Here’s a bonus this week from Rob Sherrill… the 1991 IKWF State Championship bouts.

Lower Weight Title Bouts: 70 – 105 lbs.

Upper Weight Title Bouts: 112 – HWT

This year’s SportsChannel broadcast had been edited by Coach Eggert to highlight just the great action from these Individual Championships. Enjoy!

Class A Individual Brackets | Class AA Individual Brackets

1992 IHSA Individual Wrestling Championships

Class A Brackets:  https://www.ihsa.org/archive/wr/PDF-Brackets/State%20Wrestling%201992-A.pdf

Class AA Brackets:  https://www.ihsa.org/archive/wr/PDF-Brackets/State%20Wrestling%201992-AA.pdf

1992 Dual Team Championships

Class A:  Harvard vs. Normal (U-High)

Class AA:  Naperville North vs. Chicago (Mt. Carmel)

Phew! Thank you Dale Eggert (Libertyville) for coming through for the IWCOA this week!

This week we saw how unreliable 30 year-old VHS tapes and a 25 year-old VCR can be! We had to skip 1990. If anyone has a copy of SportsChannel’s 1990 broadcast, please email: micktorres@yahoo.com

Click HERE for the 1991 Individual Chicago SportChannel Broadcast

1991 IHSA Individual State Tournament Brackets: Class A | Class AA

Between 1987 – 1991, Chicago-area sports broadcasting brought us the IHSA State Individual and Dual Team Wrestling Championships. Many wrestling fans, like our own Rob Sherrill, recorded these broadcasts on VHS tape and stored them away … for days like today!

The conversion from VHS to YouTube is never perfect.
The quality is poor, but the memories are golden!

In 1989, Chicago SportsVision became SportsChannel. Perhaps in an effort to cut back from the 10-hour 1988 marathon, SportsChannel chose to only feature one of the two championship Individual and Dual Team contests. Most of the featured matches were of Class AA competitors. This protocol would continue for the next two years.

1989 Individual State Championships – https://youtu.be/1vKXZSg0XYI

Class AA Brackets : Class A Brackets

1989 Dual Team State Championships – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roygSem4JE0

0:00 – Class A Summary Only – Mahomet-Seymour vs. Tolono (Unity)
9:58 – Class AA – Providence Catholic vs. DeKalb

Between 1987 – 1991, Chicago-area sports broadcasting brought us the IHSA State Individual and Dual Team Wrestling Championships. Many wrestling fans, like our own Rob Sherrill, recorded these broadcasts on VHS tape and stored them away … for days like today!

The conversion from VHS to YouTube is never perfect.
The quality is poor, but the memories are golden!
======================================================

Click Here for the 1988 IHSA Individual Wrestling Finals: https://youtu.be/hD0_UWw1WJ0

…scroll down for DUAL TEAM FINALS

This week’s feature year: 1988

Class AA Individual Finals

98 – 4:30 – Sean Kegal (Johnsburg) vs. Jeff Mirabella (Elgin)
105 – 14:45 – Andy Gardner (Springfield-Lanphier) vs. Darren Cowan (Geneseo)
112 – 25:15 – Brett Janis (Lake Park) vs. Matt Bartlett (St. Charles)
119 – 44:00 – Pete Schulte (OPRF) vs. Sam Geraci (Lake Park)
126 – 1:13:35 – Ryan Schafer (Sterling) vs. Greg Rosenbloom (Highland Park)
132 – 1:25:35 – Joey Gilbert (Andrew) vs. William Gay (Rock Island)
138 – 1:44:07 – Armando Sanders (Waubonsie Valley) vs. T.C. Dantzler (Thornwood)
145 – 1:58:30 – Tom Hugunin (Romeoville) vs. Paul Andreotti (Marist)
155 – 2:10:50 – Toby Willis (Morgan Park) vs. Jim Kossakowski (Elgin-Larkin)
167 – 2:25:47 – Dan Ritchie (Pekin) vs. Felix McLin (Proviso East)
185 – 2:39:30 – Bob Gwiasda (Hoffman Estates) vs. Mike Manganiello (Mt. Carmel)
275 – 2:52:25 – Larry Love (Thornton) vs. Nick Moss (Hoffman Estates)

Class A Individual Finals

98 – 3:11:48 – Randy Bull (Lisle) vs. Mark Olbrich (Harvard)
105 – 3:23:10 – Ramon Olalde (Sterling Newman) vs. Robbie Rash (Fulton)
112 – 3:33:55 – Jake Davidson (Litchfield) vs. Brett Camden (Mahomet-Seymour)
119 – 3:48:23 – Bob Mena (Sterling Newman) vs. Mike Sheehy (Elgin – St. Edward)
126 – 4:00:10 – Greg Alber (Dakota) vs. Kevin Tassone (Richmond-Burton)
132 – 4:12:03 – Steve Stender (Stillman Valley) vs. Rick Cunningham (Illini Bluffs)
138 – 4:30:20 – Steve Kelly (Sterling Newman) vs. Razmic Khelghatian (Lisle)
145 – 4:41:25 – Sean Eggenberger (Sandwich) vs. Craig Gharst (Mahomet-Seymour)
155 – 4:53:15 – Steffond Jones (Chicago Luther South) vs Brad Stockstill (Mt. Olive)
167 – 5:08:20 – Jehad Hamdan (Lemont) vs. Mike Novak (Mahomet-Seymour)
185 – 5:21:30 – Pat O’Neal (Mt. Olive) vs. Johan Lerch (Taylor Ridge-Rockridge)
275 – 5:34:00 – Tim Holderer (Mahomet-Seymour) vs. Herb Porter (Argenta-Oreana)
=================================================

1988 IHSA Dual Team Championships

Click Here for the 1988 Class AA and A Championships
https://youtu.be/A7Z3dN3xEFc

0:23 – Class AA – Providence Catholic vs. Oak Park River Forest
1:48:45 – Class A – Mahomet-Seymour vs. Harvard

Between 1987 – 1991, Chicago-area sports broadcasting brought us the IHSA State Individual and Dual Team Wrestling Championships. Many wrestling fans, like our own Rob Sherrill, recorded these broadcasts on VHS tape and stored them away … for days like today!

The conversion from VHS to YouTube is never perfect.
The quality is poor, but the memories are golden!

Click HERE for FIVE HOURS of IHSA Wrestling on the IWCOA YouTube Channel! https://youtu.be/obYQVl0DpC4

This week’s feature year:
1987 (The 50th year of the IHSA State Wrestling Championships)

1987 Individual State Title Matches
Class A Individual Brackets; Class AA Individual Brackets

98 – 12:00 – Matthew Bartlett (St. Charles) vs. Ken Gerdes (Providence Catholic)

105 –  23:00 – Brett Janis (Lake Park) vs. Neil Kohlberg (Wheeling)

112 –  49:00 – Ben Morris (Fenton) vs. Sam Geraci (Lake Park)

“Maybe the greatest state final match in the first 50 years of this State Tournament!” – Rob Sherrill

119 – 1:07 – Phil Johns (Canton) vs. Booker Hobson (Joliet West)

126 – 1:27 – Joe Cascone (St. Laurence) vs. William Gay (Rock Island)

132 – 1:39 – Joey Gilbert (Andrew) vs. Tim Chaplin (Joliet Central)

138 – 1:53 – John Sehnert (Barrington) vs. Dennis Vesey (Rock Island)

145 – 2:05 – Ken Thompson (Bloom) vs. Geoff Woodcock (Waubonsie Valley)

155 – 2:18 – Jay White (Stagg) vs. Tom Blaha (Tinley Park)

167 – 2:31 – Tim Driscoll (Waubonsie Valley) vs. Eric Schultz (Tinley Park)

185 – 2:43 – Steve Hughes (Stagg) vs. Kirk Mammen (Urbana)

275 – 2:55 – Jim Wormsley (Dundee-Crown) vs. Carl Pressley (Conant)

1987 Dual Team State Championship

3:06 – Chicago (Marist) vs. Naperville North

By Curt Herron

There is something to be said about a program having a strong conviction in trying to accomplish something special. And all throughout the 2019-20 season, Lemont’s wrestling team had confidence that it had what it would take to win an IHSA Class 2A title.

That was a big goal for a program that has performed well throughout the years, posting a 262-152 record in coach John St. Clair’s 17 seasons, but hadn’t had a top finish at the dual team finals since claiming third- and fourth-place trophies during visits in 2010 and 2011.

