Huskies set school mark at regional meet
By Gary Larsen Contributor February 7, 2012 3:32PM
Oak Park-River Forest's Davonte Mahomes wrestles Leyden's Andy Cocozza in the 152-pound title match at the Leyden Regional meet. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:07AM
Oak Park-River Forest figured to rule the roost at this year’s Class 3A Leyden regional and that estimation played out, as the Huskies advanced all 14 wrestlers to the De La Salle individual sectional on Saturday.
“That’s the first time in school history we’ve had 14 sectional qualifiers and I’m very proud,” Huskies coach Mike Powell said. “We won a lot of matches (Saturday) on our conditioning and that’s kind of our style.”
The Huskies’ 245.5-185 edge over second-place York featured eight regional champions in Matt Rundell (106), Larry Early (120), Johnny Gahagan (126), Cameron Harris (132), Davonte Mahomes (152), Michael Woulfe (160), Joe Ariola (170), and Marq Brumant (285).
“Our resolve and our work ethic is strong and if we can keep that going for two more weeks I think we’ll have multiple all-staters,” Powell said. “And I think we’ll give teams hell from here on.”
OPRF also got seconds from Colin Rogers (138) and Sammy Brooks (182), a state champion and two-time state medal-winner forced to default in his regional title match this year. Brooks is the top-ranked wrestler in Illinois at 182 pounds and he’s negotiating an ankle injury suffered two weeks ago.
“Now he has to really concentrate,” Powell said. “He can’t take anything for granted. This injury is his challenge.”
Freshmen Rundell (38-3) and Early (35-6) dominated their brackets, as did sophomore Mahomes (34-3). The Huskies went 4-for-4 on the third-place mat with wins from Joe Robles (113), Jake O’Mara (145), Andre Lee (195), and Emonte Logan (220).
At 126, sophomore Gahagan (17-12) earned a takedown in overtime to win 4-2 on the title mat over York junior Brandon Kupczyk (30-8).
“Kupczyk’s a machine,” Powell said. “Johnny kept his composure and he won it in overtime. That was a battle and the score doesn’t indicate how much scrambling and how much work went into that match by both guys.”
Senior Harris (28-9) won 11-8 over York senior Troy Valdez (30-4) in their title match, while senior Woulfe (35-10) won by fall at 5:55 of his title match against Proviso West’s Kenard Washington (27-2).
Junior Ariola (32-6) also won by fall in his title match against Proviso East’s Cai Stockley while senior Brumant (25-10) won 10-7 over Leyden’s Javier Rhoades (28-8).
“Rhoades really has some talent and Marq brought his ‘A’ game,” Powell said. “(Ariola) was ready. He went out there to win a title and if he wrestles like that the rest of the year, he’s going to be on the stand in Champaign.”
After the individual state finals on Feb. 18, the Huskies will host conference rival Hinsdale Central in a team sectional with a downstate berth on the line on Feb. 21. The Huskies won 39-20 over the Red Devils in their West Suburban Conference dual on Dec. 15.
“Hinsdale Central, Carl Sandburg, Glenbard North, Barrington, Harlem — these are good teams with solid kids and great coaching staffs,” Powell said. “If we’re going to beat those teams we’ll need our seniors to step up, just like they did on Saturday.”
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