LINCOLN – Civic Memorial advanced five of its wrestlers on to the state meet, while Mascoutah advanced four, Triad put three wrestlers through, and both East St. Louis and Jersey two each in the IHSA Class 2A boys wrestling sectional meet, held Saturday at Lincoln High School.
Although there were no team scores kept, the top four wrestlers in each weight class advanced to next week’s state meet, with Chatham Glenwood, who won the team title in last week’s CM regional, going through to the team sectional in Lincoln later this month.
In the 106-pound weight class, Xavier Sonon Hale of the Indians won the third place bout over Maddox Williams of the Panthers 13-0, while at 120 pounds, Will Kelly of the Knights advanced to state with a second place finish. losing the final to Tyler Clarke of Glenwood 6-5. and at 126 pounds, Avery Jaime of the Eagles won the championship over Talin Baker of Champaign Central 3-1. Bradley Ruckman followed suit at 132 pounds, winning the final by fall at 51 seconds over Jordan Kholian of Jacksonville.
Braden Rowe of Triad defeated Mascoutah’s Desi Wade 2-1 to take third place at 138 pounds, with moving going on to state, while Brody Smith o the Knights won the third place bout at 145 pounds over Nathan Harris of CM 10-2, both also going on to the state meet. Knox Verbais of the Eagles won the title at 150 pounds, defeating Talon Decker of Mahomet-Seymour by technical superiority 21-6 at 1:26, while in the third place match, Brock Ross of the Indians won over Bryce Bryant of Springfield by fall at 1:45. Tyson Rakers of Highland advanced to state by winning the 157-pound final over Joe Reif of Jacksonville 11-1, while in the third place match, Jordan Sonon Hale of the Indians won over Jersey’s Nicholas Hartley by fall at 1:01, both going on to the state meet.
In the 165-pound division, Pierre Walton of East Side won the title over A.J. Demos of Mahomet-Seymour 9-5, while in the third place bout, James Wojcikiewicz of CM defeated Sean Murphy of Mascoutah 6=5, with both wrestlers moving on to state. Corey Robinson of the Flyers finished fourth at 175 pounds, losing in the third place bout to Elijah Smith of the Titans 1-0., and at 190 pounds, Ashton Zobrist of Highland won the final over Jackson Deutch of Waterloo by fall at 3:58.
The state qualifiers are set to compete in the finals, scheduled for Feb. 20-22 at State Farm Center in Champaign-Urbana, while Glenwood will compete in the team sectional Feb. 25. The winner goes on to the team finals Feb. 28-Mar.1 at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.
