'Weighing In' hit the road on Saturday to take in the dual-team state tourney at historic Wharton Field House in Moline ... to see how things unfolded, read on ...

7:58 p.m.

And here are the rest of the finals: Wilmington wins 36-23 in the Class A title match; Lincoln-Way Central beats Libertyville 31-25 for third place in Class AA; and Oregon wins on criteria over Lisle after the two teams tied 27-27. That's it for another wrestling season. See you next year!

7:41 p.m.

Providence's Dan Steed (35-11) gets a 13-5 major decision over Mike Rakosnik at 152, making it a 37-25 final in favor of Montini. That wraps up a 34-1 season in which the Broncos' only loss was to Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa. They were a wire-to-wire No, 1 in The Illinois Best Weekly's Class AA rankings and were seriously tested only once all season by an in-state opponent: Glenbard North in this morning's quarterfinals. Meanwhile, in Class A, Wilmington just clinched its second consecutive title on Jake Murphy's pin at 145. That put the Wildcats up 33-23 against Stillman Valley with one match remaining.

7:34 p.m.

Put this one in the books. Montini's Alex Saunders (28-17) pins Jeremy Crnich (13-11) at 1:21, giving the Broncos an insurmountable 37-21 lead.

7:30 p.m.

And Providence makes it three wins in a row, as Brian Walsh (33-16) takes a 10-6 decision over Frank Baer, making it 31-21.

7:21 p.m.

It's not over yet. Jacob Wojcik (49-3) pins Donnie Quattrocchi in 2:29 to pull Providence within 31-18. But Montini just needs one more win to wrap up the title.

7:18 p.m.

Mark Augle (44-8) picks up a 16-6 major decision for Providence over Mark Marten (13-13) at 130, giving Montini a 31-12 lead. Over in Class A, Wilmington is up 21-16 through 125.

7:08 p.m.

And now the Broncos are pulling away. Jake Gregerson (37-5) gets a tech fall at 3:05 over Jeremy Sterr (8-4) at 125, making it 31-8 with just five bouts left.

7:04 p.m.

Another close win for Montini, as Benny Marti (44-12) gets past Mike Togher (14-10) 4-2 to give the Broncos a 26-8 lead. Anyone sensing a pattern here? Time is short for Providence to mount a comeback.

6:55 p.m.

Rasche (47-8) holds on to edge Ambrose (38-12) by a 3-2 count, making it 23-8 Montini. Funny how much difference less than a handful of points can make. Had Providence turned around the one-point losses here and at 215, it'd be down only 17-14.

6:46 p.m.

Cooper (47-1) takes care of business as expected, scoring a tech fall at 4:58 to cut Providence's deficit to 20-8. Wrestling now are Montini's Colton Rasche and Providence's Tom Ambrose.

6:36 P.M.

Grant Goebel (35-9) gets a takedown with five seconds left to edge Dave Togher (31-7) at 215, giving Montini a 14-3 lead. And his big brother Garrett (57-1, 46 pins) wraps up a brilliant prep career by pinning Steve Laski (18-11) in 37 seconds. It's 20-3 Montini and Providence desperately needs a win. Fortunately for the Celts, Edwin Cooper is on the mat now vs. Montini's Sam Brody.

6:25 p.m.

Foreside wins a tech fall and Dan Grimes pins Joey Michals in 3:02, so just like that, Montini is up 11-3. With the Goebel brothers up next -- triggering "GOEBEL! GOEBEL!" chants from the Montini cheering section, the Broncos clearly have the momentum.

6:18 p.m.

The maroon warmups aren't the only way to identify Montini's wrestlers. You can also tell who the Broncos are by their hair -- all of them seem to have blond dye jobs.

6:08 p.m.

Providence jumps on top, as Reynolds edges Stelter 2-0 with an escape and a penalty point in the final period. Up next at 171: Sean Downes (15-5) of Providence, wrestling for the first time today, vs. Carl Foreside (54-4) of Montini.

6:02 p.m.

We're starting at 160 pounds. In the Class AA final, it's Providence's Brian Reynolds (43-5) vs. Montini's Dam Stelter (41-8).

5:55 p.m.

Hi, we're back at Wharton Field House, just in time for the team introductions. For those who haven't been here, the best way to describe Wharton is that it looks like a smaller version of Joliet Central's massive gym. It's the right size for this event, big enough to accommodate four mats comfortably and small enough to guarantee every fan a good seat.

And though the building itself is 81 years old, the sound system clearly isn't. It's excellent and very LOUD, which is getting an already enthusiastic crowd even more pumped up.

3:52 p.m.

And it's a wrap for the semis. Providence wins 33-26 over LW Central (which gets a last-bout fall from Jake Nelson at 145) to reach the Class AA final against Montini. The Celtics will be looking for their ninth dual-team state title and the first since their run of six straight from 1997-2002. Montini is aiming for its first Class AA dual-team championship after taking five in Class A from 2000 through '05. The action resumes at 6 p.m.

