Out-of-State tournament roundup for 12/2

By Curt Herron – for the IWCOA

Mount Carmel claims top honors at Dan Gable Donnybrook

Mount Carmel defeated Liberty, MO 401-391 to capture the title of the 37-team Dan Gable Donnybrook, which was held in Coralville, Iowa.

Bettendorf, IA edged Joliet Catholic Academy 336-332.5 for third place while Marmion Academy (266) finished fifth. Lockport Township (188.5) was 16th, Lincoln-Way West (169.5) placed 19th, DeKalb (150) was 23rd, Marian Central Catholic (129.5) placed 26th, Huntley (89.5) was 30th and Antioch (52) took 36th.

Once again, an Illinois team won the competition. In 2022, Marmion Academy took first with Liberty, MO edging out Mount Carmel for second and Joliet Catholic Academy placed sixth.

Coach Alex Tsirtsis’ first-place Caravan received titles from Seth Mendoza (126), Edmund Enright (157) and Colin Kelly (175) and a runner-up finish from Justin Williamson (113). 

Mendoza captured a 9-4 decision over Waukee Northwest, IA’s Koufax Christensen in the 126 finals. Enright beat Iowa City High, IA’s Kael Voinovich 5-3 on an overtime tiebreaker in the 157 title match and Kelly won a 7-3 decision over Liberty, MO’s Peyton Westpfahl for the 175 championship. Williamson lost a 13-1 major decision to Liberty, MO’s Hunter Taylor in the 113 finals.

Mendoza, who also took first place at last year’s Donnybrook, won the 2023 IHSA Class 3A title at 113 and also took first at 106 in 2022. Enright, who improved upon a third from a year ago, was the IHSA 3A runner-up at 152 last season and took fourth at 120 in the 2021 IWCOA Finals.  Kelly, who moved up from a fourth last season, took second at 170 in last year’s IHSA 3A Finals after winning the 160 title in 2022 and placing third at 160 in the 2021 IWCOA Finals.

Coach Ryan Cumbee’s third-place Hilltoppers received second-place finishes from Nino Ronchetti (190) and Dillan Johnson (285). Rochitti lost by technical fall in 5:38 to West Bend West, WI’s Connor Miraola in the 190 finals while Johnson was edged 5-4 in the 285 finals by West Bend West, WI’s Cole Mirasola. Johnson won a title in last year’s Donnybrook.

Johnson is a three-time defending champion, winning IHSA Class 2A titles at 285 in 2023 and 2022 and at 285 in the 2021 IWCOA Finals. Ronchetti took second in 2A at 182 last season.

Marmion Academy and Marian Central Catholic also each had a second-place finisher, Joey Favia (215) for the Cadets and Max Astacio (165) for the Hurricanes. 

Favia was edged 2-1 in the 215 finals by Fort Dodge, IA’s Dreshuan Ross. Astacio, who took fifth at 160 in the 2023 IHSA Class 1A  Finals, lost by technical fall in 5:27 in the 165 finals to Bettendorf’ IA’s Lincoln Jipp. He also was a top-10 finisher in last year’s event.

Other top performers for the champion Caravan included a fourth from Rylan Breen (190), a fifth from Liam Kelly (150), a sixth from Jairo Acuna (144), a seventh from William Jacobson (190) and a ninth from Evan Stanley (132). Breen also finished fifth last season. He’s a two-time IHSA Class 3A medalist taking fifth in 2023 and sixth in 2022, both times at 182.

Also turning in top-10 finishes for Joliet Catholic Academy were Luke Foster (106) with a fifth, Jason Hampton (120) with a sixth, Max Cumbee (113) with a seventh and Connor Cumbee (150), Luke Hamiti (157) and Max Corral (165) all finishing in eighth place. Connor Cumbee and Hampton also placed in the top 10 a year ago and later finished fourth in the IHSA 2A Finals, Hampton at 113 and Cumbee at 152.

Others in the top-10 for Marmion Academy were Nicholas Garcia (120) and Zach Stewart (138) with thirds, Ashton Hobson (144) with a fifth and Logan Conover (106) and Donny Pigoni (126) with sixths. Garcia and Stewart also placed in the top-10 at last year’s Donnybrook and Garcia took fourth at the 2023 IHSA 3A Finals at 106.

Also placing in the top-10 for Marian Central Catholic were Vance Williams (132) with a sixth and Austin Hagevold (106) with an eighth. Williams, who took second in Class 1A at 132 in 2023 and fourth at that weight in 2022, also had a top-10 Donnybrook finish last year.

