Lincoln-Way girls take regional crown at E. Aurora
By Chris Walker for The IWCOA
Top four qualifiers advance to Schaumburg sectional Feb. 14
Lincoln-Way co-op’s Zoe Dempsey (115) and Ella Giertuga (145) won titles during Saturday’s East Aurora regional while 10 of their teammates also qualified for next weekend’s Schaumburg sectional.
Lincoln-Way co-op’s 12 qualifiers were by far the most at the regional, matching the 12 that are coming from Lockport, Wheaton Warrenville South and the host Tomcats combined as each of the aforementioned three schools had four wrestlers advance.
The owner of this year’s team regional title in Aurora was clear.
“If there’s anything about Lincoln-Way, they’re all tough and can all wrestle under pressure and can all win a gritty match where there’s high stakes,” Dempsey said. “It’s so awesome. That blood round, the wrestle backs to get to the third-place match was electric. I was getting nervous up there just thinking about the pressure those girls were under.”
Joliet West, Metea Valley, Plainfield East, Plainfield South and West Aurora were among the teams with three individual sectional qualifiers.
“My coach actually told me this was like state four years ago, that this is the level of what state was four year ago,” said Tigers senior Veronica Klobnak, who advanced by taking fourth place at 135. “That wrestling is growing so much that we’re almost at a state level at regionals is crazy. It has grown so much and just qualifying further than ever before is such a big deal for me.”
Batavia, Naperville North, Oswego East and Romeoville each had two qualifiers with the Spartans matching Lincoln-Way co-op, Metea Valley and Plainfield South as the only schools to produce a pair of regional champions.
Daniela Santander (110) and Henessis Villagrana (235) won titles to lead Romeoville.
Wrestling partners Layla Spann (170) and Kimyra Patrick (190), won a pair for Plainfield South.
Ashley Basmajian (120) and Alketa “Rosie” Picari (140) won regional titles for nearby Metea Valley.
100 – Kai Enos, Batavia
Now a senior, Enos (35-2) is vying to appear at state for her fourth consecutive season.
Enos took fifth last year, a career-best third as a sophomore and debuted with a fifth-place effort her freshman season in 2022-2023. She’s remained at 100 throughout her high school run.
After three straight wins by fall over Romeoville’s Isabel Hernandez (1:12), Lockport’s Julia Hernandez (1:56) and West Aurora’s Melissa Melgar (3:34), Enos scored an 11-0 major decision against Wheaton Warrenville South’s Andrea Jaimes-Alvarez (24-4) in the 100 final.
Lincoln-Way co-op freshman McKenzie Steinke (36-7) pinned Melgar (32-7), a sophomore, to take third place.
105 – KeYi Wang, Naperville North
Wang (23-3) was fighting tears after battling her way past Lincoln-Way co-op freshman Emmy Hoselton (37-7), 7-6, in the 100 final.
Wang became the first regional champ in school history, playing a sport she fought so hard to join, but wasn’t sure she’d ever get the chance to try.
“If I told the middle school me she’d be super proud, especially because I wasn’t allowed to wrestle at that time,” Wang said. “So the fact that I won regionals and was the first girl from Naperville North to ever win a regional, it’s a lot to take in.”
She lived four years of her young life in China.
“I was really unsupported coming into wrestling,” she said. “As an immigrant, my parents were very traditional because in China it would be considered a really big privilege to do sports. If you did a sport in China you were considered really privileged and rich so parents had no way to express their hobbies through opportunities in China because there was basically none, because they lived in impoverished areas.”
Wang said when her family moved to America she was raised traditionally as if she were still in China.
“That’s why they started out being unsupportive,” she said. “I wanted to wrestle ever since middle school, but they didn’t let me start until high school, and when I finally did I fell in love with the sport. And they weren’t supportive enough for me to do club just yet but at the end of sophomore year they started realizing that I had potential in this sport so they started letting me do club and that’s when I qualified for Fargo. And then just from that I just kept loving wrestling and falling more in love with it and then through a lot of hard work I started practicing more and more and often wrestled with the boys. They were a little disrespectful to me at first but slowly I gained their trust. I just love the sport.”
She didn’t particularly appreciate being seeded fourth, but didn’t let the number get in the way of making history.
