Wrestling: Marmion makes statement with win at Don Flavin Invitational
Heading into the Don Flavin Invitational, Marmion senior 126-pounder Jameson Garcia said he felt like the Cadets were being overlooked when it came to discussions about the best in the state.
After a perfect showing against some of the top teams in Illinois to win the Champion's Pool and first place overall in the tournament Friday, Garcia said he feels a lot better about how people view Marmion.
"It's pretty cool," Garcia said. "All year, there's been all this talk about all these other teams being the best in the state. This just proves we're the best and we're the ones to beat."
Garcia won all three of his matches by fall on Friday, helping the Cadets knock off Prospect 42-24, Marist 47-17 and Joliet Catholic 41-20.
"Wrestling Marist, Prospect and JCA is fun," Marmion coach Nathan Fitzenreider said. "That's what we prepare for and that's why we want to wrestle the best guys. To come out here and do that was fun."
The Cadets rolled on the final day while the other three teams in the pool all beat up one each other, all finishing 1-2 with Prospect taking second, Marist third and JCA fourth.
Nicholas Garcia, Zach Stewart, Santino Scolaro, Collin Carrigan and Ed Perry joined Jameson Garcia with 3-0 records on the day
"He's phenomenal," Fitzenreider said of Jameson Garcia. "He's a leader on our team, a senior looking for a third state title. We expect a lot of big things from him and he always answers the bell. I'm just trying to cherish this last year I get to coach him."
St. Charles East ended up winning the Gold Pool, made up of the four second-place teams from Thursday's bracket play. The Saints lost to JCA, 36-32, to wrap up bracket play on Thursday but dominated DeKalb 57-11, Lockport 45-27 and Yorkville 61-9 on Friday.
Eight of the 14 wrestlers had perfect second days for the Saints, who took fifth overall. Ben Davino was one of four wrestlers in the tournament to have a pin in all six matches over the two days. Dom Munaretto had five pins over the two days.
Coach Jason Potter said the team learned a lesson after the loss against JCA. He said duals are much different from individual tournaments and all 14 wrestlers have to do their parts, whether it's getting bonus points or mitigating the other team from scoring extra points. He said he feels the team understands now.
"I think we wrestled much better," Potter said of Friday's performance. "Yesterday, we stubbed our toe with JCA but I think it was a good lesson for our guys to learn. We haven't had a lot of tight dual meets. They haven't had to wrestle as a team like they need to when the time comes at the end of the year for us to do something special."
Long term, he said he thinks the loss Thursday will help the team.
"Obviously you'd like to win that dual but I think it's going to be the best thing that's happened to this team," Potter said. "If we can reach our goals it was because it was a wake-up call for us yesterday."
Prospect ended up second overall. In addition to the loss to Marmion, the Knights beat JCA 34-29 and lost to Marist 38-34. They were losing by one heading into the last match, but Jaxon Penovich fell at 195, 7-4. It was his only loss of the tournament.
"If you told me coming in we'd take second, I'd be happy," Prospect coach Dan Keller said. "But this team has really, really high aspirations. Second place isn't what this team wants. The good news is it's only December 30, so we still have a month and a half before state series. We have improvements to make. Marmion is unbelievable. We have to find a way to switch some of those matches up.
Yorkville went 0-3 in the Gold Pool and took eighth overall in the 32-team field. The Foxes lost 38-26 to Lockport and 45-24 to DeKalb in addition to ending the day with the loss to St. Charles East.
"It was a rough end of the day there," Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. "But overall we fought hard and competed for it. ... It was a good two days of wrestling. Down the road in February we're planning on making some moves in the team race and win the regional and go to the sectional, punch our ticket to state and get a trophy. This is the experience these kids needed."