It was a very successful holiday break for the Downers Grove South Wrestling program. Not only was it a chance for some of the levels to compete in some tough tournaments, but it also allowed many of the kids to spend some valuable time with their families around the holiday season.
The Varsity Mustangs wrestled in the 50th Annual Rex Whitlach Invitational at Hinsdale Central High School on December 18th and 19th. The Whitlach has grown into one of the toughest tournaments in IL and this year was no different as three of Illinois' top five teams and nine of the top twenty-five (including the Mustangs) were in the field. The Mustangs placed five in the tournament, including finalists in SR Tyree Johnson- 145 and SO Sergio Villalobos- 195 lbs. JR Jacob Chisholm (8th at 152), SR Ramarro Lamar (7th at 170) and SR Ryan Gurski (7th at 182) also placed for the Mustangs in the two-day tournament. The Mustangs finished in 7th place in the twenty-five team field.
After Christmas, the Mustangs traveled to Whitewater, WI for the Mid-States Tournament, which is a two-day 35 team invitational that included perennial WI powerhouse Stoughton. The Mustangs were closer to full strength as they fielded fourteen weight classes and placed seven in the top eight including two champions and one runner-up. SR Ahmir Hooks controlled all of his matches in route to a 132 bracket championship and SR Ramarro Lamar was largely unchallenged in route to a title at 170 lbs. SR Tyree Johnson wrestled in arguably one of the tougher weight classes only dropping a 5-3 decision to three-time WI State Placer and defending State Champion Collin Kraus from Stoughton in the championship. SO Sergio Villalobos (195) dropped a quarterfinal match to the #1 seed but wrestled all the way back in route to 3rd place. JR Jacob Chisholm (152) placed 6th as did FR Dylan Knoch at 113 lbs. Dylan Soto also placed in his first Varsity tournament in route to 7th place and four wins over the course of two days. The collective effort was good for 3rd place for the Mustangs in the tournament, only missing 2nd place by 2.5 points. The Mustangs placed 8th the last time they traveled to the Mid-States so this was a big improvement and great effort by the kids.
The JV team competed in the Oswego East team dual tournament on Saturday, January 2nd. A team consisting of FR-SR went 4-1 on the day dropping their only dual to a tough team from Wheaton North. The Mustangs also defeated several tough programs on the day in Oswego East, DeKalb, Glenbard West, and Glenbard East.
The whole program will be back in action on Thursday, January 7th as the Mustangs host Morton in a West Suburban Gold Conference dual which will also be Senior Night for the class of 2016. Each of the levels looks to move to 4-0 in WSC Gold duals. During the weekend Varsity will be competing at the Sycamore Tournament, JV will be at Bolingbrook, and the Freshman will be hosting the DGS Freshmen Tournament.
 |
| 3rd Place at Mid-States (WI) |
No comments:
Post a Comment