Houser and Casillas capture championship titles at Red Schmitt Holiday Wrestling Tournament
By Fred Kroner
Seniors Brennan Houser and Mateo Casillas were individual champions at the Red Schmitt Holiday Wrestling Tournament, in Granite City, which ended on Friday (Dec. 30).
Houser (22-1 with an 11-match winning streak) was the titlist at 182 pounds. Casillas (22-0) prevailed at 195 pounds.
Houser was dominant in his weight class, winning all six matches by technical falls. He outscored his opponents collectively, 104-11.
Houser now stands second on the M-S list with 33 career technical falls. He needs eight more to move past career record-holder Ryan Berger. Nine of Houser’s last 11 wins have been by technical fall.
Casillas pinned four of his six foes (two in the first period) and raised his career total for wins to 143. He ranks sixth on the all-time Bulldog wins list and needs four more to pass current M-S assistant coach Jeff Castor for fifth place.
If Casillas wins 33 more matches, he will claim the No. 1 spot on the Bulldogs’ list with 176 wins. Current record-holder Brett Camden had 175 wins.
Casillas has 66 career pins. With three more pins, he will surpass Chance Decker and Doug Younger for 10th place on the M-S career list.
A third Bulldog, Camden Harms (18-3) reached the finals. He placed second at 285 pounds. He had a 5-1 record at the tournament, pinning four opponents. Harms had two first-period falls.
Overall, eight Bulldogs placed among the top six and 10 athletes ended among the top 10.
Team honors in the 27-school event were captured by Whitfield (Mo.) with 280 ½ points. The runner-up Bulldogs had 269 points. Third-place Batavia had 229 points.
Among the other Bulldog leaders were Caden Hatton (fourth at 113 pounds) and Colton Crowley (fourth at 220 pounds).
Hatton compiled a 4-3 tourney record with two pins. Crowley had a 5-2 record with four pins. Three of his pins were in the first period.
Finishing in sixth-place for M-S were Colton McClure (106 pounds), Camden Heinold (132 pounds) and Tallen Pawlak (145 pounds).
Pawlak, who reached the 20-win mark for the season with his last win at the tourney, was 4-4 at Granite City with two pins. McClure and Heinold were each 3-4. McClure had three pins and Heinold had two pins.
Gage Decker ended ninth at 160 pounds. He had a 4-2 tourney record with four pins. Theo Ratliff was 10th at 152 pounds. He had a 4-3 tourney mark.
Donovan Lewis (138 pounds) placed 13th. All three tourney wins were by pin. Cale Hillard (170 pounds) wound up in 14th place. He also produced pins in all three of his tourney victories.
Other Bulldog entries at Granite City were Justus Vrona (19th at 120 pounds) and Reese Wilson (22nd place at 126 pounds). Wilson secured pins in all three of his tourney wins.
For the two-day events, M-S finished with a 55-36 cumulative record with 36 pins. Twenty two of the wins occurred in the first period and eight took place in less than a minute.
Wilson had three sub-60-second falls.
The Bulldogs’ varsity returns to action on Jan. 6-7 at The Clash XX National High School Wrestling Duals, in LaCrosse, Wis.
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Mahomet-Seymour entered a junior varsity team in the varsity St. Thomas More New Year’s Challenge Dual-Team Tournament and placed fourth at Champaign in the Blue I division. The two-day tournament ended on Friday (Dec. 30).
The JV Bulldogs compiled a 5-3 tourney record, starting with a 46-33 triumph over Attica, Ind.
A total of 23 different Bulldogs had at least one match at the two-day event. The school’s cumulative record was 64-47 with 31 pins. Thirteen of the pins were in the first period and five took place in less than a minute.
The team’s leaders were Austin Crull (3-0 at 220 and 285 pounds), Adam Dobrucki (3-0 at 132 pounds), Noah Frank (3-0 at 182 pounds), Tyler Golden (2-0 at 138 pounds), Christian Valade (1-0 at 126 pounds), Lukas Alstetter (7-1 at 106 and 113 pounds), Hayden Hart (4-1 at 180 pounds), Preston Sriver (6-2 at 122 pounds), Kaleb Collins (5-2 at 138 and 145 pounds), Deandre Hughey (5-3 at 160 pounds), Kaleb Roberts (4-2 at 145 and 152 pounds) Auggie Gaudio (4-4 at 106 and 113 pounds), Phil Daniels (4-4 at 195 pounds) and Hughey Allen (3-3 at 145 and 152 pounds).
Sriver posted five pins, Collins and Roberts each had four pins while Alstetter, Hughey and Daniels each had three pins.
Other Bulldogs with at least one pin at the St. Thomas More event were Conner Bennett (126 pounds), Kody Ackman (170 pounds) and Noah Daniels (220 pounds).
Also gaining at least one victory for M-S were Grant Munds (132 pounds), Joshua Craig (170 pounds) and Zach Hammond (220 and 285 pounds).
The M-S junior varsity squad returns to action on Saturday (Jan. 7) at the Pekin JV Tournament.
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M-S had three entries in the Crimson Ladies Holiday Invitational, at Jacksonville on Wednesday (Dec. 28).
At 110 pounds, Kalista Granadino pinned two of her three opponents and ended in third place. Her pin in the third-place bout came in 1 minute and 43 seconds.
At 105 pounds, Kimberly Schoonover produced one pin and finished in sixth place. Her pin came in 3:58.
The Bulldogs’ other entry was Grace Payne at 145 pounds.