“I got seeded fourth and honestly I knew in my mind it was most likely because of just statistics that I wouldn’t upset the first seed,” Wang said. “But I told myself that statistics don’t matter because in a match anything can happen and I did end up upsetting the first seed which I’m really glad and happy about.”
Lyons sophomore Jhania Wickert-Harris (21-5) pinned West Aurora’s Ruby Bolanos-Carbajal (24-10) at 1:27 to place third.
Wickert-Harris was the lone Lyons wrestler to advance to sectional action.
“It’s pretty cool that I can achieve such a thing in only my second year in wrestling,” Wickert-Harris said. “I was really inspired by one of my classmates (Emily Romo) that passed away.”
Romo was a former teammate who joined wrestling around the same time as Wickert-Harris and Mariah Zalapa (110). She’s continued to inspire her friends today.
“Her goal was to make it to state so I definitely want to achieve that for her,” Wickert-Harris said. “So me and Mariah (Zalapa) we were all really close so just want to try to get close to state at least for her.”
110 – Daniela Santander, Romeoville
Santander (7-1) pinned Plainfield East’s Angelina Nettey (17-6) late in the third period to win the regional title at 110.
It was a tournament of pins for Santander, who also got Plainfield South’s Na`Ryah Figueroa (1:49), Bolingbrook’s Mikaela Najera (2:17) and East Aurora’s Joselyn Llanos (5:22).
Llanos (30-7) rebounded to bump off Lincoln-Way co-op’s Zoe Zerial (30-16), 9-8, to take third place.
“I was really nervous because I found out today that I was first seed and it’s like new to me because I’ve only been wrestling for two or three years,” Llanos said. “And I was really excited but I got nervous. I wanted to make it really bad because last year I didn’t place at regionals and I’m so proud of myself actually to place this year to make it to sectionals. I grew a lot from last year because in eighth grade year, I barely wrestled. Last year was when I started to get into it more.”
115 – Zoe Dempsey, Lincoln-Way co-op
Dempsey (42-2) knocked out her fourth opponent via fall in her championship match, defeating Metea Valley’s Janiya Moore (44-4) at 2:58.
Similar wins over Peotone’s Natalie Bonick (1:25), Plainfield East’s Ximena Valenzuela Hernandez (1:49) and Plainfield South’s Kayla Ochotorena (0:53) preceded her title-match win.
“So basically the focus all day was just score points,” Dempsey said. “I kind of had to surrender the outcome in some of those matches. The goal isn’t just to win, it’s just to score points and winning is a by-product of scoring points and in every single one of my matches the goal is to get first takedown. If I can get extra work, get some more takedowns, if not, just get backs, get falls.”
Like her peers, Dempsey is striving to get better, to make progress each day. She placed fifth in the state at 105 as a sophomore and was third at 110 in her junior season last winter. Now she’s aiming to go even higher in her swan song.
“Wrestling is truly a different breed,” Dempsey said. “There’s just no sport like it, you know. You can really see that in a lot of time in rematches you see the progress you’ve made, I kind of relate it to I used to run track, all the progress was numerical so you could see your progress based on your times coming down and stuff like that. I feel like wrestling is even more special than that, it’s just like man-to-man seeing progress like all out there, it’s all you.”
Ochotorena (39-8) won by fall at 2:34 over Lockport’s Bella Romando (31-17) to take third.
120 – Ashley Basmajian, Metea Valley
A year after becoming the first girls wrestler from her school to qualify for the state tournament, Basmajilan (5-0) is looking to get there again as evidenced by her efforts this weekend in Aurora.
Basmajian wasn’t thrilled with how she wrestled, but her dominant results speak differently with pins of Lyons’ Tori Evans (0:30), Bolingbrook’s Alejandra Flores (2:35) and Peotone’s Kennedy Mort (1:12) before a 16-1 tech fall win over Wheaton Warrenville South’s Sommer Kibbe in the semifinals.
In the finals, Basmajilian pinned West Aurora’s Aiyanah Sylvester (29-2) at 1:34.
“I mean it’s cool (to win the regional),” Basmajilian said. “I was not really happy with the way I wrestled, just happy to be competing and for the opportunity. The next step from here is I’m going to go back and check tape and probably write some notes down from what I see that I need to improve on and just iron it out at practice.”
Basmajilian was probably more excited to talk about her teammates than she was herself.
