Who's No. 1? Montini has a strong case

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The wrestling season is over, though the debate may continue on the message boards and elsewhere.

Who is No. 1 in Illinois? Crystal Lake Central coach Justen Lehr already has made up his mind.

"They're obviously, right now, the best team in our state. I'll go on record as saying that," Lehr said of Montini, which knocked off his Tigers in the Class 2A semifinals and then routed Yorkville 52-6 in the championship Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

"They was going to be our hardest match, we all knew that," Broncos senior Isaiah Gonzalez said of the 39-17 win over Crystal Lake Central that was Montini's closest dual against an Illinois opponent this season.

"We just didn't want to take our eyes off the goal. We knew we couldn't let down in the finals."

The Broncos (30-2) didn't, starting out the championship match against Yorkville (15-6) with Carl Foreside's technical fall at 189. The next seven Broncos on the mat also won, staking Montini to a 32-0 lead.

"It happens every year, someone gets knocked off that shouldn't," Gonzalez said. "So we just kept our minds focused and pushed the pace so there'd be no doubt in anybody's mind [about whether Montini would be] triple-A, double-A, single-A state champs."

Grant Goebel (215) and Alex Saunders (171) had pins for Montini, while Gonzalez (160) and Frank Baer (140) contributed technical falls. Christ DiVito (112), Eric Powell (119), Colton Rasche (130) and Elliot Hudson (145) won major decisions.

And Montini also won some close matches early, including Ross Ferraro's 8-5 decision at 285 and Kevon Powell's 7-5 overtime victory at 103.

"Like any good dual, a couple matches could go either way," Montini coach Mike Bukovsky said. "And thankfully for us, we got the ones we needed."

Crystal Lake Central (20-2) bounced back to beat Troy Triad 41-24 for third place.

Gage Harrah (215), Ricky Pisker (285), Trever Jauch (112), Justin Fubiez (119) and Christ Malouf (125) all had pins as the Tigers jumped ahead 33-3.

Wilmington (26-1) won its third consecutive state title, beating LeRoy 48-9 in the 1A final. The Wildcats' senior class was beaten just once in four years by a Class A or 1A team.