Crystal Lake Central, IC Catholic win at 2A Wheeling Sectional

By Gary Larsen for the IWCOA

One program chasing its first dual team state trophy and another chasing its sixth emerged from this year’s 2A Wheeling Dual Team Sectional on Tuesday.

Crystal Lake Central coach Justen Lehr has already guided his program to five top-four state finishes, including back-to-back second-place trophies in 2010 and 2011. Tuesday’s 43-20 win over host Wheeling gave Crystal Lake Central another team sectional title and a date in a state quarterfinal match against Mahomet-Seymour on Friday in Bloomington.

IC Catholic Prep, on the other hand, is a team on a mission to snare its first state trophy. The Knights won 49-27 over Notre Dame Tuesday night, earning a state quarterfinal matchup against Geneseo on Friday at Grossinger Motors Arena.

IC Catholic coach Danny Alcocer and his program will head downstate for the fourth time since 2018. Kevin Silva coached IC Prep to its first state finals berth in 2018; Jason Renteria took the Knights downstate in 2022; and Alcocer’s team advanced to the state finals in 2023.

A win on Friday would send Crystal Lake Central to a state semifinal Saturday against the winner between Brother Rice and Washington, while IC Prep would take on the winner between Glenwood and Montini.

IC Catholic Prep 49, Notre Dame 27

There’s a goal that’s chiseled in stone for every wrestler at the start of every year: to be wrestling your best when it counts the most at season’s end.

With a group of 10 state medalists that includes three state champions from Saturday’s individual state finals in Champaign, IC Catholic Prep has been a bona fide meteor at exactly the right time of year.

Knights junior Brody Kelly won a state title at 175 on Saturday, then watched the large stable of his highly-decorated teammates win a team sectional title three days later.

“We did well individually but it’s about the team now,” Kelly said. “We want to win it. We want to win the whole thing and we don’t want to come up short.”

The Knights came up just short one year ago, losing to eventual state runner-up Montini at the team sectional.

“That was a tough loss to Montini so we’re excited to finally get down as a team this year,” Alcocer said. “Hopefully we can take care of business. I’m real proud of their performance tonight, but we have to replicate it Friday and Saturday.

“I think we’ve got another level to get to. We have a very young lineup with a lot of freshmen and sophomore’s competing and they’re getting better every time they step out on the mat.”

Six forfeits took place between IC Catholic and Notre Dame, with IC Catholic earning a 6-2 edge in matches wrestled.

The teams took turns forfeiting at 126 and 132 to start the night before IC Catholic reeled off three straight wins: state champion Deven Casey (138) won by fall; Joey Pontrelli (144) won by decision; and Aidan Arnett (150) won by tech fall, giving IC a 20-6 lead.

Notre Dame’s Joseph McCarthy (157) stopped the bleeding with a decision win but IC followed with two pins, a tech fall win, and a forfeit win to take an unreachable 43-6 lead with four matches left to wrestle.

Nate Brown (165) and Kelly (175) won by fall and Isaac Barrientos (190) won by tech fall to effectively clinch the dual. Notre Dame’s Sean Cook (285) won by fall before the final three matches were forfeited.

Alcocer believes his boys went into Tuesday’s sectional riding high from the individual state finals. Max Cumbee (132) also won a state title in Champaign, and the Knights got a second from Arnett (144), thirds from Sam Murante (113) and Foley Calcagno (215), fourths from Dominic Pasquale (106) and Anthony Sebastian (285), a fifth from Isaac Barrientos (190), and a sixth from Kannon Judycki (120).

“Momentum is real and it carried over from that individual state tournament,” Alcocer said. “We want all our guys to be state champions and that’s a big motivator. We had twelve guys go down state and we had three champs. So the goal for the other guys is to get on top of that podium and follow our leaders like Brody Kelly and Deven Casey. And Max Cumbee coming into his own this past weekend. So everybody tries to measure up to that standard.”

Notre Dame ended a fine season in 2025. The Dons won a regional title and Ray Long (106) became Notre Dame’s first state champion since Mike Rosengrant won the state title at 130 in 1994.

Crystal Lake Central 43, Wheeling 20

The Tigers have perennially been one of Illinois’ top programs under coach Justen Lehr, and Crystal Lake Central ended a recent drought on Tuesday by earning their first downstate berth since 2017.

“The expectation in the program is to compete at the highest level,” Tigers senior Dom Vitale said.  “In my four years, this is my first time making it down there. But in three of those years, we did win the regional and got to this point. It’s nice to get down there and now we want to convert on it.”

The Tigers finished with a 9-5 edge in matches won against Wheeling and earned bonus points in eight of those nine wins. Crystal Lake Central got pins from Vitale (157) and Cayden Parks (190), and tech falls from Dylan Ramsey (126), Nick Zuehlke (150), Jackson Marlett (113) and Payton Ramsey (120).

