Civic Memorial Has Three State Champions, Two Second-Place Finishes, Eagles Come In Second In Class 2A State Meet

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Jun 26, 2021 6:58 AM Jun 28, 2021 6:00 AM

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The Tyus brothers in a previous signing photograph. SPRINGFIELD - Civic Memorial had three state champions - Caleb Tyus at 138, Vinny Zerban at 152 and Abe Wojokiewicz at 160 - while two other wrestlers - Caine Tyus at 145 and Colton Carlisle at 182 - came in second as the Eagles came in second in the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Class 2A state tournament, held Friday at the Bank of Springfield Center in Springfield.

The Eagles finished second as a team, scoring 147.5 points, as Woodstock Marian Catholic won the championship with 178 points. Joliet Catholic Academy was third with 97 points, Deerfield was fourth with 88 points, Crystal Lake Central came in fifth with 65 points, sixth place went to Chatham Glenwood with 61 points, Mahomet-Seymour was seventh with 53 points, in eighth place was Geneseo with 50 points, Antioch was ninth with 41 points and rounding out the top ten was Grayslake Central with 40 points.

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Triad finished in a tie for 23rd with Chicago Brother Rice Catholic with 24 points, while East St. Louis scored four points in the meet.

The IWCOA is sponsoring this year's state tournament series after the Illinois High School Association decided not to sponsor a state tournament in wrestling this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caleb Tyus started his journey with a pin of Max Corral of Oak Forest at 2:36 in the first round, then defeating Caleb Nadig of Rochelle Lake Park 6-1, taking the semifinal over Mike Rodriguez of Burbank St. Laurence Catholic 5-0 and won the final with a 7-2 decision over Chris Moore of Marian.

Zerban started out with a 13-4 technical superiority decision over Joshua Butler of Chicago Kenwood at 1:17, then in the quarterfinal, won over Marian's Scott Butler 12-6, took the semifinal match over Andrew Kested of Sterling with a pinfall in 3:38, then won the final over Benjamin Shvartsman of Deefield with a pin at 48 seconds.

Wojokiewicz won his first round match over Ben Butler of Crystal Lake Central 9-1, then took the quarterfinal bout over Zack Crawford of Sycamore 7-1, won a 5-4 decision over Bennett Duggan of Lake Forest in the semifinal, and in the final, defeated Dathan Wickson of Rockford Boylan Catholic 3-2.

Caine Tyus started out with a first round win over Nick Valenzola of Niles Notre Dame Catholic with a pinfall in 1:53, then in the quarterfinal pinned Maricio Garcia of Sterling at 2:52. In the semifinal, Tyus won over Crystal Lake Central's Dillon Carlson 3-0 to go into the final, with Tyus losing to Brayden Peet of Sycamore by injury default.

Carlisle won his opening bout with a 51 second pin of Glen Ellyn Glenbard South's Steve Orsolini, then in the quarterfinal, pinned Truman Thuente of Lake Forest at 3:21, and advanced to the final with a 9-1 win over Moe Khalil of Lemont. In the final, Carlisle was Marian's Dylan Connell 6-1.

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Bryce Griffin came in third at 126, starting out with a 1:01 pin of St. Laurence's Daman Michcich, but lost his quarterfinal bout to Sean Conway of Chicago St. Patrick in an ultimate tiebreak 3-2. In the first round of the consolation bracket, Griffin pinned Mateo Costello of Riverside-Brookfield at 5:15, then defeated Caleb Nobiling of Antioch 18-7. In the consolation semifinal, Griffin won over Glenwood's Thomas Vansacik 12-1, and took the third place bout with a 8-0 win over Caden Muselman of Oak Forest.

At 132, Ben Skaggs lost his opening match to Rory Parlow of Deerfield 4-3, then won in the first round of the consolation bracket with a pin of Washington's Timothy Smith at 5:36. Skaggs was eliminated in the second round by Collin Rief of Jacksonville 5-1. At 170, Briley Christeson lost in the opener to Connor Stomp of Lemont 5-3, then was eliminated in the first round of the consolation bracket by Nathan Kim of Burlington Central 5-4.

At 285, Logan Cooper lost in his opener to Dillan Johnson of Joliet Catholic by fall at 1:59, then in the consolation bracket opener, won over Alex Ochoa of St. Laurence by fall at 1:09, then won in the second round with a 5-3 overtime win over Leo Diaz of Crystal Lake Central. Cooper was eliminated with a third round loss to Karl Schmalz of Niles Notre Dame 7-3.

Jaymz Young, the only wrestler representing East St. Louis, had a good showing at 106. Young dropped his first match to Edgar Albino, Jr. of Antioch 15-3, then received a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket, when in the second round, defeated Carter Mikolajcok of Lemont 12-3, but was eliminated in the third round when he was pinned by Marian's Josh Glover at 3:27.

For Triad, Chase Hall came in fifth at 126, starting with a pin of Costello at 3:20, then in the quarterfinal. lost to Elon Rodriguez of Marian 12-3. In the second round of the consolation bracket, Hall won over Freeport's Jason Redington in a tiebreak 5-2, then in the third round, defeated Ranzo Morgan of Deerfield 10-4, but lost in the consolation semifinal to Muselman 10-0. In the fifth and sixth place match, Hall won over Vansacik 3-2.

In the 120 pound division, Chance Selp was pinned by Ryan O'Connor of Lemon at 2:56, but bounced back in the consolation bracket opener to defeat Carson Raya of Geneseo 10-6. Selp was eliminated by Lucas Wittkamp of Deerfield by fall at 19 seconds.

In the 138 group, Aiden Postma won his opener by pinning Rice's Jack Botta at 1:13, then lost to Marian's Chris Moore in the quarterfinals by technical superiority 23-8. Postma bounced back in the second round of the consolation bracket with a pin of Corral at 4:28, then was eliminated in the next round when Postma was pinned by Deerfield's Lucas Morgan at 5:33.

In the 195 weight class, Seth Brooks won his opener by pinning Riverside-Brookfield's Jordan Madrano at 3:28, then lost to Julian Ryerson of Crystal Lake Central in the quarterfinal 10-6, and was eliminated when Zach Eaton of East Peoria pinned Brooks at 5:00.

In the 220 class, Colin North lost his opening round match to Galesburg's Jeremiah Morris 3-0, but came back to win his consolation opener with an 8-2 win over Adam Achebe of Chicago Kenwood. North, and was eliminated in the second round of the consolation bracket by Mahomet-Seymour's Daniel Renshaw 6-2.

The Class 3A meet, which features five wrestlers from Edwardsville and two from Alton, will be held Saturday at the BoS Center, with opening bouts starting early Saturday morning.

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