Wrestling: York wrestles past Lyons

Updated: December 17, 2011 12:09AM

There are plenty of good wrestling rivalries in the Silver Division of the West Suburban Conference, but York’s John Marino has a favorite.

“They’re all good but there’s no team I’d rather beat than Lyons Township,” Marino said.

The Dukes (10-4, 2-1 in WSS) rolled into LaGrange and made Marino a happy man, winning nine of 14 matches and boarding the bus home with a 36-23 dual meet win over the Lions.

Marino was one of the night’s pleasant surprises for York coach Terry Clarke, who figured LT’s Jack Pearson might have the edge over him at 160 pounds.

Marino had other ideas, winning a 7-2 decision and then tipped his hat to teammate Sergio Lopez.

“I never wrestled (Pearson) before but (Lopez) wrestled him last year,” Marino said. “All week we were prepping for that match. He’s strong so I stayed outside and made sure I got my singles.”

You’ve got to win the close ones and win the fight for bonus points against a rival, and York did the latter thanks to pins from Lopez (170) and Noah Fleckenstein (195), who clinched the team win in the next-to-last bout of the dual.

“He’s a super sophomore,” Clarke said of Fleckenstein. “He’s wrestling well and he’s a tough, tough kid.”

York also got a tech fall win from Troy Valdez (138) and a major decision win from Brandon Kupczyk (132) – both wrestling up a weight -- plus decision wins from Frank Connell (113), Denzel King (120), J.P. Finan (152), and John Giordano (220).

Finan used a third-period reversal to win 4-3 over LT’s Noah Avery. And Giordano closed out the dual with a third-period takedown in his 4-3 win over Juan Montes.

“LT is always good and I knew it would be close,” King said. “They had good kids where we had good kids but we pulled together and were able to edge out those close matches.”

Lyons Township got pins from Adam Rodgers (285) and Jaime Jones (182), major decision wins from A.J. Villareal (126) and Jack Bates (145), and a 4-3 decision win for Chris Letsinger (106) over York’s Taylor Hoffman, on a takedown late in the third period.

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