3:41 p.m.

Montini has won 39-15. The final victors: Libertyville's Everett Indart with a 7-2 decision at 135, teammate Trey Ayala by forfeit at 140 and Montini's Demitri Willis on a 9-8 decision over Eric Klein at 145. Over on Mat 4, Providence leads LW Central 33-20 with the last bout going on now. Winners since the last update:: Providence's Jacob Wojcik, 2-0 over Adam Heimer at 130; Lincoln-Way's Josh Kratovil with a 5:14 fall at 135; and the Knights' Steve McCollum, 3-1 over Brian Walash.

3:31 p.m.

And we're almost done. Montini leads 36-15 with one bout left, while Providence is up 33-17 with two remaining. Wilmington is back in the Class A finals after beating Lisle 38-29; the Wildcats will meet Stillman Valley, a 40-22 winner over Oregon.

3:17 p.m.

Jake Gregerson's 4:19 tech fall at 130 makes it 36-6 Montini. This is a lot different than the quarterfinals, when Montini fell behind 8-0, went on a 29-3 run and then had to hold off Glenbard North 29-27. In a match that started at 145 pounds, the Panthers won the last four bouts but couldn't quote catch the Broncos. Providence also trailed in its quarterfinal, falling behind St. Rita 13-10 through heavyweight. But Cooper's pin of Cody Zimmerman at 103 triggered a 22-0 flurry that put the Celtics in charge.

3:14 p.m.

Now Mark Augle's 3:43 pin at 125 gives Providence a commanding 30-11 lead with four matches remaining. Back in Class A, Wilmington leads 26-11 through 119.

3:11 p.m.

And Montini has essentially clinched it, with Benny Marti winning a 4-2 decision over Kyle Manolovic at 125 to push the lead to 31-6 with four bouts left.

3:10 p.m.

Justin Farmer edges Mike Togher 1-0 at 119 to pull LW Central within 24-11.

3:05 p.m.

Libertyville gets its second win of the semis, 5-3 by Shane Michelsen over Christ Divito at 119. It's 28-6 Montini with five bouts left.

3:01 p.m.

And Tom Ambrose's 4-0 decision over Andrew Ruettiger at 112 makes it 24-8 Providence. Over in Class A, Wilmington has opened a 23-7 lead through 103 pounds.

2:56 p.m .

Montini's lead is at 28-3 after Colton Rasche's 8-1 decision over Louis Mazzetta at 112.

2:49 p.m.

Matt Bystol scores Libertyville's first points, winning a 6-1 decision over Sam Brody to make it 25-3. Meanwhile, Providence has opened a 21-8 lead thanks to George Gniadecki's 3-1 decison of Mike Marquez at heavyweight and a 1:11 fall by freshman phenom Edwin Cooper at 103. It's looking like we'll get a rematch of the Dec. 28 dual between the Broncos and Celtics, won 38-22 by Montini. That was the only loss of the season for Providence.

2:43 p.m.

No Illinois school has come within 16 points of Montini this year, a trend that seems destined to continue at least through this round. There's a little more drama over on Mat 4, where LW Central has cut Providence's lead to 12-8 with Joe Mahy's major decision at 215. Though they're separated by just a few miles on Rt. 30 and share the same zip code, this is the first meeting of the season between the Celtics and the Knights.

2:37 p.m.

Grant Goebel's 5-0 decision over Jake Hogan at 215 makes it 19-0 Montini and Garrett Goebel wastes no time at heavyweight, pinning Tom Nield in 51 seconds to push the Broncos' lead to 25-0.

2:33 p.m.

Dave Togher's 14-3 major decision at 189 puts Providence up 12-4.

2:28 p.m.

Montini is showing why it's been the odds-on favorite to win state all year. Dam Grimes just picked up the first pin of the Class AA semis, Dan Grimes' 2:55 fall at 189. The Broncos now lead 16-0, and they've got the Goebels up next.

2:23 p.m.

Lincoln-Way Central is on the board with Pete Damiani's 16-4 major decision over Joey Michals, cutting Providence's lead to 8-4. Montini's Carl Foreside and Libertyville's Logan Miller went to overtime, with Foreside getting a quick takedown for a 6-4 win and a 10-0 lead for the Broncos.

2:13 p.m.

Action started at 152 pounds, with Providence and Montini off to fast starts. The Celtics are up 8-0 after two matches and the Broncos ahead 7-0. Providence got a 5-1 decision from Dan Steed over Matt Bochenek at 152 and Brian Reynolds' tech fall in 5:24 at 160, while Montini had Isaiah Gonzalez's 9-4 decision over Joey Callen at 152 and Dan Stelter's 10-1 major over Josh Ronne at 160.

2:05 p.m.

Hello from Wharton Field House in Moline, where the dual-team state wrestling semifinals are just under way.

