5 Crusader Wrestlers Advance to State Wrestling Tournament Seniors Caleb Micho (126 pounds), Connor Waugh (145) and Austin Barnhart (195) as well as juniors Zac Schrank (106) and Austin Grant (113) all qualified for the Class 1A IHSA Individual State Wrestling Tournament. Caleb, Connor, Austin and Zac all head to Champaign’s State Farm Center in search of a state title after placing 3rd in their weight classes at Byron Sectional Tournament. Austin Grant moved on to state as well after finishing with a 4th place sectional medal. Sixteen wrestlers in each weight class advance to the State Tournament which starts Thursday at 1 PM with preliminary round matches. The state qualifiers eclipsed the old school record of 2 state qualifiers, which last happened in 2012 when Chris Gustafson-Nolan and Michael Andrukaitis accomplished the feat. The IHSA will have live coverage of the event and information about tickets, time schedule, brackets, etc. can be obtained at ihsa.org or by contacting the Rockford Register Star Sports Department. Below is a look back at the Crusaders Byron Sectional matches and a peek ahead at the State Tournament outlook for each state qualifier. Byron Sectional-“Friday, we did not start out so well. One exception was a first round win in overtime by Luke Wallace. Saturday was another story. We had many shining moments.” said Coach Muther. The team won 5 matches and lost 8 with just two wrestlers- Connor Waugh and Zac Schrank-advancing to Saturday morning’s semifinal matches. On Saturday the team perked up with 7 wins in 8 first round consolation matches. There were two exciting wins among the seven in the first consolation round. The first was a third period shocker turned in by senior Tanner Hagshenas. Trailing by a 12-1 score, Tanner secured a headlock and pinned his Stillman Valley opponent 28 seconds left in the match. Then at 195 pounds, Austin Barnhart faced Mason Weeks of Mercer County. Weeks was ranked 6th in the state by the GEI/Illinois Best Weekly rating service. Barnhart, an all-conference football player put his opponent on his back three times with the third one leading to a pin, the first of four pins of the day for Austin. Senior Michael Martin won his career best 25th win of the season in the first consolation round but suffered a 2-0 loss to Erie’s Grady Todd in the next match. Barnhart, Grant, Schrank and junior Joey Harezlak all won 2nd round consolation matches. All winners of consolation 3rd round matches advance to the 3rd place sectional match and also advance to the state tourney. Harezlak lost the 3rd round consolation match by one point but Schrank, Grant, Micho, Waugh and Barnhart all won their high stakes matches. The closest was Connor Waugh’s, who won 5-4 over Jacob Keller of Durand. “We went 19-8 on Saturday so we showed great poise in many matches that could have ended our runs,” said Coach Muther. “Last Saturday was one for the ages. Crusader fans had a lot to cheer about.” State Outlook Zac Schrank, 106 lbs. Zac enters the state tourney with a stellar 34-4 record. He has won 5 of the 5 tournaments he competed in this year. Two of his four losses are to top rated Brady Wilsie of Byron, with the sectional match-up with Wilsie a close 3-1 final score. Zac has wins over 2 of the other 3 sectional champs and goes in ranked 5th in his weight class by GEI/Illinois Best Weekly. Zac is also on a roll in the classroom with straight A’s this past semester. Austin Grant, 113 lbs. Austin is 29-13 on the year but don’t let the record fool you. He has lost 4 matches to state champions and 1 to a state runner-up. In fact, in December Austin earned one of Illinois Best Weekly’s “Top 3 stars” award for wrestling 2 state champions in the same night--Anthony Luis of Harvard and Brandon Briggs of North Boone. Austin is going up against state runner-up Cody Minnick in the first match. The first Minnick-Grant tussle took place at the Plano Reaper Classic Invitational back in December. Grant is ranked 8th in the last GEI/Illinois Best Weekly rankings. Caleb Micho, 126 lbs. Like Schrank, Caleb is ranked 5th by GEI/Illinois Best Weekly. His record is 38-3. With a good weekend and some team success in the Dual Team Sectional and Dual Team State next week, Caleb could catch 2012 Lutheran grad Michael Andrukaitis’ single season win total of 43. Caleb is 3-3 in matches with state qualifiers this year so expect him to be in the title hunt. An opposing coach recently heaped great praise, telling Coach Muther, “What makes him so dangerous is that he just keeps going after his opponents.” Caleb is also an A average student and has earned an athletic scholarship to wrestle at Colorado’s School of Mines, a highly regarded engineering school. Connor Waugh, 152 lbs. Connor has wrestled 10matches against state qualifiers—the most of any of Lutheran’s state qualifiers. His record, 34-10, is his best in four years. Connor won 2 tournaments this year but has won his last match in all 6 tournaments he’s entered this year. He has three 3rds and one 5th place finish to go with his two titles. Eighth ranked Wyatt Fox of the Shelbyville Rams is slated to wrestle Connor in the first round in Champaign. Austin Barnhart, 195 lbs. Austin has run his record to 29-10 and trails team pin leader Caleb Micho by one this season. Caleb has pinned 24 opponents thus far and Austin and Tanner Hagshenas share the second place spot with 23-- for now. Austin is becoming an exciting wrestler who could end a match at any time. Austin won his first tournament title at the Hebron Regional and is peaking at the right time. Austin is paired with Quincy Notre Dame’s Jeff Haley in the first round. Fun Wrestling Facts- The Crusader team is ranked 21st by GEI/Illinois Best Weekly. The Dual Meet Sectional on Tuesday, February 25th at 5 PM will be at Rock Falls High School. The Crusaders opponent will be the Sherrard Tigers. They are ranked 8th. Sherrard is 8-1 vs. ranked opponents. The Crusaders are 1-8 versus ranked opponents. Caleb Micho has 110 career wins, good for fourth best in LHS history. With 117 wins, 2001 grad Todd Rossier is third on the career win list. The late Brent Hollenberger was Lutheran’s first state qualifier in 1993. Zac Schrank’s brother Josh, an 8th grader at Lutheran is 19-0 this year so far for the Rockford Lutheran Junior High Crusaders. Coach Muther has 264 wins, 261 losses and 1 tie in varsity dual meets at LHS since replacing the legendary Mark Ploss.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 16:59:07 +0000
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