Glenbard North wins DVC wrestling meet

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West Aurora 106 pounder Carlos Jacquez watches as the referee signals the end of his 4-3 DuPage Valley Conference championship win over Richard Browne of Glenbard North. | Jon Cunningham~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: January 28, 2012 10:41PM

Glenbard North predictably won the DuPage Valley Conference meet Saturday night at Glenbard East but Naperville Central opened some eyes with its second-place finish.

The Panthers scored 279 points to lead the way, followed by Naperville Central with 170.5. Naperville North placed sixth among the eight teams, scoring 137.5.

Remarkably, the Redhawks saw five competitors make the championships, only to see all five go down in defeat to finish second. That didn’t dampen the spirits of an otherwise upbeat team.

“What I saw coming into it was (there were) five teams that really had the ability and the kids (to) take second place,” Redhawks coach Rob Porter said. “Did I think it was a possibility to take second? Yes, I did but I (thought) it would take an outstanding tournament for that to happen and sure enough, that’s what happened.”

The last time Naperville Central finished second in the DVC was 1991.

Ben Williamson (126 pounds), Kirk Cherep (132), Tom Mitrenga (160), Luke Roth (182) and Ryan Berg (195) all earned DVC runner-up status. Cherep lost in double overtime to Glenbard North’s Johnny Gosinski by a 5-3 score in arguably the best Redhawks match.

Though those Naperville Central grapplers would have preferred to win their championship matches, some of them found positives in their overall performances for the day.

“I’ve really been trying to focus on wrestling my own match, wrestling my own style,” Roth, a junior, said. “I want to come off aggressive but smart during the match. I think that over the period of the day, I did that pretty well, so that was an improvement for me. I was aggressive but I was also smart.”

Roth, who lost 6-0 to Wheaton Warrenville South’s Evan Welsh in the championship match, now is 20-12 for the year. Welsh, with the win, ran his record to 23-1.

Naperville North’s 285-pounder, Colin Goebel, saved the best for last. He earned the first Huskies win in their final match of the day.

The Goebel win, based on records, was somewhat of an upset. West Aurora’s Austin Beebe is now 26-7, compared with Goebel’s 19-8 mark. Goebel won by a 3-1 decision.

Last year, Goebel finished fifth in the DVC. Beebe also beat Goebel earlier in the year, so in the final 20 seconds Goebel savored the win.

“(I was thinking) that it was my dream come true,” the junior said. “I’ve always wanted to win DVC and I’m happy that all the hard work paid off.”

The Huskies’ Eric Krieger took second place at 170 pounds, losing to Wheaton Warrenville South’s Steven Franke in overtime by a 4-3 margin.

Through the tournament, Krieger is 30-3 and Franke is 29-3. The two were practice partners all summer and wrestled for the same summer program.

“I’m extremely disappointed in (second),” Krieger, a senior, said. “(We) faced a couple of times. We faced (each other) earlier in the year (and) I beat him in overtime and he beat me 1-0 last year, so we’ve had a couple close matches. But I was not satisfied with that performance at all.”

West Aurora placed fourth with 165 points, winning three individual championships.

Carlos Jacquez won 4-3 at 106 pounds, Greg Jacquez won 11-4 at 138 and Nate Pealstrom won by default at 145.

“I just kept trying to keep my flow moving, going from one to another and one to another,” Greg Jacquez, a senior, said. “I feel like whenever I do that, I can’t be beat at all. …Basically to sum it up, I want to keep moving.”