Sycamore leaves Warriors: Sterling falls one step short of state
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| Sterling’s Marquell Addison wrestles against Sycamore’s Austin Culton on Tuesday at the Class 3A Geneseo Team Sectional. (Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@svnmail.com) |
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GENESEO – Jeremy Galvan winced and grabbed his shoulder as Sycamore’s Matt Copple started to celebrate.
Galvan, a Sterling junior who wrestled at 160 pounds all season, led nearly all of his 215-pound match against the Sycamore sophomore at the Class 2A Geneseo Team Sectional.
Late in the match, Copple took advantage of a tiring Galvan and used a half-nelson to record a pin with 1 second left in the third and final period.
The win helped Sycamore open a lead that turned into a 41-23 win a berth to Saturday’s team state tournament in Bloomington.
“We had guys that, with the individual state meet last week, came back this week a little overweight,” Sterling coach Charlie Bishop said. “Galvan came in at about 180, so we bumped him up to 215 just to try and fill out the lineup.”
Galvan led 9-7 going into the last 10 seconds, and had fought to maintain his lead throughout the last period.
“I knew it was going to be tough wrestling so far up,” Galvan said. “My shoulder started bothering me, I think because he just weighed more than me.”
The meet started at 160 pounds with a 11-2 major decision for Sycamore’s Mitchell Jordan over Nathan Urrutia. Johnny Lopez evened the score with a 9-1 major decision of Luke Pritchard at 171 pounds. Pritchard was ranked 12th at 160 pounds by Illinois Matmen.
“I just fought as hard as I could,” Lopez said. “I knew that when he was on top that he couldn’t keep me down. I used my strength and he couldn’t keep me down.”
The Spartans took control after that, as freshman Jake Davis (9-8) picked up a 10-6 upset over Sterling junior Tyler Garcia (21-16) at 189 pounds.
Copple followed with the pin of Galvan, and Zach Fraedrich earned a 13-0 major decision over Sterling’s Joey Brooks at 285.
Sterling forfeited 103 pounds to push the Sycamore lead to 23-4.
“Starting at 160 pounds was really the best thing for us,” Sycamore coach Chauncey Carrick said. “It put the meat of our lineup at the end of the meet. But it also allowed us to get some big wins at 189 and 215 pounds.”
Sycamore had three ranked wrestlers from 119 pounds to 145. A fourth, Kyle Culton, was unable to wrestle due to a neck injury suffered at the individual state meet.
Bishop thought the 189 and 215 pounds losses were the key to the night.
“I think those were two matches that we could have won and maybe should have won,” Bishop said. “We led for both those matches and just let them get away. I don’t know if we win the meet anyway, but the score would have been a lot closer.”
Dylan Devers (130), Tyler Balsley (140) and Stevie DeWitt (152) all won matches for Sterling, which advanced to the team sectional for the second straight season.
“I think what this group has to put in its mind is that this isn’t where we want to finish next season,” Bishop said. “It’s time we take that next step and focus on the things that will get us to state.”