“So Janiya (Moore) and Alketa (Picari) both made it to the finals and Alketa won and Janiya got second,” Basmajilian said. “So it was really fun watching them honestly. That’s what I love so much about competitions and being part of the team. And then the girls who didn’t make the finals were super supportive as well. It’s such a cool thing being part of a team where we all support each other and all love each other.”
Flores (36-8) placed third with a tech fall win against Neuqua Valley’s Aleta Weigandt (24-11).
125 – Sophie Crescenzo, Lisle
As one of just two competitors from her school, Crescenzo (24-2) brought home a regional title after pinning Lincoln-Way co-op’s Caleigh Nicholson (34-11) a couple seconds short of a minute for the 125-pound title.
Pins against Naperville North’s Avery Kinley (0:28), East Aurora’s Valentina Barboza (2:38) and Batavia’s Natalie Lenart (1:56) preceded her title victory.
Lemont’s Molly O`Connor (37-8) earned a tech fall win over Joliet West’s Briahna Klobnak (24-12) to place third.
Klobnak had pinned O’Connor, a two-time state qualifier, in the quarterfinals.
“I was up all night thinking about it,” Klobnak said. “My coach used to coach at Lemont and he coached her so he was telling me these things but at the same time it was making me more anxious kind of. And so then my sister (Veronica Klobnak) during warm-ups showed me a headlock and that’s what I ended up doing and was how I got her within the first period and then versus her again for third, and she kind of got her revenge match so that was like such a relief when I got there because if I didn’t get there that would also of been an all or nothing right there.”
Klobnak also qualified for sectionals last season.
“Going into that fourth match against Bolingbrook’s (Anaya Campbell), I had lost to her fighting for first at conference,” Klobnak said. “So my mindset was a little messed up a bit.”
So she fired herself up knowing her high school career was on the line.
“Right before that match started I said it was all or nothing because it’s senior year,” she said. “Because if I lose this match my season is done, so it was just like it was a really mental match and I was down and I almost got caught a few times and then I ended up just pulling it out and I won and pinned and then went to fight for third. So it was hard and then yesterday when they were talking about it being the hardest regional there was another mindset where I like ‘ugh.’”
130 – Melva Gallego-Sugar, Naperville Central
Late in the third period of the 130-pound title match, Gallego-Sugar (27-9) pinned East Aurora’s Ayelen Higuera (30-10) to become a regional champion.
Gallego-Sugar opened with pins against Joliet West’s Willow Perruquet (1:21) and Lyons’ Lorelai Brown (1:04) before earning a 9-0 major decision to defeat Lincoln-Way co-op’s Dani Schedin in the semifinals.
Higuera’s second-place finish was tops for the Tomcats.
Gallego-Sugar’s crosstown rival, Naperville North’s Izzy Smith (20-8), took third place after receiving a medical forfeit in her match against Schedin (30-17), whom Gallego-Sugar beat in the semis.
135 – Claudia Heeney, Lockport
Heeney’s bid for a third state title began with four pins to earn the regional title at 130.
Coming off a state title at 135 last year, another at 130 in 2024 and a second-place finish at 125 as a freshman in 2023, Heeney (35-3) earned first period pins over Plainfield Central’s Aaliyah Banda (1:17), Lyons’ Sofia Turek (1:00) and Joliet West’s Veronica Klobnak (1:32) to advance to the finals.
Joliet Central’s Izabel Barrera (31-3), the lone sectional qualifier for the Steelmen, survived the first period, but ultimately met her demise at 2:23 to drop to 31-3 on the season.
Lemont’s lone sectional qualifier, Molly O’Connor, took third with her tech fall victory over Joliet West’s Veronica Klobnak.
Klobnak was one of three Tigers to qualify for the sectional.
“I’m really excited, I did not qualify last year so this is really a big deal,” she said. “I’m making it further, and know we have the biggest regional in the whole state of Illinois.”
When Klobnak got knocked out last season she dealt with the heartbreak by getting right back to work.
“It was really heartbreaking but I continued wrestling over the summer,” she said. “I went through multiple clubs that my coach was putting me through. I was going to tournaments to qualify for nationals, was going to out-of-state tournaments, I was just wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, and this year like with my team I’ve been putting in a lot of work in my practices, putting in extra work, extra sprints, extra time and that’s definitely pushed me because I didn’t want to feel the heartbreak I felt last year.”
