District 230 girls take IHSA state crown

By Gary Larsen for the IWCOA

You can think about winning a team state title, set a goal to win a team state title, and dream about seeing it happen, but putting yourself in position to actually do it — well, that’s where the work comes in.

The girls from the IHSA state champion District 230 co-op team were happy to work for coach Liz Short this year.

“They had all the other components, but it’s hard to coach grit and teach that,” Short said. “The wrestling part is easier, but it’s the grit and the heart… they were just invested in wrestling and in the sport.

“It’s very cool and for the program it means a lot, just the hard work. We just kept telling them all year to just trust in your training and the rest will kind of come into play. So it was just controlling what we can and the rest will figure itself out.”

Girls from Carl Sandburg, Andrew and Stagg make up the District 230 team, and their grit earned them a team state title in Bloomington.

District 230’s seven state qualifiers earned 66 team points to lead the field. Hampshire’s three state qualifiers earned the second-place team trophy with 51 points scored among them, and Kaneland’s four qualifiers posted 45.5 points to finish third.

Collinsville placed fourth with 40.5 points, Lockport (40) and Hononegah (40) tied for fifth, Schaumburg (35) placed seventh, Hoffman Estates (34.5) was eighth, Roxana (31.5) was ninth and last year’s team champion, Lakes (30) rounded out the top 10 team finishes.

District 230 got third-place individual finishes from freshman Jade Hardee (100) and senior Alyssa Keane (135), and a fourth from senior Nola Oben (155) to lead the way. Also scoring team points were Tatum De La Vega (105), Sophia Figueroa (115) and Saja Bader (120), with Adrianna Vela (170) also competing.

Hardee (37-5) won a 9-6 sudden victory decision on the third-place mat against Round Lake’s Riley Kongkaeow (45-5), while Keane (42-4) took third with an 11-4 decision against Dwight’s Avery Crouch (11-3). Keane went 5-1 while Hardee went 4-1 in this year’s state tournament. Oben (41-6) went 3-2 in Bloomington and placed fourth in a 7-4 decision to Plainfield South’s Teagan Aurich (40-1).

Short will bid farewell to senior state qualifiers Keane, Oben, Figueroa, Bader and Vela from this year’s state qualifiers.

“They really like the sport and were great role models for our younger athletes, too, and really helped set the tone for the room and really made it a competitive room,” Short said.

“There was a great foundation that (Andrew boys coach) Pete Kowalczuk had built. We went to college together at Northern Michigan, and we wrestled at the US OTC, and it was a great opportunity. And I had some awesome help, some really accomplished wrestlers and coaches.”

Now that the District 230 team has a well-established program after four seasons of IHSA girls wrestling in Illinois, Short wants to see her girls take another incremental step forward.

“We are focusing on the quality of girls wrestling instead of just the quantity,” Short said. “We were so focused on building, building, building, but now, we have to focus on the quality. It’s just improved dramatically in the past couple of years, and at Fargo our numbers are great and building Team Illinois.

“It’s about getting them invested enough that they want to keep wrestling and they’ll keep liking it. I love wrestling and I try to help them love wrestling.” 

For state runner-up Hampshire, coach Matthew Todd got third-place individual finishes from sophomore Amelia Nidelea-Polanin (115) and freshman Samantha Diehl (190), and a sixth-place finish from senior Anneliese Tavira (170).

With all three of Hampshire’s state qualifiers fighting their way to the podium steps, the Whip-Purs won the first team trophy in their program’s history.

“I am incredibly proud of our wrestlers and all the hard work they put in this year to achieve their goals,” Todd said. “Bringing home a trophy for the first time in our wrestling program’s history is a monumental achievement for our school and one that will be remembered for a very long time.”

Nidelea-Polanin (37-3) won by tech fall on the third-place mat, against Bolingbrook’s Alejandra Flores (33-6). Nidelea-Polanin went 4-1 in Bloomington, with her lone loss coming in a state semifinal match to eventual state champion Harlee Hiller of Loyola Academy.

Diehl (31-6) also went 4-1 and took third with a 4-0 decision over Streamwood’s Jasmine Rene (25-4), and Tavira (36-7) lost a hard-fought 1-0 decision on the fifth-place mat to Maine West’s Lillian Garrett (34-7).

“On the way home, it truly hit the girls just how much support we have from our community, and it’s clear they are hungry for more,” Todd said. “They are eager to see the growth of the sport and are excited about what the future holds.

“I would also like to highlight the exceptional leadership of our senior wrestler, Anneliese Tavira. Her guidance has been instrumental in helping her teammates perform at their best, and we are very proud of what they have accomplished together. As a coaching staff, we are thrilled about this achievement and can’t wait to see what the future brings for our program.”

Kaneland’s third-place team finish featured a two-time state champion in Angelina Gochis (110), and a fourth-place finish from Brooklyn Sheaffer (125). State qualifiers Caitlyn Manier (155) and Sadie Kinsella (190) also competed for the Knights.

“We knew with our hammers Brooklyn Sheaffer and Angelina Gochis, we would be right in the thick of things for a team trophy,” coach Josh West said. “Caitlyn lost a close match and then lost in the wrestle backs. Sadie won her first match and then dropped the next two.  But great seasons for both of them, they both will be back next year and the expectations will be high.”

Sophomore Gochis went a perfect 36-0 in winning back-to-back state titles, going 4-0 in Bloomington and winning by tech fall on the state title mat over Crystal Lake South’s Annalee Aarseth (17-3). The senior Sheaffer (44-4) went 3-2, winning by major decision over Naperville Central’s Dezi Azar in her consolation semifinal match before losing on the fourth-place mat to Grayslake Central’s Gianna Arzer.

“When our season ended last year we wrote some goals down,” West said. “It’s not often that a team checks off all or most of those goals. We had conference title, regional title, sectional title, and state top 3 as goals for this year. We did not win the sectional as we got 2nd place, but we won our conference, took first in our regional, and finished third in the state. So it was a heck of a year for the Kaneland Knights.

“What can I say except I am fortunate to be in the situation I am. The girls work hard and support one another.  They earned this and I am happy for them. It’s going to be tough to replace Brooklyn and our other seniors.  Brooklyn is a three-time qualifier and two-time place winner. 

“But if there is one thing I have learned it’s never count out the Knights.”