Lehr also got major decision wins from Tyler Porter (175) and Tommy McNeill (215) and a straight decision from Brandon Carbone (138).

“They’re obviously a good team and they’re tough,” Lehr said of Wheeling. “I just think we’re a bad matchup for them. Where their big kids are good at 190 and 215, we’ve got hammers.”

Like IC Prep coach Danny Alcocer, Lehr believes his side has more to give.

“Honestly, I didn’t think we wrestled well in some matches and we probably should’ve won by more,” he said. “But it’s such a weird turnaround to have kids wrestling downstate and three days later wrestling again in a sectional.

“I think some of our kids were nervous. Because we’re not out of shape, so if we look out of shape, we know what that is. It’s nerves.”

Dylan Ramsey’s tech at 126 opened the dual, and Wheeling answered with a straight decision win at 132 from Max Katz. It was 8-3 after Carbone’s win at 138 when Wheeling won its lone tech fall of the night, from Austin Berger (144), to tie the dual at 8-8.

Zuehlke’s tech fall and Vitale’s pin made it 19-8. Wheeling’s Nick Montesino by decision at 165 to make it 19-11, but Crystal Lake Central ticked off three wins in a row from Porter, Parks and McNeill to take a 33-11 lead with four matches left to wrestle.

Wheeling’s Pablo Morales won by decision at 285 and teammate Franklin Katz won by fall at 106, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 33-20 before tech falls from Jackson Marlett and Payton Ramsey completed the win for Crystal Lake Central.

“126 was a big momentum booster for us,” Lehr said. “We won that match at sectionals but I thought it could’ve gone the other way because that kid is solid, but Dylan (Ramsey) came out and did his job.

“Momentum is as big in wrestling as it is in any other sport. When you watch your buddies either win or lose, it affects you. So that was a great start for us.”

Wheeling had an excellent season under coach Charlie Curran, who led his program to its first team regional title since 2017 this year. His squad went 12-2 in dual meets in 2025.

Crystal Lake Central 43, Wheeling 20

126 – Dylan Ramsey (CL Central) over Joey Romano (Wheeling) TF 19-4

132 – Max Katz (Wheeling) over Daniel Snow (CL Central) Dec 7-4

138 – Brandon Carbone (CL Central) over Manny Lagunas (Wheeling) Dec 7-1

144 – Austin Berger (Wheeling) over Abraham Palomino (CL Central) TF 16-1

150 – Nicholas Zuehlke (CL Central) over Byron Arreola (Wheeling) TF 17-2

157 – Dominic Vitale (CL Central) over John Scanlon (Wheeling) Fall 1:13

165 – Nicholas Montesinos (Wheeling) over Tommy Tomasello (CL Central) Dec 15-9

175 – Tyler Porter (CL Central) over Jonathan Martinez (Wheeling) Maj 13-3

190 – Cayden Parks (CL Central) over Jonny Dominguez (Wheeling) Fall 1:37

215 – Tommy McNeil (CL Central) over Eddie Juarez (Wheeling) Maj 13-2

285 – Pablo Morales (Wheeling) over Logan Gough (CL Central) Dec 10-3

106 – Franklin Katz (Wheeling) over Colton Legan (CL Central) Fall 0:24

113 – Jackson Marlett (CL Central) over David Perez (Wheeling) TF 22-5

120 – Payton Ramsey (CL Central) over Miguel Lopez (Wheeling) TF 17-2

IC Catholic 49, Notre Dame) 27

126 – John Sheehy (Notre Dame) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf

132 – Max Cumbee (IC Catholic) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf

138 – Deven Casey (IC Catholic) over Brady Krueger (Notre Dame) Fall 2:34

144 – Joey Pontrelli (IC Catholic) over John Carr (Notre Dame) Dec 9-4

150 – Aidan Arnett (IC Catholic) over Jake Luczak (Notre Dame) TF 16-1

157 – Joseph McCarthy (Notre Dame) over Ben Czarnowski (IC Catholic) SV-1 16-13

165 – Nate Brown (IC Catholic) over Dean Lazaris (Notre Dame) Fall 0:53

175 – Brody Kelly (IC Catholic) over Peter Escamilla (Notre Dame) Fall 1:27

190 – Isaac Barrientos (IC Catholic) over Michael Keany (Notre Dame) TF 17-2

215 – John Goggin (IC Catholic) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf

285 – Sean Cook (Notre Dame) over James Alexander (IC Catholic) Fall 3:49

106 – Drew Murante (IC Catholic) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf

113 – Ray Long (Notre Dame) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf

120 – Marty Towey (Notre Dame) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf