Warriors pin down title, advance 12

David Carson/Post-Dispatch | Granite City's Tyler Prazma takes down Belleville West's Dustin Ventimigla in the 152-pound championship match at the Class 3A wrestling regional tournament Saturday in Granite City.

Class 3A wrestling regional • Edwardsville finishes second, and Alton notches third.

GRANITE CITY — The host Granite City High wrestling team came up with an “exceptional” semifinal round Saturday and went on to capture the Class 3A regional title.

With 10 wrestlers in the finals and a tournament-best four individual champions, the Warriors finished the nine-team event with 231 points, blowing by archrival Edwardsville (178) and Alton (121) for the top spot. Belleville West (88) edged out Belleville East (87) to round out the top five.

“I give my coaching staff a lot of credit for getting our guys prepared,” Granite City coach Allen Kirgan said. “With so many injuries, our preparation lately has been limited to a lot of drills without a whole lot of mat time. But our guys came out hungry and ready to wrestle.

“All year, this team has battled, and that’s what they did again today. We had an exceptional semifinal round and had contributions from everybody on the team, even the ones who weren’t able to advance.”

The Warriors advanced competitors in 12 of 14 weight classes and received championships from sophomore Chad Whitford (21-12) at 125 pounds, junior Jake Gregerson (23-1) at 130, senior Tyler Prazma (45-3) at 152 and senior Ryan Rozell (9-2) at 160.

In Saturday’s marquee match, three-time state medalist Keith Surber (44-1) of O’Fallon posted an impressive 9-3 victory over Edwardsville’s Greg Jackson (44-5), a three-time state qualifier.

“My plan was to score early and often,” said Surber, who has placed third, fifth and third, respectively, in three previous state trips.

Surber scored the early takedown and added five near-fall points before the end of the opening period. He was up 9-0 before Jackson scored.

“I haven’t been feeling great the last couple of days, so after taking the lead, I figured I’d slow things down a little, just to make sure I had control of the match,” said Surber, a University of Nebraska recruit.

Other champions at Granite City were Belleville West’s Mech Spaggins (37-0) at 103, O’Fallon’s Courtland Rautio (32-11) at 112, Belleville West’s Dylan Viglasky (34-5) at 119, Alton’s Alex Dodge (32-8) at 125, Belleville East’s O’Shea Smith-Traylor (43-2) at 145, O’Fallon’s Marty Ercoline (40-6) at 171, Alton’s Taylor McGiffen (39-1) at 189, Collinsville’s Daniel Mueller (37-2) at 215 and Edwardsville’s Andrew Ellington (24-7) at 285.

Saturday’s top-three finishers will compete in the sectional next weekend at Edwardsville. The top four finishers in each weight class at sectionals will move on to the state tournament Feb. 19-20 at Assembly Hall in Champaign.