Feb. 19, 2007 • Week in Review
White, Benefiel highlight an Illinois finals round for the ages
By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor
Having seen a lot of wrestling over the years, I hesitate to call an individual match or an individual round the best ever.
But have you ever attended a finals round hoping – and praying – that you might see even one match that was truly memorable? How many times have you walked out of the NCAA finals or your state championship matches thinking to yourself, ‘Man, those finals were boring.’?
Having seen every Illinois state tournament since 1979, I’m not given to throwing out superlatives lightly. But last weekend, I saw perhaps the most elite group of talent in the history of this state engage in the most entertaining finals round in my nearly 30 years of watching first-hand.
Maybe ever.
In the end, the Illinois state tourney produced two four-time state champions, the most thrilling first 90 seconds of a state final ever and the most spine-tingling overtime scramble you could ever hope to see.
At least four of the night’s matches will be talked about 20 years from now.
If you walked out of the Assembly Hall in Champaign that night any less impressed with the beauty and thrills of wrestling than I was, I have only one piece of advice for you: Go watch basketball.
Lots of states will produce more than one four-time state champion this year. None of them will produce a pair surrounded by more drama or pressure than Chicago St. Rita High’s Albert White (152) and Lombard Montini High’s Mike Benefiel (171).
White had something to prove other than being able to win a fourth state title. The University of Illinois commitment had to show he could beat Lockport High junior Lucas Roth, who slowed him down and recorded a 1-0 stunner in the finals of the Al Dvorak Memorial Invitational over the holidays.
And Benefiel, committed to Northwestern, had to turn back a hard-charging Jordan Blanton of Richmond-Burton High in a battle of Junior National All-Americans. The match was the first final in state tournament history between two wrestlers who both had a shot at keeping four-time state title streaks alive.
Many felt before the match that Blanton had the edge … especially after Benefiel sleepwalked his way to a 3-2 opening win over Orland Park Carl Sandburg High’s John Doyle.
But nobody could have scripted the beginning of this classic.
On the opening whistle, Benefiel hit a picture-perfect fireman’s carry and took Blanton to his back – and just three seconds into the match, the two-time state champion was nearly flat and fighting for his life.
Benefiel held him there for nearly 30 seconds — the crowd of 10,000-plus on their feet screaming — before Blanton finally lifted one shoulder. Benefiel readjusted his head-and arm combination and soon Blanton was fighting off his back again. Then Benefiel switched off to a cross-face cradle and again had Blanton nearly motionless and flat. Somehow, some way, Blanton fought off his back and out of danger after spending three-quarters of the opening period on his back; leaving the spectators more drained than the wrestlers.
But Benefiel had a 7-0 lead and his fourth state title firmly in hand. The rest of the match featured only escapes in an 8-2 Benefiel win.
But there were two winners in this match. As it ended, Blanton, knowing his opponent had been the better wrestler on this night, didn’t wait for the referee. Instead, as the final seconds ticked down, Blanton gave him a quick hug, then raised Benefiel’s hand himself; one of the more gracious gestures of class and sportsmanship I’ve ever witnessed at the end of a match.
After all, with a 111-0 career record entering the match, Blanton clearly wanted a win as much as Benefiel did.
It was priceless. And there’s no doubt everyone will be rooting for Blanton to make it three a year from now.
That followed a 152-pound final in which White, held scoreless by Roth in December, set the tempo early. He scored on a single-leg shot in the match’s first 15 seconds, added a powerful freight-train double for a second takedown less than a minute in for a 4-1 lead and went on to register four takedowns in an 8-7 victory that wasn’t that close.
But Roth, who also was dominant in reaching the finals, showed why he’ll be highly ranked next year – and probably on the big list sooner than that.
How elite was this group? Of the 28 Class AA finalists, 17 — more than half — are ranked nationally by W.I.N. Throw in two-time Class A champion Clayton Rush of Aledo High, who dominated at 119, and that makes 18.
