There were only 10 seconds or so left in his match on Saturday, when Lincoln-Way West’s Matt Ryan found the takedown he needed against DeKalb’s Matt Macarus.
Ryan’s takedown at the edge gave him a 3-2 comeback win over Macarus in the title match at 152 pounds, in a bout that illustrated how tight the battle was between the Warriors and the Barbs.
In the end, Lincoln-Way West came out on top of the scramble, earning a 214-207 edge in team points over DeKalb to snatch the team title of Fenton’s 34th Annual, 10-team Steve Weiss Tournament.
Ryan, Kyle Ruettiger (126), and Jake Sytsma (195) all won on shots taken late in the third periods of their title matches, for a West team that showed endurance from top to bottom.
“You can definitely give credit to our coaches,” Ryan said. “They push in practice, and push us in our conditioning stuff. The team is younger this year but it’s definitely tough.”
The Warriors and the Barbs each sent six individual champions to the podium, and West placed all 14 wrestlers to DeKalb’s 13 in taking the team crown.
In winning their second consecutive team title at Fenton, the Warriors also got titles from Kyle Rodriguez (145), Javier Montalvo (170), and Ray Rodriguez (220), plus runner-up finishes from Noah Keefe (138) and Nick May (160).
“We did well,” Montalvo said, “but we can always do better.”
Huntley placed third with 186 points, with six second-place finishers on the day, and the team from Milton, Wisconsin finished fourth with 164 points.
“The kids wrestled tough today,” Huntley coach B.J. Bertelsman said. “There were a lot of good individual matches and we’ll see DeKalb in a regional so it was nice to get a look at them.”
DeKalb’s six titlists were led by Brad Green (138), who was voted the tournament’s outstanding wrestler after a 4-1 title-mat decision over Keefe. With two teams claiming 12 of 14 individual crowns, Fenton’s Juan Alfaro (182) and Milton’s Noah Shea (120) produced the other two titles.
Alfaro won his title by 4-1 decision on a takedown in a third overtime period, against Milton’s John McCarthy.
“It’s hard and it’s nerve-wracking to be in that situation, but you have to have the will to fight,” Alfaro said. “You have to want to win so bad that it doesn’t matter how tired you are.”