In 2015, 2017 and 2019, the Indians got to team state but lost in the quarterfinals each time, including last year when they fell 40-31 to eventual champion Washington.

But with a strong group returning along with some good new additions, the Indians were at or near the top throughout the season in Rob Sherrill’s IWCOA rankings.

With a lineup that was very solid throughout and with a good number of state-ranked individuals, it’s no wonder that Lemont was able to craft a 32-2 record against a lot of teams from schools that are bigger than theirs is and its only two defeats came against a pair of quality 3A programs in Sandburg and Oak Park-River Forest.

Boosted by a great semifinal round at the individual tournament where it advanced a school-best five competitors to the title mat and also set a new school standard with three champions, Lemont entered the dual team finals with a lot of confidence and that was demonstrated by its high level of performance on Saturday at Grossinger Motors Arena.

The Indians lost just two matches in a 58-7 quarterfinal win over Mattoon and then only dropped four matches in a 46-19 victory over an Aurora Christian team that was coming off of a big 32-25 triumph over favored Marian Central Catholic in its quarterfinal dual meet.

Those wins advanced the Indians to the championship mat for the first time in their program’s history and they got the opportunity to go up against four-time defending champion Washington to see if they could cap their historic season with a first state championship.

Thanks to three-straight wins to kick off the dual meet and then three more following the Panthers’ first victory, Lemont jumped out to a 9-0 lead and then went up 21-3 midway through the dual and it added two more triumphs after that to assure the championship with one match to go as it claimed a 30-26 victory to halt Washington’s impressive title run.

“The depth in the room helped push all of the starters,” St. Clair said. “Everybody didn’t have to go with the same guy all of the time, they could go with different people and have different looks. In this dual, we only went with the starters, but on Tuesday, we had guys who came in and they stepped up. But that’s because of the room and the leaders that we have. Lemont wrestling hopefully has another one in them soon since the cupboard is not bare.

“Somebody who was a past champ texted me and said, ‘hey, welcome to the club,” and it’s a pretty good club and it feels cool. When you look at the crowd we had tonight, it was as big, or bigger as anyone else, and that was awesome. That’s because all of the people who were here had kids who grew up wrestling in Lemont and they knew that this year was going to be something special, and they followed them through, and I’m so happy for everybody.”

Senior Grant LaDuke, the state runner-up at 152, got things started for the Indians in the title meet with a 10-4 win over Cole Watkins. Kyle Zator followed with a 6-1 victory over Donnie Hidden and then Alex Tagler was an 11-5 winner over Jacob Sollberger.

After Tyler Casey beat Mo Khalil 5-2 at 182 to pull the Panthers to within 9-3, Tyler Wilms followed with a 5-2 victory over Steven Apgar and then 220-pound state champion Apollo Gothard recorded a fall in 1:23 over Braeden Weiss and 285-pound state champ Mo Jarad claimed an 8-3 triumph over Dylan Cooper to put Lemont up by 18 points at 21-3.

“We all had that great mindset to just go out there and to wrestle our hearts out,” LaDuke said. “For our four seniors, this was our last dual so it was just give it our all. We’ve been working for this moment ever since we started here.”

After 106-pound state champion Kannon Webster received a forfeit victory, the Panthers followed that with a 6-3 victory from Josh Biagini over Tyler Bentley and then Abe Hinrichsen beat Evan Schiffman by technical fall to narrow the gap to 21-17.

But 126-pound champion Drew Nash recorded a fall in just 10 seconds against Ashton Rice and then after 132-pound champion Brody Norman pulled Washington to within 27-20 following a 6-3 win over Ray Hernandez, AJ Heeg clinched the championship victory for the Indians with a 10-5 win over Alec Mihelic. Four-time finalist and 145-pound runner-up Kyle Schickel didn’t need to compete in the finale so Blake Hinrichsen received a forfeit win.

“We had a really special team this year,” Nash said. “We knew that we had to capitalize and we did and it was a great year and I’m so thankful for everyone and proud of everyone who competed today. I love all of them, they’re my family, and I’ll never forget them.”

After seeing his program competing for a title for the sixth-straight year and then coming up a bit short of a fifth title, third-year Panthers coach Nick Miller was understandably pleased with the efforts of his squad, which finished 22-7 to improve Washington to 139-36 since Bryan Medlin brought the first of his three finalist teams to the state competition in 2015.

