After a tumultuous season of ups and downs, the Illinois Valley Central wrestling season came to an end as a unit, but several individuals shined in Regional to earn a Sectional berth.
The grapplers finished second in the Eureka Regional, behind Eureka, with 160 points.
Senior Frank Barrett worked his way through the 103-pound division to make it to the championship match against a tough Eureka opponent.
With a bye in the first round of the Clinton Sectional on the line, Barrett faced off against his foe and, although he almost won by a pin several times, exploited his technique to win a 6-0 decision.
“That was a good win. The kid Frank wrestled was 17-4 going into the match,” coach Matt Russell said. “Frank pretty much dominated him the whole match.”
Senior Zach Switzer made his way to the championship match and faced a worthy Eureka opponent.
Switzer found himself locked in a tough match, with neither opponent able to take the other one down and both sides trading points.
“I saw that he would only use a hip toss, and I had experience with that because I had lost in the Regional championship because of that last year,” Switzer said. “So, I knew that if I could avoid that, I could win.”
In the end, Switzer pulled through with an 11-6 decision.
“It felt great to win because last year, I had it taken away from me,” Switzer said. “I worked really hard this year to get here and had to fight back from a broken wrist at the beginning of the season.”
Senior Trace Miller made it to the championship match but was pinned in under a minute.
Despite losing, Miller earned a spot in the Sectional, as he finished in the top three of his division.
Junior Jared Lauber earned a spot in the championship match and, as he had done all year, stepped up to the challenge.
Although Lauber nearly pinned his opponent countless times, he was able to win a dominant 19-3 technical fall.
“Lauber had wrestled him earlier in the year and beat him by 10,” Russell said.
Junior DJ Hummer also found himself in the championship match, but came out on the losing end of a 7-0 decision, despite wrestling with intensity and passion.
Senior Scott Ladd was the last Ghost in the championship matches for IVC and came in second when he was pinned in 3:34.
The Ghosts’ only third-place match winner was sophomore Brendan Butler, who won a close 6-4 decision.
The Sectional qualifiers will wrestle at 6 p.m. Friday at Clinton.
“I’m going to have to wrestle smart and hard and eliminate mistakes to win at Sectional,” Switzer said.
