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Sports
Two medalists emerge at Lake Park Invite : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisTwo medalists emerge at Lake Park Invite
| Oswego East's Prinz takes second, Chastain third
| by Kristin Sharp
| 12/20/2012
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The Oswego East wrestling team endured a tough week in the circle, falling to Plainfield Central before settling into a 13th-place finish at Lake Park's annual invitational.
The Wolves entered the 16-team Ralph Krupke Wrestling Classic last Saturday and scored 51 points behind a pair of medalists in senior Andrew Chastain and sophomore Zach Prinz.
Lockport defended its tournament title for a third consecutive season with five champions and 252 points while Schaumburg took runner-up honors at 175 points and Niles West jumped from 10th place in 2011 to third place this season with 150 points.
Oswego East left disappointed after finishing among the top five last year.
"Saturday we'd like to erase from our memories. The good news is it's only December and it was our first individual tournament," Oswego East head coach Mike Jezioro said. "It was an opportunity for us to see what we need to work on, how the guys prepare themselves for a long day and in those aspects - you can see by the team score - there's a lot we need to work on. It's good to know now as opposed to February."
Prinz improved to 18-1 on the season, but suffered his first loss in the 170-pound championship finals with a 4-3 decision against Addison Trail's Nico Rocha. Rocha had an impressive day, knocking off No. 5-ranked Danny Hicks from Warren by a 8-7 decision in the semifinals.
Prinz pinned Schaumburg's Woo Lee in 59 seconds to start his tournament bracket and won a 7-3 decision over Lake Park's Henry Stoever to meet Rocha in the finals.
"Zach hasn't really been tested yet this year," Jezioro said. "Coming into this weekend, he only had one match go six minutes in 15 matches. In the second match he finally had a six-minute match and he won 7-3 and was in control the whole time. He met the kid from Addison Trail who we knew a little bit about. He's a tough kid and beat the kid from Warren in the semis. We couldn't finish a takedown. It was good for Zach that he was finally pushed in a match."
At 152, Chastain opened with a quick pin against Addison Trail's Ernesto Ramirez, ending the match in just 39 seconds, and won a 14-6 major decision over Conant's Nico Gottardo. He was pinned by Schaumburg's Luke Gruszka - a former Oswego wrestler - in the semifinals. Gruszka went on to win the championship while Chastain moved into the third-place bout. There, he won a 10-0 major decision over Niles West's Nick Yonan.
"(Gruszka) is a former Oswego wrestler and I know his dad (Matt Gruszka) well. He's a good wrestler," Jezioro said. "Andrew just made a mistake in the first period of the semifinal match that cost him the match. He can't make mistakes like he did against good wrestlers and Gruszka punished him and pinned him for it. He bounced back and had a nice third-place match and won 10-0 and was doing a lot of the right things. We need to keep those mistakes down, learn from them and at the end of the year we're not making those mistakes."
At 126, senior Justin Garza went 2-2 at 126 before ending his day with a 3-1 loss to Warren's Martin Martinez in the wrestlebacks. Junior Mason Miller also picked up a pair of wins at 138, but ended his day with a loss by fall to Warren's Blake Howard in the wrestlebacks.
Oswego East hosted Plainfield Central last Thursday and lost 55-15 to move to 8-10 on the dual season and 1-3 in Southwest Prairie Conference duals. Chastain and Prinz were the lone winners as Chastain won a 13-7 decision and Prinz pinned his opponent in 2:45.
"I think Plainfield Central is a good team. Some of our inexperience guys weren't ready to wrestle that caliber of a team," Jezioro said. "As a team, we need to prepare those guys better. It's not going to get any easier against Minooka."
Oswego East will host Romeoville today, Thursday, at 6 p.m. before entering the Downers Grove South Quad on Saturday at 9 a.m. The Wolves will then take a lengthy schedule break, returning to the mats on Jan. 5 at the Geneva Newbill Invite at 9 a.m.
"We get some time off, which is good. We're a little banged up and it'll be good step away from the mat for a couple days," Jezioro said. "Sometimes it's OK to step away and relax and come back charged up after the holiday."
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