The senior stepped up at the end and Preston knew what it meant for the team."

Dan Kelly added a pin a 171 over Mike Schwerdtfeger for Waubonsie, who won three of the final four matches of the meet.

"The last couple matches we picked up helped our morale a little bit, make it seem a little more respectable," Caldwell said.