Then there was the electrifying finish to the final at 135 pounds, where Plainfield Central High’s Ryan Prater capped a furious finish with a double-leg takedown 10 seconds before the end of the first overtime period in a 4-2 victory over previously-unbeaten Cartice Lloyd of Bremen High. Lloyd shot a double-leg takedown quickly in overtime and Prater countered with a whizzer and leg hook. Lloyd tried to roll Prater through, and again Prater countered. Over the next 30 seconds, the two rolled each other through on the scramble an incredible six times with neither able to establish control before Prater finally caught a double leg for the winning score with Lloyd on his hip.
Lloyd beat East Peoria High’s Donny Cotton, also undefeated, 6-3 in the semifinals. Cotton had pinned Lloyd in last year’s tournament.
There were surprises as well.
Chicago Mount Carmel High, with former Northwestern wrestler Jason Erwinski as its first-year coach, led the field with three champions. Nobody was surprised by junior B.J. Futrell (103) and senior Christian Brantley (215), but senior Zeke Rowan shocked everybody by winning at 130. A dangerous counter wrestler, Rowan turned four shots by Naperville North High’s Neil Lopez into takedowns of his own as he won going away, 9-4. And at 119, Fox Lake Grant High freshman Lee Munster trailed much of the match, but a stalling call with 15 seconds remaining and a takedown that wasn’t awarded until an official’s conference after the buzzer gave him a 5-3 victory over Oak Park-River Forest High’s Lillashawn Coleman.
Both wrestlers were surprise finalists. Munster took Glenbard North’s Jimmy Chase down to his back for a 7-2 overtime victory in the second round, then spilled defending champion Chris Spangler of Naperville Neuqua Valley High, 4-2, in the semifinals. A third-period takedown helped Coleman edge Montini’s Carson Beebe, 6-5, in the other semifinal.
Futrell scored two takedowns to beat Carl Sandburg’s Jon Morrison, 5-3, and Brantley escaped in the fourth overtime to outlast defending champion Joe Fagiano of Chicago St. Patrick High, 3-2. It was a rematch of last year’s final and Indiana recruit Fagiano won by the same score.
The Chicago-area big boys dominated this tournament as never before. National powers Montini, Carl Sandburg, St. Rita and Carol Stream Glenbard North High all had two champions and New Lenox Providence High’s John Starzyk won his third state crown at 125.
Starzyk beat cross-town rival Josh Kratovil of New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central High, also a defending state champion, for the third straight week. With 25 seconds remaining and Starzyk nursing a precarious 6-4 lead, Kratovil nearly worked his way behind Starzyk for a tying takedown as the two worked near the edge. But, thinking he was out of bounds, Kratovil relaxed for a split second and Starzyk was ready, rolling him to his back, where Kratovil spent the final seconds fighting off a pin as Starzyk won, 11-4.
Glenbard North’s Tony Ramos (112), one of the nation’s elite wrestlers on his feet, rolled to the 112-pound crown and Northern Illinois recruit Bryan O’Connor (160) also won for the Panthers, whose six place-winners led everyone. Illinois commitment Jerome Ward (189) won his second crown for St. Rita and Carl Sandburg’s middleweight terrors, junior Conrad Polz (140) and Virginia Tech signee Matt Cusick (145), both repeated easily.
Junior Garrett Goebel (285) was Montini’s other champion. In fact, had official team scores been kept, Goebel’s victory would have lifted Montini past Carl Sandburg for the title, 119.5-117, and Benefiel would have taken the mat against Blanton with the additional burden of keeping the Broncos in the team chase. Glenbard North would have finished third at 113. It would have been the first time the meet would have gone down to the final match since 1969. So what was already an electrifying tournament could have been even more so.
Class A: Fresh off the greatest season in school history, Dakota High matched Mount Carmel with three state champions. Sophomore Seth Milks (112) won his second state title and seniors Vinny Alber (125) and Caleb Kraft (160) joined him as champions as Dakota pulled away from northwest Illinois neighbor Lena-Winslow High, 78-69. Coal City High’s John Odeen (145), who will join O’Connor at Northern Illinois next season, capped an unbeaten season with his second title.
By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor
Having seen a lot of wrestling over the years, I hesitate to call an individual match or an individual round the best ever.
But have you ever attended a finals round hoping – and praying – that you might see even one match that was truly memorable? How many times have you walked out of the NCAA finals or your state championship matches thinking to yourself, ‘Man, those finals were boring.’?
