Glenbard North overpowers South Elgin for sectional title
By Rob Wollenzien For Sun-Times Media February 21, 2012 10:24PM
South Elgin's Cody Pych works to shed Glenbard North's Alek Keca on Tuesday at the West Aurora Class 3A Team Sectional. | Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 28, 2012 10:19PM
Glenbard North left no doubt who would be moving on to the dual team state tournament in Bloomington on Saturday.
The Panthers (18-4) downed first-time team sectional qualifier South Elgin 72-4 on Tuesday evening in the West Aurora Class 3A Sectional. Storm senior Cody Pych earned his team’s lone win.
Despite the ugly final score, coach Mark Cameron came away from the sectional with his head held high.
“I’m proud of the way that we wrestled because we didn’t back down from anybody,” he said. “They came out fighting and that’s all I ever asked out of them all year, was to just give me everything they had on the mat every single time they wrestled, and I think they did that tonight.”
The Storm (7-12) approached the meet with a sense of realistic optimism. Cameron said he thought his team had a fighting chance against the defending state champs because many Storm wrestlers have the capability to pin an opponent.
Said Pych: “They were last year’s state champions and we figured it’s our first regional championship. We have nothing to lose. We might as well just go out there with everything we have.”
When asked to dissect his own performance and the reason for his success, Pych could only speculate.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Just wrestled basic. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy, just basic wrestling. He was a big kid — he was hard to move around — and I had to just wrestle smart.”
Pych and fellow senior Nick Citta both are four-year varsity wrestlers for South Elgin. Cameron credited them with helping elevate the team’s competitive level this season.
“I have eight (seniors) on varsity and they’ve just worked their butts off for four years,” Cameron said. “Nick Citta’s been a four-year varsity starter for me, Cody Pych is a four-year varsity starter for me, and those guys kind of took everybody on their back and got ’em working in the offseason and doing stuff, and that’s why we’re where we’re at today.”
The school now has been open seven years—six years of varsity wrestling competition—with Cameron at the helm for every one of those seasons. In that time, he has seen plenty of ups and downs.
“It’s been frustrating at times,” Cameron said, “but also very fun to see their improvement.”
The Storm finished as runner-up in the Upstate Eight Conference, behind only Neuqua Valley, and won its own regional for its first-ever regional title this season.
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