Mateo Casillas wins State Title at State Farm Center
By Fred Kroner
What the Illinois Matman had predicted 90 days earlier became a proven fact on Saturday (Feb. 18) at the University of Illinois State Farm Center.
The No. 1 Class 2A 195-pound wrestler in the state is Mahomet-Seymour senior Mateo Casillas.
He was ranked in the top spot in the preseason and never abandoned that perch.
In Saturday’s championship match, against Rock Island junior Andrew Marquez, Casillas registered a 5-2 victory.
“He did what he had to do and controlled the match,” M-S head coach Rob Ledin said.
Casillas scored the first takedown – as he has done in every non-forfeited match this season – and kept the pressure on. He led 4-0 after two periods.
The victory appeared easier than some of the post-match interview questions.
When asked how it feels to stand atop the state podium, Casillas said, “There are no words to describe it. It is one of the best feelings ever.”
He eventually found an apt description.
“I’m on Cloud 9. Times 10,” he said.
He concluded the individual portion of his high school wrestling career in the same manner he finished off his junior high career, when he was a student at Pontiac. In 2019, he was the IESA state champion at 185 pounds.
Casillas has been a fixture in the M-S varsity lineup – every year at 195 pounds – since he was a freshman. With his four wins at state, he has 173 career wins, two shy of the school record held by Brett Camden.
Casillas weighed 220 pounds last August when he reported for football practice. By the end of an 11-1 football season, he was weighing in at 205.
“It was a little harder (to make weight) this year, but once I got down, it was pretty easy to maintain it,” Casillas said.
Ledin said it took discipline to stay at the same wrestling weight four consecutive years.
“It’s a matter of getting the diet right, and parents that help him do that,” Ledin said.
Casillas completed his collection of top-three state medals on Saturday.
As a sophomore – the year COVID wiped out the 2021 IHSA series before the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association took over running a state meet – Casillas placed second.
As a junior, he finished third in the IHSA finals.
As a senior, he was unbeaten against all opponents from Illinois, losing only to a wrestler from Iowa.
As a freshman, he was one win away from qualifying for the state meet.
Casillas was familiar with Saturday’s championship-match opponent.
They wrestled a year ago (with Casillas winning) and again in January in the finals of the Marty Williams Tournament at M-S. Casillas prevailed in that bout, 7-0.
Casillas briefly reviewed the previous matches.
“I watched a little film,” he said, “but I stopped. I couldn’t overthink the match.”
During the past two seasons, Casillas has a cumulative record of 109-3, the best two-year record in Bulldog history.
Casillas’ four state opponents collectively won 139 matches this season. Marquez ended with a 41-6 record.
Under Ledin’s tenure, M-S has increased the difficulty of its regular-season schedule.
“We built the schedule trying to prepare for moments like this,” he said, after the state awards had been distributed at 195 pounds.
In the three-day state meet, Casillas was 4-0, starting with a first-period pin on Thursday (Feb. 16) – the school-record 84th of his career – and followed with a 10-1 decision in the quarterfinals and a 6-0 victory in the semifinals.
For his four matches at the State Farm Center, no opponent scored more than two points against Casillas and the four foes collectively totaled five points.
Ledin said it is hard to pinpoint just one area of strength for Casillas.
“He is so strong, so coachable, blocks well and fights for every point,” Ledin said.
The ambitious scheduling and the wrestler’s determination were only two of the reasons for Casillas’ success.
“He had a great practice partner every day (182-pound senior Brennan Houser),” Ledin said.
Houser was the other M-S medalist in the 2023 state meet.
He finished fifth at 182 pounds, winning his final bout over Triad’s Koen Rodebush by technical fall, 19-3.
Houser (who has a school-record 48 career technical falls) earned a place in the all-time IHSA record book.
He needed just 1 minute and 45 seconds to earn the points needed to end his fifth-place match. The previous record for the fastest technical fall at a state meet in his weight class was 1:50, set in 2019.
Due to the luck of the draw, Casillas’ 195-pound weight class was the second one contested when the IHSA finals began.
That meant the need to regroup quickly and collect his composure after participating in the Grand March.
There’s not anything like (the Grand March) in any other sport,” Casillas said. “Seeing the whole place packed, and the lights flashing, you are overwhelmed with emotions.”
He had little time before he had to take the mat on an even keel.
“It was different,” he said. “I’m used to relaxing (before his match is called). I liked going right away in a sense because it made me think less.”
Since Mahomet-Seymour’s enrollment moved it from Class 1A to Class 2A 26 years ago, the school has had three individual wrestling state champions.
Ryan Berger (1998) won in the first year the Bulldogs were in 2A and Andrew Brewer (2009) was the other titlist prior to Casillas.
Ledin has coached two of the Bulldogs’ state champions, Brewer and Casillas. He has coached four others who wrestled for a state title (Casillas in 2021, David Griffet in 2018, Hunter Crowley in 2017 and Austin Armetta in 2012).
Counting the years M-S was in Class 1A, 23 different athletes have been crowned state champions (some more than once).
Besides state medalists Casillas and Houser, four other M-S grapplers competed at state this year. Two finished one win away from securing a medal.
At 138 pounds, Donovan Lewis was 2-2 at state. At 220 pounds and battling a knee injury, Colton Crowley won three of five matches, including his 74th career pin.
Crowley ranks 10th on the all-time M-S list for career pins.
Camden Harms (285 pounds) was 1-2 state with his team-best 36th pin of the season. Caden Hatton (113 pounds) was 0-2 at state.
M-S (31-7) will return to action on Tuesday (Feb. 21) in an IHSA Class 2A Team-Dual Sectional at Chatham Glenwood against the host Titans.
The schools wrestled twice in the regular season, and the season series stands at 1-1. The Titans won the first bout, 38-24 on Dec. 6, and M-S rebounded with a win, 42-28, in the second meeting on Dec. 17.
Each match was settled by a 14-point difference.
“It could come down to matchups and swing matches,” Ledin said.
The winner will advance to the Class 2A state quarterfinals, which will be held on Saturday (Feb. 25) in Bloomington at the Grossinger Motors Arena. M-S placed third at state in 2022.
