Lockport has grand old time
LOCKPORT -- Lockport High School's wrestling team is experiencing an historic season and they're enjoying every minute of it.
Coach Joe Williams' squad has the unusual approach of going out and having fun when they compete, but so far it's difficult to argue with their success.
(Liz Wilkinson Allen / Staff Photographer)
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• Lockport Quad
It's helped the Porters to a top-10 state ranking and a school-best second-place finish at the Dvorak Invitational and a championship at Palatine's Berman Classic.
In addition, Lockport has enjoyed great success in dual meet competition and that point was again driven home on Saturday.
The Porters won their 12th straight dual meet and improved to 13-1 after rolling to three big wins in a quadrangular home meet.
Lockport defeated Wheaton Warrenville South 53-11, followed that with a 63-12 victory over Romeoville and closed with a 69-4 win over Glenbard South.
"These were three good duals for us after the long two weeks we've had," Porters coach Joe Williams said. "Our kids didn't look tired and I know that we aren't peaking yet, so that's also good.
"We got some JV kids some matches and that might be important some time. I'm glad that we're still healthy and that everyone's in the right state of mind now and we're still enjoying ourselves."
The Porters' dual meet against Romeoville featured some close matches, but they all came well after the final outcome had been determined.
Lockport claimed victories in the first 10 matches to claim a 57-0 advantage over the Spartans, who did win the next three matches before the Porters took the finale.
Matt Andre kicked the meet off when he claimed a forfeit win at 160, Mark Stenberg followed with a fall in 35 seconds over Aaron Fowler and Brad Johnson also won by forfeit at 189.
Alex Rodriguez pinned Mario Pulliam in 55 seconds at 215, Mike Tetlow won by fall in 2:43 over Cameron Stingily and Tony Rossi got a pin in 1:11 over Aaron Brooks at 103.
Emeric Williams pulled out a 3-0 win over Darshawn Hardy, Jameson Oster pinned Mitch Anderson in 1:00 at 119 and Abe Omar and Mike Sluzewicz followed with forfeit wins.
The Spartans finally got a win when Julian Brooks tied Tony Tonelli with a late reversal and got a takedown with 1 second left in overtime to pull out a 5-3 win at 135.
Donny Simpson followed with a pin in 3:41 over Matt Weber and Leo Speedy hung on for an 11-9 win over Chris Tragos at 145 before Lockport's Brandon Pattison got a pin over Josh Gleich in 1:58.
"Our team has been doing great," Omar said. "I didn't know that we'd be this good, but our hard work is paying off. Everybody on the team has a lot of fun but we get serious when we need to.
"We work really hard as a team, probably harder than most other teams. And it's all just working out really well for us and hopefully we can keep this going."
The Porters split their first four matches with Wheaton South before winning nine of the last 10. The Tigers went 2-1 while Glenbard South was 1-2 and Romeoville went 0-3.
And Lockport won the first nine matches against Glenbard South to take a 47-0 lead. It only dropped one match to the Raiders and had seven pins and won two matches by technical fall.
"We're real deep at a lot of weights," Emeric Williams said. "I had to step in for our 112-pounder, but my dad tells us that you have to work hard since you never know when you have to step in.
"Bubba (Jameson Oster) said we're one of the most immature teams in Illinois because we're always messing around, but it makes it fun. But we're definitely all business when we need to be."
Going 3-0 were Rossi, Williams, Oster (three pins), Omar, Rodriguez (two pins) and Tetlow (two pins). Kevin Bialka (two pins), Andre and Stenberg all went 2-0 for the Porters.
Posting 2-1 records for Lockport were Tonelli, Tragos, Pattison and Johnson. Shaun'Qae McMurtry and Sluzewicz won their only match, while Weber went 1-1 on the day.
"The nice thing is that we have extra guys who can step up in case of emergency," Tragos said. "I've always dreamed about being on the varsity and I hope I can do well the rest of the season.
"I was real happy that they asked me to come up here and wrestle. I was real nervous and had butterflies last night but that was all gone once I got on the mat since I was ready to wrestle."
Romeoville also fell 42-31 to Glenbard South and 42-22 to Wheaton South. Simpson was the only Spartan wrestler to capture wins in all three of his matches.
"We didn't have anything over Christmas break and that kind of hurt us," Spartans coach John Arlis said. "And we had a couple of guys who weren't here and a couple of guys who didn't make weight.
"Lockport is a tough team all the way through. But I thought we could have done better against Glenbard South and Wheaton Warrenville South."