Lockport Township’s top finisher was Justin Wardlow (138), who took fifth. The Porters also received eighth-place finishes from Timmy O’Connor (113) and Liam Zimmerman (132) while Durango Valles (175) took tenth. Zimmerman was also a top-10 finisher in 2022. Wardlow was the IHSA Class 3A runner-up at 120 in 2023.

Top performers for Lincoln-Way West were Luke Siwinski (138) with an eighth, Jase Salin (150) and Nate Elstner (190) with ninths and Shane Stream (113), who placed tenth.

DeKalb got a third-place finish from Jacob Luce (165) while Lamar Bradley (215) placed ninth. Luce, who took sixth at 152 in the 2023 IHSA 3A Finals, also placed in the top-10 last year.

Huntley’s was led by Markos Mihalopoulos (285), who finished eighth, giving him a second top-10 finish in the event. And leading Antioch was Chase Nobiling (138), who finished tenth.

Kelly tied Linn-Mar, IA’s Kane Naaktgeboren for the Donnybrook lead in most team points with 54 points while Mendoza (51.5) and Enright (51.5) tied for eighth place in that category.

Johnson led all competitors with the most falls in the least amount of time with four in 5:22. Salin (4 in 8:52) ranked fourth, Garcia (4 in 10:55) ranked seventh, Elstner (4 in 11:17) ranked eighth and Kelly (4 in 11:19) ranked ninth. Johnson also recorded the fastest fall in 0:11.

In the B Division, it was an all-Illinois matchup in the 132 finals as Huntley’s Gavin Nischke won by fall in 5:11 over Joliet Catholic Academy’s George Hollendoner. Other B Division first-place finishes were captured by Lockport Township’s Jaedon Calderon (144) and Lincoln-Way West’s Elijah Zepeda (165) while Huntley’s Lucas Bittman (175) also took second place.

Turner receives OWA at Girls Dan Gable Donnybrook

Lockport Township’s Morgan Turner won the 105 championship at the Girls Dan Gable Donnybrook in Coralville, Iowa, when she recorded a fall in 5:20 over Liberty, MO’s Sandy Breeden. As a result of her dominating tournament performance, the Porters sophomore newcomer received the Girls Outstanding Wrestler Award for the tournament. 

In the tournament, Turner scored 67 match points, which was 21 more that the next-best competitor, Cedar Rapids Prairie, IA’s Ciara Gomez-Bryant. She had two of the highest match point totals with a tournament-best 25 in her semifinals victory over Mason City, IA’s Layla Phillips and tied for fourth with 18 points in another triumph. She also had one of only two wins by technical fall in the tournament, against Phillips, and that was the quickest in 3:47. 

“Morgan wrestled well at the Donnybrook pinning or teching her way through the tournament,” Porters coach Jameson Oster said. “She dominated every match and was deserving of the OW award.”

Turner made history last season when she became the first girl to place in the IHSA Boys Finals by claiming third place at 106 in Class 2A while competing for Bremen. She went 4-1 at state, winning her first two matches before falling 3-0 in the semifinals to the eventual state champion, Grayslake Central’s Anthony Alanis, and then bounced back to win two two-point decisions. 

Five Illinois teams took part in the 43-team competition with the Turner’s Porters (210.5) taking 14th place, Huntley (149) finishing 20th, DeKalb (90) placing 31st, Joliet Catholic Academy (74) claiming 33rd place and Lincoln-Way West (63) in 34th place. 

Lockport Township also received fifth-place finishes from Claudia Heeney (130) and Rebekah Ramirez (235) and a sixth-place effort from Liz Ramirez (120). Heeney won a title in last year’s Donnybrook while Liz Ramirez took sixth place again. Heeney became the Porters’ first medalist when she took second place at 125 in last year’s IHSA Finals.

Huntley got four top-10 finishes as Taylor Casey (110) finished fifth, Jessica Olson (140) placed seventh, Janiah Slaughter (105) took ninth and Aubrie Rohrbacher (130) claimed tenth place. All four Red Raiders also placed in the top 10 in last year’s Donnybrook. Slaughter became the Red Raiders’ initial state placewinner when she finished third at 100 in the 2023 IHSA Finals.

DeKalb got a seventh from Aarianna Bloyd (235) and a ninth from Alex Gregorio-Perez (110), who also was in the top-10 a year ago.

