L-Way C. pins LWE
FRANKFORT -- The Lincoln-Way Central High School wrestling team has high hopes for this season, and understandably so.
The Knights have not qualified for the IHSA's team state competition before, but feel that they have a talented enough squad to finally get there this year.
After knocking off perennial power Glenbard North in last week's season opener, Lincoln-Way Central continued its strong start Friday after rolling to a 51-13 SouthWest Suburban Red victory over rival Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort.
"I thought we wrestled well as a team," said Knights coach Mark Ruettiger.
"We're where we want to be, and I think we can still get better. There's still a lot of improvement to be done with our conditioning and with the way we've been wrestling, since we were just a little sloppy.
"We've got a pretty good team this year. We really don't have any holes and everybody that's on our team wrestles hard. The practice room has been fun since there's no down time because the guys get after it in there."
The Knights got things started when three-time state finalist Josh Kratovil pinned Mike Murphy in 4:49 at 135 pounds. Steve McCollum followed that up with an 11-4 win over Mike Harris to give Central a 9-0 advantage.
In one of the most-anticipated matches of the evening, Central's Jake Nelson defeated Andrew Knoll 10-4 at 145 in a showdown of wrestlers who each won over 30 matches and qualified for state a year ago.
"We came in here feeling pretty confident, so we had a goal to win as many as we could and we felt that we did that," said Nelson. "I was a little nervous since I knew I would have a tough match. But once I got out there, I started feeling good about myself and took him to his back in the first period, and that was a confidence boost.
"We were really happy to beat Glenbard North. That win was big for us and even though they had some guys out, we still felt like we beat them anyway. We feel really good about our team and we don't plan on losing anytime soon, so we'll just keep working hard and try to get better every week."
The Griffins (1-1) picked up their first win at 152 when Tom Igyarto got a late takedown to edge Matt Bocheneck 7-6. But the Knights answered with a 13-6 win from Kevin Ryan over Kurt Martini and then got a pin in 1:31 from Pete Damiani over Ryan Levreau.
Central increased its lead to 30-3 after it also won the next two matches.
Mike Piechocinski defeated Pete Merenowicz 10-5 in overtime at 189 before Joe Mahy pinned Collin Langenderfer in 0:40.
East recorded its final two victories in the next matches as Chris Narel pinned Mike Marquez in 2:42 at heavyweight before Wally Piech claimed a 10-2 victory over Tim Ryan.
The Knights wrapped up their decisive victory with four-straight wins, which featured three pins. Andrew Ruettiger needed only 16 seconds to pin Kyle Vahlman at 112 before Justin Farmer recorded a fall in 1:24 over Brett Worker.
Ben Schneider picked up a 4-0 win over Dan Keating at 125 and Adam Heimer closed things out for the Knights with a fall in 2:47 over Matt Thompson.
"They were very impressive and they're as good as advertised," said Griffins coach Tom Saindon. "We have some kids who are doing good things and we some sparks and lost a few close ones, and that's going to happen when you wrestle a good team like Central.
"We were at Barrington last weekend and got to see some of the best teams in the state, and we saw another one tonight. We're going to try to take this meet and learn from it. We've got a ways to go, but we're going to work on it in order to get there."
