Top Dawgs/Orange Wrestling Takes Ninth at Malecek Team Duals
By FRED KRONER
The Illinois Top Dawgs/Orange wrestling team – consisting primarily of Mahomet-Seymour students — placed ninth in the Malecek Team Duals, which ended on Thursday (June 27) at the Wisconsin Dells.
The Top Dawgs leader was 275-pound Jayvon Tompkins, an incoming freshman. He compiled a 6-1 record during the four-day event and registered four pins, two of which took place in less than a minute.
Gabryan Maya, a sophomore-to-be, was 4-3 at 190 pounds and collected three pins, one of which required less than a minute of mat time.
Also posting three pins for the Top Dawgs was Niko Truax, who competed at both 113 and 120 pounds. All three of his falls occurred in the first period.
Other teammates with pins while at the Dells were Kaden Johnson (at both 138 and 144 pounds) and Noah Fonner (at both 165 and 175 pounds).
Squad members with a technical fall victory were Chris Dill (at both 150 and 157 pounds) and Nino Caballero (also at both 150 and 157 pounds).
Also capturing wins at the Malecek tournament were Caleb Scott (at both 113 and 120 pounds), Renn VanDeveer (126 pounds), Garrett Waisath (at 132 pounds) and Izaiah Brotherton (at 150, 157 and 165 pounds).
Rounding out the Top Dawgs lineup were Dominic Gaudio (at both 138 and 144 pounds), Kaiden Hackett (at both 165 and 175 pounds) and Ashton Lamb (at 215 pounds).
Waisath and Tompkins were the only Top Dawgs competitors who were not pinned at least once during the tournament. Tompkins’ lone loss was a 2-0 setback.
The Top Dawgs finished in ninth place after winning their final two matches, 55-24 over Cambridge-Isanti White and 42-32 over LeRoy.
Besides Tompkins, other incoming freshmen at M-S are Caballero, Dill, Fonner, Gaudio, Johnson, Lamb, Scott and Truax.