Joliet Catholic Academy received a third-place finish from Cheya Bishop (170) and an eighth from Grace Laird (125), who won a title at last year’s Donnybrook. Bishop had the second-quickest fall in the tournament, at nine seconds. And Lincoln-Way West got a sixth-place finish from Zoe Dempsey (105) and a ninth from Alaina Hollendoner (120).

Edwardsville claims third at Francis Howell North Tournament

Edwardsville took third place with 33 points and Granite City was ninth with 17.5 points at the Francis Howell North Tournament in St. Charles, Missouri. Lafayette, MO won the championship with 58 points while Ft. Zumwalt South, MO took second with 47 points.

Winning championships for the Tigers were Logan Hiller (138) and Riley Steinkuehler (285) while Bryson Nuttall (113) and Aiden Stamp (157) both took second place.

Ryan Richie (126), Blake Mink (144) and Max Miller (175) took third and Levi Wilkinson (132) and Simon Schulte (190) finished fourth for a program that’s now coached by Eric Pretto.

Pretto, a Carl Sandburg graduate, is in his first year as head coach after serving the past few seasons as an assistant for 2019 IWCOA Hall Of Fame inductee Jon Wagner, who retired last season after winning over 500 dual meets in his 27 years leading the Tigers. 

Hiller capped a 5-0 day with a 6-4 decision over Ft. Zumwalt South’s Kyle Detchemendy while Steinkuehler also went 5-0 and won his final match by fall in 3:37 over Ft. Zumwalt South’s Junior Rudd.

Top performers for the Warriors were Dawson Hawthorne (120), who took second place, and Demarco Clark (285), who placed fourth.

Quincy Senior takes third at Board Hyland Cardinal Invite

Quincy Senior had a successful trip to Minnesota where it took third place with 162 points at the Board Hyland Cardinal Invitational in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. The Blue Devils, the lone Illinois team in the field, fell one half point behind Cumberland, WI while Hastings, MN took first with 179.5 points in the 15-team competition.

Owen Uppinghouse, who took third at 160 in Class 3A at the 2023 IHSA Finals, won the championship at 172 with a fall over Royalton-Upsala, MN’s Nicholas Leibold. Brody Baker (145) lost a one-point decision in the finals and Gunnar Derhake (160) also claimed a second-place finish for coach Phil Neally’s Blue Devils.

Eli Roberts (152) and Bryor Newbold (189) both took third place while Hugh Sharrow (114), Evan Wakefield (127) and Todd Smith (285) all finished in fourth place.

Cahokia finishes fifth at Westminster Tournament

Cahokia scored 112 points to take fifth place at the Westminster Tournament, which was hosted by Westminster Christian Academy in Town and Country, Missouri and won by Washington, Missouri with 180.5 points. The Comanches were the lone Illinois team in the field.

Cahokia was led by second-place finishes from Kindle Williams (150) and Issac Phipps (190) while Mark Norris (132) and Kindrick Williams (175) took third and Nathan Fisher (106) and Anthony Winters (138) finished fourth. Kindrick Williams tied for the largest seed to place difference, which was 12 spots, while Norris recorded four falls.

Brother Rice places sixth at Harvest Classic

Brother Rice scored 177 points to finish sixth at the 16-team Harvest Classic at Lake Central in St. John, Indiana. The Crusaders, the lone Illinois team in the competition, were just six points out of third place in an otherwise all-Indiana competition that was won by Penn with 235 points while the host school took second with 217 points.

The Crusaders advanced three individuals to the title mat with Gambino Perez being their lone champ. Perez won by fall in 1:13 over Highland, IN’s Hunter Sopkowski in the 165 finals. 

Oliver Davis (138) and Frank Meceli (150) both claimed second place while Jack O’Connor (144) placed third and Pat Gilholly (157) finished fourth. James Bennet (132) took fifth and had a tournament-high 65 match points, which was 16 points ahead of second place.

Andrew at Cliff Keen Independence Invitational

Three Andrew competitors claimed top-five finishes at the 33-team Cliff Keen Independence Invitational in Independence, Iowa. 

The Thunderbolts, who were one of six non-Iowa squads and the lone Illinois team in the competition, took 14th place with 172 points. Nadeem Haleem (113) and Max Siegel (126) both took fourth place while Michael McDonough (285) claimed fifth place. The Andrew trio all advanced to semifinals matches in their weight classes.