Coverage of 2009 IHSA state tournaments
Wednesday, March 4
Tuesday, March 3
Glenbard N. gives state runner-up Minooka a battle
Montini captures title No. 7
Monday, March 2
Naperville Central faced the best in state debut
Wheeling knocked out by Glenbard N.
Sunday, March 1
Photo gallery, box score: IHSA Class AAA dual team championship match
Saturday, Feb. 28
Class AAA team semifinal report
Class AAA team quarterfinal report
Class AA team semifinal report
Class AA team quarterfinal report
Friday, Feb. 27
Larson finally gets his championship
Oster follows in his brother's footsteps
Cooper responds to disappointment
Klimara completes impressive debut
Czarnecki earns a spot on the wall
Libertyville Sectional photo gallery
Thursday, Feb. 26
Barnhisel's long trek to the title mat
Photo gallery: Class AAA championship match finalists
Wednesday, Feb. 25
Glenbard North tops Hinsdale Central
Wheeling and Grant advance
Naperville Central makes program history
Minooka rallies to edge Providence
Wheeling/Libertyville box score
Individual tournament
This time Boggess a knockout
Versatile Carlson bulls way to AA title
Photo gallery: Class AA championship match finalists
Photo gallery: Class A championship match finalists
Tuesday, Feb. 24
Lakes' Holmes burns a path to 2A title
Monday, Feb. 23
Class A title match photos, part 1. FREE CONTENT! Click here
Photo gallery: Class AA championship match finalists
Sunday, Feb. 22
IHSA individual tournament championship match results
Much more to come!!!!
Saturday, Feb. 21
Class AA third-place results. FREE CONTENT!!! Click here.
Class AAA third-place results. FREE CONTENT!!! Click here.
Undefeated finalists. FREE CONTENT!!!. Click here.
Click here for more than 40 FREE stories on individual wrestlers
Click here to read about Illinois coaching legend Chuck Farina
Tuesday, March 3
Glenbard N. gives state
runner-up Minooka a battle
Minooka's Hill, Brozovich and Warczynski come through for the win
By Kevin McGavin
Once again, Glenbard North fell short in the state semifinals.
When the Panthers met Minooka in a season-opening quadrangular, the results were not pretty.
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Montini captures title No. 7
Opponents only score 29 points against Broncos in 3 match drive to title.
By Kevin McGavin
The word dynasty is certainly applicable to Montini.
For the seventh time this decade, the Broncos conquered their way to the promised land with yet another dominating team performance; this time in the inaugural three-class system.
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Monday, March 2
Naperville Central faced the best in state debut
Savina, Santos collected bonus points for the Redhawks
By Kevin McGavin
Naperville Central was an improbable entrant to the inaugural Class 3A state quarterfinals in Bloomington.
The Redhawks emerged from the highly-balanced Wheaton North regional before tripping up Leyden at the Willowbrook Sectional.
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Wheeling knocked out by Glenbard N.
Ramos tops LukeSmith in battle of all-staters
By Kevin McGavin
Wheeling overcame its team sectional jinx, but couldn't follow up in its first state appearance. Glenbard North had everything to do with that.
When the Wildcats nipped Hoffman Estates at Dundee-Crown, it marked the seventh regional title in a row.
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Sunday, March 1
Photo gallery, box score: IHSA Class AAA dual team championship match
Saturday, Feb. 28
Class AAA team quarterfinal report
Class AA team semifinal report
Class AA team quarterfinal report
Friday, Feb. 27
Larson finally gets his championship
Marian Catholic senior captured four titles in the IKWF
By Curt Herron
Elias Larson had been knocking on the door for a long time but found that it was rather difficult to get in.
But fortunes changed for the talented Marian Catholic senior at this year's Class 3A state finals in Champaign.
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Oster follows in his brother's footsteps
Lockport soph becomes just the fourth champ at school
By Curt Herron
Jameson Oster really got to see what it meant to win an IHSA state championship five years ago and it lit a fire inside of him.
That was in 2004 when his older brother Jake surprised many by beating Naperville North's Nick Fanthorpe to win the Class AA 112 championship.
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Cooper responds to disappointment
Suffered only defeat a year ago in 103 championship
By Curt Herron
Edwin Cooper had the perfect motivation to help him to become a state champion this year.
