Three-peat for Wilmington

Wilmington's John VanDuyne defeats Harvard's Jeremiah Gratz by fall in the 135-pound match.
(John Patsch/Staff Photographer)

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BLOOMINGTON -- The big boys set the table.

And the little guys enjoyed another feast.

Steve Liaromatis, Dino Saracco and Alfonso Dingillo started the ball rolling for the Wilmington High School wrestling team in a 48-9 victory over LeRoy in the championship dual in the 1A state tournament Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

Liaromatis, Saracco and Dingillo swept the first three matches in the 189-, 215- and heavyweight classes. The Wildcats (27-1) went on to win 11 of 14 bouts in rolling to their third straight state championship.

Dingillo's 2-minute 30-second pin over Daniel Hartwig was the first of four falls for the 'Cats and staked Wilmington to a 12-0 lead. Liaromatis beat James Bodine 5-3 at 189. Saracco followed with a 7-4 decision over John Cline at 215.

Bodine and Cline each bumped up a class in a bid by LeRoy (18-3) to create more favorable matchups and get off to a fast start. The Panthers' bid quickly went awry.

And the first clue Wilmington was in for more Happy Days came when 'Fonzie' finished off Hartwig in a hurry.

"I knew I had to go out there and give it my all," Dingillo said. "It's my last year. It was my last match. I just had to do it. I had to get the pin."

Dingillo is part of a senior wrestling class at Wilmington that made its fourth straight appearance in a state-final dual. The Wildcats lost to Dakota and finished second in Class A in 2006. They haven't loss a dual meet to another single-A team in the three years that since have elapsed.

"With these seniors, if you look at what they've accomplished -- they have only lost to one Class A team in four years, Dakota in the state championship," Wilmington coach Rob Murphy said. "I'm guessing now -- you're going to have to look it up -- but I'd guess they're something like 80-1 against Class A teams and undefeated in the last three years. That's a pretty remarkable feat for a group of kids."

Steve Heino (130), Jake Murphy (152) and Tom Courtney (160) added falls for Wilmington. Garth Cartwright (112), Blake Olson (119), Zack Skory (125), John Van Duyne (135) and Jeremy Bailey (171) also picked up victories.

Van Duyne, a senior who won three matches and pushed his record to 43-1, retires as the most-decorated individual in the history of Wilmington wrestling. He won two individual state championships and won two other individual medals.

He also was a part of all four of Wilmington's dual-team finalists from 2006-09.

"If there was a way to end my high school career -- I wouldn't have done it any other way," Van Duyne said. "This is awesome. All the pressure you had building up to this and we went out the way we wanted to. It's the best feeling ever.

"I was thinking about it today after we won our semifinal (dual) and I go, 'Wow, I've been in the state finals seven times in my high school career.' That's an opportunity a lot of kids don't get. I'm grateful I was part of this team. It was a great four years of high school."

Added Evans: "Three straight. Oh, wow, that's history in the making. I just can't believe we did it, especially by, what, 48-9? That's a blowout. That's just crazy to me. I think that's probably one of the best times we've wrestled as a group."

In the semifinals, LeRoy rallied to oust previously undefeated and No. 2-rated Petersburg-Porta 28-25 on Mike Fleming's 5:36 pin over Jake Brue in the last match at 160. The Panthers never generated anything close to that kind of excitement against Wilmington.

"Well, Wilmington is just flat-out good," LeRoy coach Doug Dewald said. "Where we're strong, they're stronger. They're well-coached. Their athletes wrestle with a lot of fundamentals and just when you think you make a little headway -- you score on them -- they snuff that out real quick."

In a 35-33 victory over Stillman Valley, the Wildcats turned to Bailey and Heino to provide the heroics. The two delivered overtime victories and set up Jake Murphy to cap a tight dual with a clinching fall.

Bailey beat Barry Glaudel 12-10 in overtime at 171. The matchup was one of individual state qualifiers. Bailey placed third last weekend in Champaign. Glaudel split four matches and returned home empty-handed.

He was looking to settle that score against Bailey, who notched a reversal and a takedown during a closing flurry in final seconds of regulation to force an 8-8 tie.

"I went into the match with everything to lose," Bailey said. "He didn't really have anything to lose because I placed. He came out tough. In the end, I think that was just our training at practice. He seemed pretty tired, and I just kept going."

Heino later edged Todd Hawley 8-7 on a takedown with 20 seconds left in overtime at 130.

"Those kinds of matches -- overtime matches -- are huge," Heino said. "That's the swing right there. If something goes wrong right there, that's the dual. They get the win instead of us."

The 'Cats won 8 of 13 bouts and built a 35-27 lead before forfeiting the last match. Van Duyne (135) and Jake Murphy (152) notched falls. Olson (125) scored a technical fall. Dingillo (285) and Alex Jones (103) came out on top in decisions.

Much earlier, Courtney launched Wilmington on its way in a 36-25 victory over third-ranked Harvard. Courtney beat the Hornets' Dan Stott 11-7 in the opening match.

Stott, a freshman with a 40-10 record, qualified for the individual state tournament last weekend. He bumped up to 160 to face Courtney in a gamble by Harvard coach Tim Haak that backfired.

Bailey (171), Jones (103), Olson (125) and Van Duyne (135) won by fall as the Wildcats won 8 of 12 matches and built a 36-16 lead.

"The first one's the toughest one because the loser gets nothing and the winner's in, so you've got to win that first one," Murphy said. "They really gambled. They bumped up their 152-pounder to 160 right out of the chute.

"He was a state qualifier at 152 -- a very good wrestler. So, they bumped their guys up. Our upper weight guys wrestled great from 160 to 285. They did a phenomenal job. And, once we had the lead after (Bryan) Evans' match, I put (Jason) Conlin in, one of our jayvee guys, and we forfeited the rest to be fresh for this next round."