Morrison High School Varsity Wrestling Coach Tony Wright submitted this report.
On Friday, January 8, and Saturday, January 9, 2016, the Mustang grapplers competed in the Princeton Tournament (PIT). The tournament features 21 State ranked teams from the 1A and 2A classes. It includes 2015 IHSA Dual Team Champion Dakota; State Runner-Up Mercer County; State 3rd Place Team Coal City; State 4th Place Team Gibson City; State qualifying team Vandalia. Moreover, the tournament included 101 IHSA State qualifiers, 11 State champions, 18 State finalists, and 50 individual State medalists.
The Mustangs had a solid showing, placing tenth out of 33 teams (a record high finish.) The team shipped out Friday afternoon with 11 competitors. Eight of those wrestlers qualified for the second day of competition: Augustus Linke, Anthony McCartney, Cody Vanderlaan, Joe Eads, Reilly Dolan, Dylan Keller, Tyler Todd, and Brandon Meier. By the end of the day Saturday, the team stood with five medals (also a team record), with McCartney, Dolan, and Todd falling one match shy of medaling.
At 106 lbs, Linke matched up with rival Trae Blaser, of Mercer County. The two went 2-1 last season, with Linke pinning Blaser at Sectionals en route to qualifying for the IHSA State Tournament. Blaser bested Linke in a nail-biter Saturday morning. Linke wrestled back to the fifth place match. Along the way he beat #11 State ranked Caleb Alber of Dakota. In the fifth place match Linke earned a pin over Porta’s, Joe Burris.
Vanderlaan competed at 120 lbs for the Mustangs. He beat up Orion’s young talent, Mason Loete and Auburn’s State ranked Matt Heren, before falling to #5 Joe Worms in a tight 4-1 battle Saturday morning. In the wrestlebacks Vanderlaan trailed #3 Collin Davidson of Litchfield, when he through the returning State qualifier to his back, almost pinning him. The effort wasn’t enough. In the seventh place match Vanderlaan finished the day with a fall over Chillicothe IVC’s Jacob White.
Eads wrestled his way to fifth place at 132 lbs. He dismantled the #4 ranked Jarod Foiles of Roxana 15-6 in the quarterfinals. Foiles was a State qualifier a year ago. Eads would then fall to the #1 ranked wrestler in the State, Nolan Baker, in the semifinals. Eads then lost a narrow 2-1 match to #9 Hunter Webb of Newman, before again dismantling Roxana’s Foiles in the fifth place matchup. With his weekend victories Eads currently sits at 97 career wins. He will reach 100 career victories before week’s end, making him the fastest in team history to do so.
At 152 lbs, Keller battled to a fifth place finish. He pinned three consecutive opponents on his way to the semifinals, before losing two straight matches to returning State qualifiers. Keller came back strong in the fifth place match, again collecting a fall over State ranked Doug Carlile, of Litchfield. Keller improves to 18-3 on the season, which leads the team.
Meier opened some eyes at the PIT as a State threat. Competing in his first PIT tournament as a Junior, he battled to a sixth place finish. He fell first round to #10 ranked Jacob Gohde, of Illini Bluffs. Meier would then find his groove, pinning 2A’s Anthony Branch of Shephard, then beating #11 Jeremy Smolek of Gibson City, and pinning Roxana’s, Owen Robinson. Meier then fell to #6 ranked Kendrick Woosley of Vandalia, and class 2A ranked Trevor Troutman of Dixon in the fifth place matchup.
In summary, it was a pretty good weekend for the Mustang Wrestling Team. The PIT tournament is as tough as it gets and is a good measure of where the Mustangs are. The PIT is to most a mini State tournament. Just to put things in perspective, Matt McDonnell won this tournament as a Junior and did not qualify for the IHSA State tournament that season. He then took 5th at this tournament as a Senior and won a State title. Placing at this tournament is a big deal!
The wrestlers made some great strides, but have a lot of work to do. Some of the boys missed opportunities to medal higher. However they will be ready when the IHSA State Wrestling Series kicks off Friday, February 5, with Regionals set at Sherrard High School.