CHAMPAIGN – Bradley Ruckman and Caleb Scott will both take home medals. Ruckman will take home fourth place while Scott will take home 5th. The top 6 medal in Champaign.
Bradley Ruckman started the tournament with a 13-6 win over Jake Lowitzki. Ruckman then went into the quarterfinals and pinned Noah Avina at the 1:48 mark to move to the semifinals. In the semifinals Ruckman lost a tough match to Gavin Rockey 3-1.
Ruckman dropped to the wrestleback semifinals where he was able to get a close 9-7 win over Ivan Munoz to advance to the 3rd place match. In the third-place match Ruckman battled tough but dropped the match 4-2 to close out his season and take home a fourth-place medal.
Ruckman had a great year this year. CM had several tough tournaments this year where the kids had to battle. Ruckman placed first at the Steve Bradley invitational. He placed 2nd at the Larry Wilkey invitational. He placed 1st at the Jacksonville Class 1A regionals and 1st at the Highland sectionals to get to state.
Caleb Scott had tough matches throughout his time here at the wrestling state tournament but in the end, he was able to walk away with a fifth-place medal. In his first match he faced Joseph Nadig and was able to walk away with a 4-1 win to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals he dropped a tough match to Bobby Conway who is in the finals he lost 8-3. Scott dropped down to the wrestleback quarterfinals. He faced Korbin Bateman and was able to move on with a 7-1 win to go to the wrestleback semifinals.
In the semifinals wrestlebacks he battled Wyatt Medlin of Washington and lost a heartbreaking and hard match 13-9 to drop to the fifth-place match. In the fifth place match he faced Jordan Rasof who Scott saw at a previous tournament. Rasof beat him in that match, but today Scott was looking for revenge and got it. Scott and Rasof battled tough the whole match and took the match to the ultimate tiebreaker where Scott game out on top with a 4-2 win.
“It was a real tough match I wrestled him in Geneseo and he beat me 8-4, I knew what I was coming into, I knew he had good shots and I knew I had to ride him out to win.” Caleb Scott said.