The Panthers won the first 10 matches to roll to a 65-3 victory over Riverside-Brookfield in the quarterfinals and then captured a 35-28 semifinal victory over Antioch after winning eight of the first 11 matches to grab a 35-12 advantage.

“They’re a solid team, no doubt,” Miller said of Lemont. “But we threw our best at them. We made some changes in the lineup that we thought benefited us early on and it didn’t play out that way, but they’re a good, solid team.

“I give a lot of credit for our success to our seniors. These kids come in for four years and they understand what it means to just give your best and to be your absolute best every day, and they pass that lesson on to the younger kids and that’s been a trend for several years.”

After finishing first in 2018 and second in 2019 in Class 1A, Aurora Christian made a successful move to Class 2A by capturing its third-straight trophy for coach Justin Pearch with a third-place finish following a 33-26 victory over Antioch. After handing Marian Central Catholic its first loss 32-25 in the quarterfinals, they fell 46-19 to Lemont in the semifinals.

Winning matches in the third-place meet for the 23-6 Eagles were 138-pound state champion Noah Villarreal, a three-time champion and four-time finalist, 113-pound champion Chris Moore, 182-pound runner-up Alex Knauf, 2017 and 2018 champion Cameron Johnson, 2019 champion Joel Mylin, Jack Certa, Mike Esquivel and Braden Hunter.

“We have 14 guys on the team and in the lineup and we have guys bumping up a couple of weight classes, but they’re tough,” Pearch said. “We prepare them for this time of the season just from the crazy schedule that we have. Aurora Christian is a great culture. From the first time you walk in the door until you leave, it’s one giant family.”

Getting wins for coach Wilbur Borrero’s Sequoits, who entered Saturday with a 21-0 record and won a fourth-place trophy for the third time, were Elijah Reyes, Devin Nobiling, Niall Schoenfelder, Caleb Nobiling, Luke Menzies and Brandon Pinto.

Two coaches led teams to their first state appearances, Brett Porter at Mattoon, which went 18-3, and Nicholas Curby at Riverside-Brookfield, who were 15-9. Coach David Silva’s Marian Central Catholic team finished 23-1 in their third-straight trip to state and coach Rob Ledin led 23-2 Mahomet-Seymour to the program’s 18th state appearance.

By Curt Herron

After dominating in the IHSA’s Class 1A dual team tournament from 2013-16, Dakota didn’t advance to the competition again until this year, but that made sense because another northwest Illinois program, Lena-Winslow/Stockton, won Class 1A titles in 2017 and 2019.

For a program that established a Class 1A standard and shared a small-school record by winning four-straight championships in that class, it wasn’t surprising to see Dakota again in Bloomington this past weekend and to have them capture their sixth state title since 2006.

Coach Pete Alber’s Indians definitely picked up where they had left off by winning another Class 1A championship, beating Coal City 40-19 to hand the Coalers their sixth second-place finish, including their second in a row with last year’s loss coming in the Class 2A finals.

Dakota won its three dual meets by a 43-19.7 margin with the closest one being a 35-27 semifinal win over Unity after opening the day with a 54-13 quarterfinal victory over Tremont.

The Indians also beat Coal City 49-26 on January 4 and were able to avenge a 31-27 loss to Unity on December 7 that was one of four losses they suffered in a 24-4 campaign. Their other defeats came against Aurora Christian, Lockport and Washington, who also were competing in the state finals at the Grossinger Motors Arena.

Unity, which was making its first state appearance since 1990, claimed its second trophy after beating Auburn 48-30 in the third-place meet. The Rockets gave Dakota its biggest challenge, winning five of the first eight matches to lead 18-14 and only trailed 29-27 going into the final match, which Dakota’s Lucas Sutherland secured with a fall in 1:03 at 138.

“It feels good, but at the same time, we don’t like to be gone that long,” said Alber, who was assisted by Josh Alber, Colby Dace, Matt Jacobs and Shad Sutherland. “It was too long of a dry spell for us. Coal City was tough and we respect them, and also Unity, which was awful tough, too, and they beat us earlier in the year. We just came in prepared and these guys were very confident. We didn’t have the mental meltdowns, anything like that. I was very happy with our performance.