140 – Alketa “Rosie” Picari, Metea Valley
Rosy means optimistic, bright, happy so it’s no surprise Metea Valley junior Alketa Picari (44-4) likes to go by “Rosie.”
“I feel a lot more dominant than I did last year,” Rosie said. “All my matches today I felt really in control. Compared to last year, I was being a little messy, you know what I mean? It’s just really satisfying.”
Tech fall victories over East Aurora’s Carolina Ascencio, West Aurora’s Raysa Castaneda and Wheaton Warrenville South’s Caroline Ratliff preceded her first-period pin over Lincoln-Way co-op’s Abby Kunz (38-7) in the final.
“I know in our area there’s a lot of good wrestlers, which makes sense around the city and stuff,” she said. “Obviously I wouldn’t have it a different way because all the great competition is what is making me better over the years. I appreciate it.”
She’s committed to it.
“After this I’m going to go back to freestyle and during the summertime I see how many levels there are to it,” she said. “In the summer I go against girls like twice, three times as good as me, it’s really good competition in the summertime, it’s just a little crazy.”
Oswego East’s Quinn Janssens (26-4) pinned Ratliff (22-10) to take third place.
145 – Ella Giertuga, Lincoln-Way co-op
Giertuga (33-6) advanced to state before, but prior to Saturday no one from the media had asked her about it nor her wrestling accomplishments for one of the top programs in the state.
“I’ve really loved the team dynamic that we have.” Giertuga, a junior, said. “I feel like there is a lot of good competition within there, like everybody wrestles differently on the team so you get a lot of real good looks. I just love the diversity on here because there is short and tall, everybody wrestles different.”
Giertuga was one of the only champions to spend a lot of time on the mats.
After a bye and pinning Plainfield South’s Liliana Kenost (3:15), Giertuga went the distance and then some in her final three matches. She earned a 7-0 decision over Joliet Central’s Jaylin Ingram in the quarters, dropped Oswego East’s Ella Cooper, 3-1, int the semifinals, and needed a tiebreaker to prevail in her finals match against Wheaton Warrenville South’s Louisa Enslen (28-5), 4-2.
“I feel like I really just went out there thinking I’m going to do my best and put it all out there,” she said. “My last match was definitely kind of scary for me, but I feel like I’m really going full throttle and keeping calm helped me secure that win.”
She’s been able to see her growth.
“Jump from freshman year to here, I did not even think I would’ve placed in regionals or anything,” she said. “And last year I got fourth and I feel like there was just really a lot of good development. I’m really excited about it.”
Cooper (28-8) placed third via major decision over Joliet West’s Vanessa O’Connor (35-6).
155 – Callie Carr, Hinsdale South
Carr (33-0) improved to 72-0 over the past two seasons after pinning Batavia freshman Audrey Sheldon (39-5) at 1:23 in the 155 final.
Carr, a three-time state qualifier and the defending 155 state champion, was the only wrestler among the eight who competed from Hinsdale South to advance to next weekend’s Schaumburg sectional.
Carr defeated Naperville Central’s Arianna Rico by fall (1:03), earned a tech fall victory against Joliet Central’s Leilani Robles in the quarterfinals and also pinned Plainfield East’s Kaitlyn Bucholz (1:43) in the semifinals.
Bucholz (28-11) bounced back from her defeat to beat Lincoln-Way co-op’s Avery Holeman (26-15) for third place. Bucholz pinned Holeman (1:10) as she picked up four victories in the regional all via pin.
170 – Layla Spann, Plainfield South
Just a sophomore, Spann (41-0) remained unbeaten after picking up four more victories over the weekend, including a tech fall victory in the 170 final against Lincoln-Way co-op junior Riley Depolo (35-6).
Spann pinned Bolingbrook’s Leslie Duncan (0:47), Joliet West’s Bianca Campos (3:09) and Batavia’s Caoimhe Mitchell (2:29).
“I think I just wrestled my game, wrestled my matches,” Spann said. “My style of wrestling is kind of like, there is nobody else on the mat except you and that other person. Me and that other person so it’s just like just us. I’m quickly moving. When I have a thought on the mat I just execute it right away, no waiting, because waiting, there’s no time to wait.”
Spann took second at regionals last year during a freshman season that culminated with a trip to state where she went 1-2. She upped her record this season to 41-0.
