MAHOMET – Six wrestlers from Civic Memorial, three from Triad, Two from Highland, and one from East St. Louis all advanced to the state tournament next week, as finishing in the top four of their weight classes at the IHSA Class 2A boys wrestling sectional, which took place at Mahomet-Seymour High in Mahomet on Saturday.
Chatham Glenwood, who won the team title in last week’s CM regional, will compete in the team sectional in two weeks at Taylorville.
Avery Jaime became the first of the six Eagle wrestlers to advance to state by finishing third at 113 pounds, winning the third-place match over Tyler Barlow of Bloomington 9-1, while Bradley Ruckman finished second at 120 pounds, losing in the final to Drew Davis of Glenwood 17-4. Caleb Scott also finished in second, losing the 126-pound final to Triad’s Colby Crouch by fall at 25 seconds.
Josh Harkey was the first CM wrestler to be eliminated, losing his final bout at 132 pounds to Demarious McGill of Cahokia 13-12, while Nathan Herrin finished fourth at 144 pounds to advance to state, losing the third-place bout by fall to Brook Ross of Mascoutah at 47 seconds. Anthony Michelon was eliminated at 150 pounds, losing in his final match to Marion’s Caden Frey by fall at 59 seconds. Bryce Griffin was the champion at 157 pounds, winning the final over Evan Willock of Normal Community West by fall at 1:34, and James Wojcikiewicz came in third at 165 pounds, winning the third-place bout over Thomas Imboden of Carbondale 12-5.
Luke McCoy was eliminated at 175 pounds, losing his final match by fall to Glenwood’s Justin Hay at 5:16, while Kevahn Flanigan was eliminated at 190 pounds, losing his final bout by fall at 5:27 to Brock VanDeveer of host Mahomet-Seymour. Jake Herrin was also eliminated, losing his final 285-pound match to Logan Wachendorf of Lincoln 5-0.
Will Kelly was the first Knight wrestler to qualify for state, finishing second at 106 pounds, losing in the final to Tyler Clarke of Glenwood 6-0, while Shane Seip was eliminated at 113 pounds, losing in his final bout to Nicholas Scott of Cahokia 9-7. Crouch won the 120-pound title to advance to state, while Brody Smith came in fourth at 132 pounds, losing the third-place match to Ty Rangel of Danville 7-0. Ben Baumgartner was eliminated at 138 pounds, losing his final match to Ben Campitosti of Mattoon 13-5.
Tyson Rakers was the first wrestler to qualify for Highland, finishing second at 150 pounds, losing the final to Joe Reif of Jacksonville 3-2, while Thomas Mitchell was eliminated at 175 pounds, losing in his final bout to Shamar Brownlee of Springfield by fall at 5:07, while Ethan Greenwald was eliminated at 190 pounds. falling in his final bout to Joseph Moore of Mascoutah 5-3. Ashton Zobrist came in third at 190 pounds to advance to state, winning the third-place match over Jhymear Smith-Henson of Mt. Vernon 3-1.
For the Flyers, Lonnez Smith was eliminated at 144 pounds, losing to Herrin in his last bout by fall at 3:30, with Pierre Walton eliminated at 150 pounds, losing in his final match to Adam Blackburn of Mattoon 13-3. Corey Robinson was eliminated at 165 pounds, losing to A.J. Demos of Mahomet-Seymour 3-1 in his final bout, while Mekhi McDowell was the only East Side wrestler to qualify for state, finishing in fourth, losing the third-place match by fall at 3:23 to Stephen Carr of Bloomington.
The qualifiers will be competing at the Class 2A state tournament on Feb. 15-17 at State Farm Center in Champaign-Urbana.