A year ago the Providence Catholic wrestler won his first 43 matches before losing 3-0 to Wheeling's Max Nowry in the 103 finals.
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Klimara completes impressive debut
Providence freshman bounces back from only defeat
By Curt Herron
Eddie Klimara nearly saw his hopes for winning a state championship this year slip away at last week's Lincoln-Way Central Sectional.
After getting pinned by West Aurora's Nicholas Drendel, the talented Providence had to hope that his opponent moved on to the finals.
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Czarnecki proves it in Champaign
By Mike Garofola
Just prior to the start of the state tournament series, talk centered around who would eventually hoist the bracket board high above all others at 160 pounds.
Despite entering the Final 16 as the No. 2-rated wrestler, Kyle Czarnecki always seemed to be left out by handicappers who felt the No. 1 guy, Jahwon Akui (St. Rita) would be the top man when it was all said and done.
The talented duo of Nick Proctor (Neuqua Valley) and Mt. Carmel junior Charles Argue were widely considered the most serious threats to challenge Mr. Akui, while Czarnecki always seemed to be mentioned as a top '4-5' guy, or as an afterthought.
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Thursday, Feb. 26
The Long Road Back
Barnhisel's state title erases last year's memory
By Gary Larsen
Redemption can come if you’re willing to work for it in wrestling, and Fenwick’s Bobby Barnhisel had plenty of reason to get to work after his junior-year experience in Champaign.
Barnhisel went into last year’s tournament with a 41-1 record as one of the favorites to vie for a state title at 140 pounds, but he lost his opening match to Ottawa’s Kyle Lowman.
“One-and-done” is a horrifying phrase to a wrestler, and Barnhisel took it on the chin inside Assembly Hall.
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Wednesday, Feb. 25
Libertyville Sectional
Wheeling and Grant advance
Wheeling 33, Libertyville 22/Grant 39, New Trier 24
By Mike Garofola
After seven years of constantly seeing both Grant and Libertyville flex their collective NSC muscles to end any hope of advancing into the Elite 8, No. 25 Wheeling finally ended its bad luck when it shocked No. 9 Libertyville (19-4) 33-22 in the team sectionals Tuesday night in Libertyville.
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West Aurora Sectional
Minooka rallies to edge Providence
No. 2 Indians beat No. 3 Celtics 25-24 for trip to state
By Curt Herron
Minooka pulled a page out of the Providence manual on how to win in dual meet competition.
While normally one school might be flattered by such a sign of respect, it's a good bet that the Celtics would have preferred a little less of it from the Indians.
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Willowbrook Sectional
Naperville Central headed downstate
PremiumPreps photo by Gary Larsen
Adam Gebner (left) and his 37-10 record will lead Naperville Central to Bloomington on Saturday, where the Redhawks will take on No. 1 OPRF in a Class 3A state quarterfinal.Widman's pin give Redhawks a 35-27 win over Leyden
By Gary Larsen
Naperville Central coach Rob Porter found himself in a precarious position on Tuesday night, hoisted up in the air as if he were crowd surfing, over the heads and upon the hands of a throng of deliriously happy wrestlers.
The Redhawks are going downstate for the first time in school history.
“Naperville Central is an old school, but there’s never been a team to go down to the dual state tournament,” Porter said. “I told the kids that we could make history tonight, and I thought the kids showed a lot of heart.”
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One momentous takedown
Soko helps lock up Glenbard North's downstate berth
By Gary Larsen
During Glenbard North’s 31-28 Class 3A sectional win over Hinsdale Central on Tuesday, Danny Eldridge came up big in the clutch, so did Chris VanGundy, and Glenbard North’s usual wrecking crew members got the job done.
But nobody came up any bigger than Charleston Soko.
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Individual tournament
This time Boggess a knockout
Prospect senior takes state title after mishap last year
By Mike Garofola
There were high expectations cast upon Matt Boggess ever since he stepped onto the varsity mats at Prospect four years ago after a spectacular club career with the Arlington Cardinals.
But the always quotable Boggess, never spoke of the pressures that had been mounting on his broad shoulders until last Saturday night in Champaign.
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PremiumPreps photo by Dave Surico
Carlson blasted through the 152-pound AA bracket.Versatile Carlson bulls way to AA title
Wauconda star becomes second Bulldog state champ
By Mike Garofola
Wauconda head coach Tom Nance said one of the great things about his star Scott Carlson was his ability to go from plan A to plans B and C all during a match in order to combat his opponent's attacks and tactical moves.