“Last year I was kind of more of an upper body wrestler and this year I’ve kind of found that I’m taking crazy shots I practice,” she said. “And practicing it in the practice room and then bringing it out here on the mat it helps me a lot because you’re practicing your shots and shooting is what gets you the win basically, and everybody could be taken down no matter what. So I still just focus on one thing – the person in front of me and what I’m doing. It’s just another match. I’m progressing, getting better every single match.”
Teammate, Kimyra Patrick, who won at 190, was jokingly distracting Spann while she was being interviewed. It drew laughter and smiles from Spann so mission accomplished.
“This team is like everything,” Spann said. “Like I can have fun but I can focus at the same time and have the best practice partner ever.”
Riverside-Brookfield’s Estefany Bejarano (28-4) won by fall against WW South’s Michelle Rojas-Tellez (23-5) on the third-place mat.
190 – Kimyra Patrick, Plainfield South
After opening with a fall over Plainfield Central’s Aniyah Lopez, Patrick (41-3), a freshman competing in her first post-season, earned a tech fall over Waubonsie Valley’s Catherine Schultz to advance to the semifinals.
A tight 2-0 win over Plainfield East senior Jan Serna got her into the finals where she drew Lockport senior Sophie Kelner (36-9), a state qualifier a year ago.
Patrick was tested with another lengthy title battle against a senior and once again prevailed in a low-scoring clash, 3-1.
East Aurora freshman Jaylene Dealba (31-7) earned a 5-1 win over Serna (36-9) to take third.
“To end up qualifying since I’m younger than everybody and they’ve been doing wrestling longer than me makes me really proud of myself,.” Dealba said. “Honestly, wrestling, I didn’t know it, but it has just changed my life in such a short amount of time. I didn’t think about joining wrestling at first because I thought it was going to be something I wouldn’t have liked and ended up loving it, and now it is the only sport I love.”
Dealba said she was first introduced to wrestling by her brother’s girlfriend who was a wrestler.
“I would come to practice for a little bit and started to know everybody and honestly I treat them like my family because I’m so close to them,” she said. “Lilli (Ortiz) is my practice partner and I love her so much. She has helped me grow into the person I am now.”
235 – Henessis Villagrana, Romeoville
Villagrana (36-3) got a taste of state a season ago, dropping her two matches there.
Now a year older, more experienced, and looking for greater success, Villagrana took the first step towards returning to state after winning at 235 on Saturday.
“I’d say a big difference I made was my mindset going into these matches,” Villagrana said. “I stayed positive no matter what position I was in. I made sure I was more focused in these tight matches and always wrestling until the end.”
Pins of Plainfield East’s Sadie Hamilton (1:40) and Joliet Central’s Milan Aldana (1:20) provided a strong start for Villagrana who went the distance in the semifinals against East Aurora’s Lilli Ortiz, prevailing 3-1.
“Honestly I was kind of shocked and surprised to get this far,” Ortiz said. “This is my second year of ever wrestling so last year I didn’t move on after regionals, I didn’t place. So I messed up my shoulder like three months ago and it keeps getting worse so I wasn’t expecting much out of today, but as I was wrestling, I thought, ‘Oh, I can do this.’
“Last season I only placed first at Minooka, but I was on the JV side of that, but this year I’ve definitely placed first at a couple, including conference two weeks ago so that was really surprising too.”
Such a tight match against Ortiz, might have helped Villagrana prepare for the final where she had a similar match against Lockport’s Rebekah Ramirez (36-5), earning a 7-5 victory.
“I feel like the match did help me in a positive impact for my finals match,” Villagrana said. “It showed me that anything is possible even when there is low time on the clock. The pressure of wanting to win that match helped me in finals because it showed me to never stop trying and to always wrestle even if I felt like the match was over, it emphasized to never stop until I heard the whistle.”
Villagrana confirmed that the regional was tough.
“I had a lot of competition that really helped show my full potential while wrestling,” she said. “I do believe it was one of the hardest regionals. Many of these girls worked hard, pushing their best to win and it created great competition. I feel like this year I’m more prepared for sectionals. I’ve been putting in greater work and effort compared to last year. I’m always glad to make it this far and I feel more confident than before.”
Ortiz (27-4) placed third by fall against Lincoln-Way’s Jalyssa Venegas (34-12).