Mahomet-Seymour places second at Marty Williams Invitational
By Fred Kroner
Mahomet-Seymour’s wrestling team placed second on Saturday (Jan. 15) in its own 24-school Marty Williams Invitational.
The Bulldogs totaled 450 ½ points and were exactly one point behind meet champion Naperville Central.
Three M-S grapplers won their individual weight classes.
Junior Caden Hatton won three of his four matches by pin and triumphed in the 113-pound weight class.
Junior Brennan Houser won three bouts by pin and one by technical fall en route to a 5-0 tournament record and the championship at 170 pounds.
Another junior, Mateo Casillas, was 5-0 with three pins at 195 pounds. Casillas was victorious in the finals 6-0.
For the season, Casillas has a 36-1 season record with 32 consecutive wins. He reached the 100-win career mark on Saturday. Houser is 31-6 overall with an eight-match winning streak. Hatton is 29-4 and has won 10 straight matches (since a 1-0 loss) and 21 of his last 22 decisions.
Many schools in the invitational were unable to fill a full lineup, so M-S added extra wrestlers at many weight classes.
In all, 26 Bulldogs participated in the tournament and collectively M-S wrestlers had a 57-53 record for the day with 35 pins.
Other M-S athletes to finish among the top five were Camden Harms (2-2 and third at 285 pounds), Colton Crowley (3-2 and fourth at 220 pounds), Stevie Pogue (2-2 and fourth at 182 pounds), Jacob Dobbins (2-2 and fourth at 160 pounds), Camden Heinold (2-2 and fourth at 126 pounds), Braeden Heinold (4-1 and fifth at 152 pounds) and Tallen Pawlak (3-1 and fifth at 138 pounds).
Pawlak (20-11) reached the 20-win mark with his last tournament win (a 12-5 decision). Braeden Heinold improved his season record to 28-8. Crowley improved to 25-11.
Logan Petro was 4-1 at 145 pounds and placed ninth. He had a team-high four pins at the invitational.
Two other Bulldogs ended with above-.500 records at the tournament. Kaleb Roberts was 3-2 and placed 11th at 132 pounds. Reese Wilson was 3-2 and finished 10th at 126 pounds.
M-S’ other tournament representatives, and their finishes, were: Nicholas Demos (seventh at 160 pounds), Gage Decker (eighth at 132 pounds), Caleb Hillard (10th at 160 pounds), Cayden Grove (14th at 126 pounds), Caleb Bundren (14th at 138 pounds), Brayden Lamb (15th at 195 pounds), Ethan Grindley (17th at 170 pounds), Isabelle Leyhe (19th at 120 pounds), Deandre Hughey (19th at 145 pounds), Braedon Williams (19th at 152 pounds), Lukas Alstetter (21st at 103 pounds), Jack Jessup (21st at 126 pounds), and Theo Ratliff (21st at 145 pounds).
On Thursday (Jan. 13), M-S opened the Apollo Conference portion of its wrestling season at home with a 76-0 shutout over Effingham.
Taylorville did not participate due to COVID-19 issues and that match will likely be rescheduled.
Against Effingham, there were just five contested matches.
Hatton (106 pounds), Wilson (126 pounds), Pawlak (138 pounds) and Braeden Heinold (152 pounds) all won by pins. The quickest was by Pawlak in 1 minute and 8 seconds.
Dobbins (160 pounds) registered a 14-5 major decision.
M-S (18-3) returns to action on Tuesday (Jan. 18) at Mattoon against Charleston and Lincoln.