“We have a good community with great parents and a great administration in our school and they push us. Our administration kept pushing us, ‘hey, we need a state championship’ and that puts pressure on you. But we’re happy to get this. And we’re junior-heavy, so we should be competitive next year.”

In the title meet, Dakota won three of the first four matches to jump out to a 16-3 lead but Coal City responded with four-straight wins to go up 19-16. However, it was all Dakota after that as it claimed victories in the final six matches, claiming two of those wins with falls.

Dakota’s Quinton Heilemeier started things off with a fall in 1:11 over Joey Breneman at 152 and Coaler 160-pound state runner-up David Papach answered with a 6-0 decision over Aidan Nardin. The Indians won the next two as 170-pound state runner-up Andrew Wenzel pinned Ashton Harvey in 30 seconds and then Evan Riggle won 8-0 over Dane Dearth to give their team an early 13-point lead.

The Coalers then won four in a row as 195-pound state champion Daniel Jezik pinned Cody Meade in 3:18, Gage Leake won 5-0 over Martin Snyder at 220, Logan Miller was an 8-3 winner over Dalton Riggle and Evan Rivera put his team up by three points with a 14-6 victory over Ethan Rood at 106.

But Maddux Blakely got a fall in 1:04 over Mataeo Blessing, Conner Elmer won 7-3 over Derek Carlson and 120-pound state champion Phoenix Blakely edged Zach Finch 10-9 at 126. Tyler Simmer got a fall in 4:18 over Lane Kutemeier, Lucas Sutherland won 5-0 over Connor Huston and Kade Wales won 7-5 over Gabe Ludes in the finale at 145.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Evan Riggle said. “This group of guys have been doing this since we were little. We’ve got the best fans and had the most people here. I’m done, but these guys have such a great future. We were super confident and knew we were going to win. We were ready.”

Coal City, which finished 39-9, opened with a 57-18 win over Harvard, which was making its first trip since 2014. The Coalers followed that with a 39-32 semifinal win over Auburn, which they trailed 20-3 after five matches before winning seven of the last nine, including the final four with wins by Carlson, Finch, Kutemeier and Huston to score the last 18 points.

Coach Mark Masters’ Coalers have placed in the top three on five occasions in the last six years, with three of those being runner-up finishes. Other than last season, they’ve been in Class 1A and the program has posted a 191-33 record, good for an .853 winning percentage.

“Year-in-and-year out they’ve always had a tough team when they come here, so you know that you’re going to get the best that your team is going to see all year,” said Coalers assistant coach Jim Looper, who was filling in at state for coach Mark Masters.

“You’ve got to get here to have a chance and all of these kids do is fight and they do everything we ask them to do on the mat. We laid it all out there, but it just wasn’t our day today. Bonus points are a premium and they got a few more than we did, especially early on. Toward the middle, there were toss-up matches and we battled and battled and they just came out on the toss-ups, and that’s what you see in a good dual.”

Unity’s Rockets, coached by Logan Patton, capped a 40-7 season by claiming third place with its second trophy in its first state trip since 1990. And Auburn’s Trojans finished 30-3 for coach Matt Grimm and placed fourth for their first trophy in their second state appearance.

In the 48-30 third-place meet, Unity got pins from 113-pound state runner-up Tavius Hosley, Cade Scott, Oran Varela, Logan Wilson, Braxton Manuel, Ben Gavel and Peyton Holt and decisions from Pate Eastin and Micah Downs. Getting pins for Auburn were Mikel Ent, Gervasio Marchizza, Gage Lopez and Caleb Nix while Dresden Grimm received a forfeit.

“We wrestled well today,” Patton said. “It’s the first trophy that we’ve brought home in 30 years and it means a whole lot. This is my third year at Unity so we’re building the program the right way and coming up with the medal was great. We’re a family, we’re just tight-knit. No one’s harder on our dudes than each other and we give each other a hard time. It’s a bunch of brothers who have a great time and really excited for that.”

Teams that fell in the quarterfinals were Harvard (25-6), coached by David Schultz; Nazareth Academy (12-10), coached by Denis Laughlin; Prairie Central (35-5), coached by Tyler Webster; and Tremont (20-9), coached by TJ Williams. Harvard made its 14th state trip, Prairie Central its fifth visit, Tremont its second appearance and Nazareth made its debut.