That flexibility proved unfortunate for opponents this season who were victimized week-in and week-out by the Wauconda senior and right up to the class 2A tournament last weekend.
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Tuesday, Feb. 24
PremiumPreps photo by Dave Surico
Matt Holmes' 43rd win of the season earned him the 135-pound AA title.Holmes' dominance on display
By Mike Garofola
To emphasize how far ahead of the competition Matt Holmes was in the class 2A 135-pound class, consider that the Lakes senior outscored his three opponents by a combined score of 21-2.
Holmes capped his downstate performance with a masterfully pitched 2-0 shutout in the final to capture the first-ever state championship in school history.
Holmes, who finished his brilliant career with a dazzling 151-26 overall record, defeated Kyle Logsdon (40-1) in a match that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. Holmes took control early and never allowed the Rockford East senior any room to breathe.
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Saturday, Feb. 21
PremiumPreps photo by Paul Dengel
Batavia's Logan Arlis (right) beat Marist's Sean Raddatz 3-2 in the semifinals.Batavia's father-son combo make the finals
Logan will wrestle for father and coach Tom
By Gary Larsen
Tom Arlis is a veteran, hall-of-fame high school wrestling coach, but he hadn’t really been through everything until Saturday afternoon.
That’s when his son, Logan, won his semifinal match at 112 pounds to advance to Saturday night’s championship at Assembly Hall.
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Castellano sails into 145-pound AA final
CLC's Kielbasa nicked up for 140-pound title match
By Ed Muniz
Josh Castellano of Fenton continued his quest for a championship and looked all of that with a dominate 8-0 handling of Terrell Webster of Bremen.
“I go out every match and try to do everything I can and wrestle as hard as I can to win,” stated Castellano. “It doesn’t matter who I wrestle, I’m wrestling hard all the time.”
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PremiumPreps photo by Dave Surico
David Tuomi posted a 20-7 preliminary-round win for the Broncos.Walther's Tuomi right where he figured
Gains title and shot at revenge against Bishop McNamara's Jon Young
By Ed Muniz
In day two of the IHSA wrestling tournament, semifinals were the breakfast entertainment in all three classes.
The most important bout back in Melrose Park was the Class A match-up between David Tuomi of Walther Lutheran and Brian Anderson of Manteno at 145 pounds.
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Schneider continues amazing run
Lane Tech freshman will compete for championship
By Curt Herron
The Max Schneider phenomenon grew to new heights during Saturday's semifinals of the Class 3A tournament.
After recording a fall in 3:06 over Neuqua Valley's Adam Stine, the Lane Tech freshman assured himself of a trip to the Grand March of Champions.
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Four top seeds fall by the way in 3A
Stretch from 130-140 produced day's biggest upsets
By Curt Herron
Being the top-seed in the first-ever Class 3A state finals was certainly no guarantee of success.
While 10 individuals who were given the number one seed at their weight classes moved on to Saturday's semifinals, four others lost in the quarterfinals.
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Schneider posts a special upset special
Stuns top-seeded Ellis Coleman in AAA quarterfinals
By Ed Muniz
Can you think of a sure thing? Something that’s such a foregone conclusion? Something that has to happen? Something that is guaranteed beyond guaranteed; the mostest, sure thing ever?
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Farmer beats Chase in quarterfinals
Upsets top-ranked, defending state champion at 130
By Curt Herron
After finishing second and third at the last two state finals, you'd expect that Justin Farmer might be seen as a legitimate title threat.
But even though the Lincoln-Way Central senior has accomplished much the past two seasons, he didn't feel like he was getting the kind of respect that he deserved.
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Lane Tech's Schneider upsets OPRF's
top-seeded Ellis Coleman in quarterfinals
FREE CONTENT!!! Click here to view photos of the upset.
Friday, Feb. 20
Class A quarterfinals
FREE CONTENT!!! Click here to view results
Class AA quarterfinals
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Class AAA wrestlebacks
FREE CONTENT!!! Click here to view results.
Unbeaten AAA wrestlers
FREE CONTENT!!! Click here to see the list.
First-round state notebook
By Ed Muniz
The annual drama titled the IHSA Individual State Tournament opened with a new act, Class AAA.
As usual, the script was unpredictable.
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