Lemont wins third straight regional

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:30AM

The first step in the Class 2A individual state wrestling tournament couldn't have gone much better Saturday for host Lemont as the Indians advanced 12 wrestlers to the Lincoln-Way West Sectional and won their third straight regional title.

Lemont had six champions, four runners-up and two third-place finishers in the eight-team meet the Indians won with 232 points to 114.5 for second-place Oak Forest and 108 for third-place Riverside-Brookfield.

"We wrestled pretty good all day long, everybody did, even the guys that didn't make it through,'' said Lemont coach John St. Clair. "All these guys are peaking at the right time. A lot of the guys did well last week at conference and it kind of carried over.''

Winning titles for Lemont were Jake Latanski (112), Glen Malecki (125), Gio Schmitt (135), Jake Kaminsky (145), Derek Nagel (160) and Erik Kirkman (171).

"We lost some real good seniors from last year,'' said St. Clair, in his eighth season as coach. "We had a lot to replace. A lot of people didn't think we'd be regional champs again or do as well as we've been doing. It's a testament to these guys.''

Nagel, a state semifinalist the last two seasons, raised his record to 36-1 with a 5-0 decision over Oak Forest's Tom Higgins in the 160 final.

"I'm not a big shooter myself. He knows to wrestle defensively against me,'' Nagel said. "I would have liked to have a higher scoring match, but I thought it was all right.''

St. Clair singled out the 17-6 major decision Latanski earned at 112 over Bremen's Julio Chavez and the 8-4 decision Malecki scored at 125 over Evergreen Park's Jesse McLain as being impressive victories.

"They both beat really good kids in the finals,'' St. Clair said.

Oak Forest got titles from Eamon Przekwas at 119 and Alec Brown at 189, who raised his record to 32-4 with a 4-0 decision over Giatras.

"I knew he was going to try to throw a lot because I wrestled him last week at conference,'' Brown said. "I just wrestled smart and did what I had to do.''

Evergreen Park advanced six wrestlers to the sectional, the second-highest total in the meet.

Next is the Lincoln-Way West sectional which includes highly-ranked Montini and Marmion.

"It's the best 2A sectional in the state by far,'' St. Clair said.

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