Triad edges Cahokia
Class 2A wrestling regional • Host Knights advance 10 to sectionals; Comanches send 11.
TROY, ILL. — For a time Saturday afternoon, Cahokia looked as though it was going to win its first Illinois wrestling regional championship in five years.
But as expected host Triad came out on top by outpointing the Comanches 212½-195 to claim the Illinois Class 2A regional team title at Triad High School.
Mascoutah was third with 118½, Civic Memorial fourth at 93, Althoff fifth with 90, Highland sixth with 80, Jerseyville seventh with 57 and Waterloo scored 49½ points.
The Knights, who finished fourth in the state in Class 2A last season, advanced 10 wrestlers — six champions and four second-place finishers — to the Springfield Lanphier Sectional next Friday and Saturday.
“All the kids wrestled well,” Triad coach Russ Witzig said. “I wasn’t disappointed with how we wrestled in the final round. I wasn’t disappointed at all.”
Although Cahokia will send 11 wrestlers to the sectionals — one champion (Darnell Thomas at 152 pounds), five second-place finishers and five third-place finishers — Comanches coach Demetrius Hurd wanted more.
“I thought we could have done a little bit better than what we did,” said Hurd, whose school last won a regional championship in 2005. “You always want a first place. Overall, the team wrestled pretty good. A few mistakes here and there. Eleven (kids advance). That’s great. I take my hat off to the kids.”
Keith Swift (125), Trevor Burhman (140), Josh Ballard (145), Tyler Hayes (160), Chad Hayden (171) and Tanner Hurt (189) were the champions for the Knights.
Other regional winners were Michael Harris (103) of Althoff, older brother Ryne Harris (112) of Althoff, David Pearce (119) of Civic Memorial, Chris Williams (130) of Civic Memorial, William Burns (135) of Mascoutah, Dre Angelo (215) of Jerseyville and Thomas Moore (285) of Althoff.
“I got what I needed and moved on,” said Ryne Harris, a senior who beat Garret Grantom of Triad 6-2 to give Harris his fourth regional title. “Anytime you get a lead, you can relax a little bit because you know you’re in control.”
Harris’ freshman brother Michael grabbed his first championship easily by stopping Nate Fay of Civic Memorial 15-2.
Ballard, who won by a technical fall — 18-1 — over Ivan Lester of Cahokia, said he had to “come out and wrestle smart. We were pretty close with Cahokia so I knew I had to get bonus points, which I did. I did what I had to do.”
Thomas claimed his second regional championship with a 9-5 decision over Kevin Gramenz.
“I came out here and gave it my all,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that we have that many wrestlers advance. We’ve been working hard in practice.”
Class 1A — Host Roxana advanced nine wrestlers to the Robinson Sectional and the Shells won the team title with 192 points over Litchfield (172). Wood River (30½) was seventh. Ethan Harshbarger (103), Mike Caldwell (125), Tyler Floyd (145) and Trent Weston were the Roxana champions.