The Class AA matchups: Providence vs. Lincoln-Way Central in a battle for New Lenox and Montini vs. Libertyville. In Class A, it's defending champ Wilmington vs. Lisle in an all-Interstate Eight semi and Oregon vs. Stillman Valley.

Posted by Mike Clark at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Want to keep track of the IHSA dual-team state tournament, but can't make it to Moline? We've got you covered ...

'Weighing In' will be at Wharton Fieldhouse In Moline on Saturday, providing frequent updates, beginning with the semifinals at 2 p.m. ... Check in early and often for all the highlights ...

Posted by Mike Clark at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This weekend's dual-team state finals have been relocated to Wharton Fieldhouse in Moline ...

The IHSA has made the right call by shifting the dual-team state tournament from Northern Illinois Unuiversity to Wharton Fieldhouse in Moline ...

The move, announced on the IHSA Web site on Monday, allows the NIU community to continue the healing process in the wake of last week's tragedy ... the focus in DeKalb needs to be on that, and not on an athletic event ...

Moline has hosted team state before and should be able to organize a first-class event on Saturday... at the same time, it's a safe bet that the thoughts of everyone in attendance -- wrestlers, coaches, officials, fans, media and workers -- will be with our grieving fellow citizens miles to the east ...

Posted by Mike Clark at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With the focus about to turn from the individual state series to team competition, it's a good time to congratulate the IHSA for letting common sense prevail ...

As I've written previously, the format for picking a team state champion is flawed in several ways ... the IHSA does not do enough to ensure the best teams advance, a problem that could be fixed by changing two things: seeding teams in sectional complex format a la basketball or baseball, and holding dual-team regionals instead of picking team sectional qualifiers via an individual tournament ...

The state's best teams are clustered in a few geographic areas, which resulted in some seriously unbalanced regional assignments ... three regionals featured two teams ranked in the top 10 in Class AA by the Illinois Best Weekly ... that trio included Lincoln-Way Central, where the host Knights outpointed three-time defending state champ Sandburg in an epic battle ...

At least there was enough separation between LW Central and Sandburg (10.5 points) that there wasn't any doubt over which team should advance ...

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at Alton, where it was originally reported that Edwardsville had edged Granite City 218-217.5 for the regional title ... it was subsequently discovered that, in fact, Granite City had won 217.5-217 ...

But even though both schools accepted the corrected result, the IHSA initially did not ... citing a National Federation rule that scoring mistakes must be corrected within 30 minutes after the end of a tournament, the IHSA at first insisted that Edwardsville would advance to the team sectional ...

Adherence to the rules is fine -- except when it makes a mockery of the principle of fair play ... it's a pretty bitter pill for kids to swallow that they work for months to get a chance to compete in a sectional -- and then have that chance taken away because of a scoring error ...

As Illinois Best Weekly's Rob Sherrill pointed out, the advent of computerized scoring has created an impression that mistakes are no longer made ... which clearly isn't the case ...

This whole mess could have been avoided if the team tournament actually was a team tournament from start to finish ... scoring tournaments is much more complex than duals, as anyone who's done it knows ... keeping track of byes, forfeits, defaults, bonus points and the random deduction for unsportsmanlike conduct is a huge task and not for the inexperienced nor the non-detail-oriented ...

As it turns out, this story has a happy ending for Granite City and those who value the integrity of high school sports ... the IHSA reversed itself and allowed the correct score to stand, advancing the Warriors to their own team sectional ...

We can only hope this is the beginning of a new era of sanity, in which common sense and reality are taken into account in tweaking the state series to make it as fair as possible for as many athletes as possible ...

Posted by Mike Clark at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let the debate begin about how the IHSA assigns schools to regionals, and about how the schools advancing in the dual-team state tournament are selected ...

Come Saturday evening, there are going to be some unhappy teams around the state, and with good reason ...

As always seems to be the case, unfortunately, some of the state's premier teams will be one and done in the state series, victims of geography or the IHSA's policy of using a tournament format to determine who qualifies for the dual-team sectionals ...

In a lot of regionals, it doesn't make a difference how the sectional team qualifier is determined because there's such a gap between the best and the rest ...

But that's not the case in several regionals that have two or even three strong teams ... the toughest cuts will come at Andrew, Lake Park and Minooka, all of whose fields include two teams ranked in the Illinois Best Weekly's top 10 ...

At Andrew, it's three-time defending state champ and No. 4 Sandburg squaring off with No. 6 Lincoln-Way Central; at Lake Park, it's No. 2 Glenbard North and No. 9 Wheaton North; and at Minooka, it's No. 3 Providence and the No, 10 hosts ...

That three top-10 teams will be out of the bracket right away while other, unranked squads will advance because they're not located in wrestling hotbeds just doesn't seem fair ... it's an inequity the IHSA should address ... if the state does, then perhaps the dual-team playoffs -- long overshadowed by the individual tournament -- will become more than the afterthought they've been for all but the handful of teams capable of winning state ...

Posted by Mike Clark at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)