Having seen every Illinois state tournament since 1979, I’m not given to throwing out superlatives lightly. But last weekend, I saw perhaps the most elite group of talent in the history of this state engage in the most entertaining finals round in my nearly 30 years of watching first-hand.
Maybe ever.
In the end, the Illinois state tourney produced two four-time state champions, the most thrilling first 90 seconds of a state final ever and the most spine-tingling overtime scramble you could ever hope to see.
At least four of the night’s matches will be talked about 20 years from now.
If you walked out of the Assembly Hall in Champaign that night any less impressed with the beauty and thrills of wrestling than I was, I have only one piece of advice for you: Go watch basketball.
Lots of states will produce more than one four-time state champion this year. None of them will produce a pair surrounded by more drama or pressure than Chicago St. Rita High’s Albert White (152) and Lombard Montini High’s Mike Benefiel (171).
White had something to prove other than being able to win a fourth state title. The University of Illinois commitment had to show he could beat Lockport High junior Lucas Roth, who slowed him down and recorded a 1-0 stunner in the finals of the Al Dvorak Memorial Invitational over the holidays.
And Benefiel, committed to Northwestern, had to turn back a hard-charging Jordan Blanton of Richmond-Burton High in a battle of Junior National All-Americans. The match was the first final in state tournament history between two wrestlers who both had a shot at keeping four-time state title streaks alive.
Many felt before the match that Blanton had the edge … especially after Benefiel sleepwalked his way to a 3-2 opening win over Orland Park Carl Sandburg High’s John Doyle.
But nobody could have scripted the beginning of this classic.
On the opening whistle, Benefiel hit a picture-perfect fireman’s carry and took Blanton to his back – and just three seconds into the match, the two-time state champion was nearly flat and fighting for his life.
Benefiel held him there for nearly 30 seconds — the crowd of 10,000-plus on their feet screaming — before Blanton finally lifted one shoulder. Benefiel readjusted his head-and arm combination and soon Blanton was fighting off his back again. Then Benefiel switched off to a cross-face cradle and again had Blanton nearly motionless and flat. Somehow, some way, Blanton fought off his back and out of danger after spending three-quarters of the opening period on his back; leaving the spectators more drained than the wrestlers.
But Benefiel had a 7-0 lead and his fourth state title firmly in hand. The rest of the match featured only escapes in an 8-2 Benefiel win.
But there were two winners in this match. As it ended, Blanton, knowing his opponent had been the better wrestler on this night, didn’t wait for the referee. Instead, as the final seconds ticked down, Blanton gave him a quick hug, then raised Benefiel’s hand himself; one of the more gracious gestures of class and sportsmanship I’ve ever witnessed at the end of a match.
After all, with a 111-0 career record entering the match, Blanton clearly wanted a win as much as Benefiel did.
It was priceless. And there’s no doubt everyone will be rooting for Blanton to make it three a year from now.
That followed a 152-pound final in which White, held scoreless by Roth in December, set the tempo early. He scored on a single-leg shot in the match’s first 15 seconds, added a powerful freight-train double for a second takedown less than a minute in for a 4-1 lead and went on to register four takedowns in an 8-7 victory that wasn’t that close.
But Roth, who also was dominant in reaching the finals, showed why he’ll be highly ranked next year – and probably on the big list sooner than that.
How elite was this group? Of the 28 Class AA finalists, 17 — more than half — are ranked nationally by W.I.N. Throw in two-time Class A champion Clayton Rush of Aledo High, who dominated at 119, and that makes 18.
Then there was the electrifying finish to the final at 135 pounds, where Plainfield Central High’s Ryan Prater capped a furious finish with a double-leg takedown 10 seconds before the end of the first overtime period in a 4-2 victory over previously-unbeaten Cartice Lloyd of Bremen High. Lloyd shot a double-leg takedown quickly in overtime and Prater countered with a whizzer and leg hook. Lloyd tried to roll Prater through, and again Prater countered. Over the next 30 seconds, the two rolled each other through on the scramble an incredible six times with neither able to establish control before Prater finally caught a double leg for the winning score with Lloyd on his hip.
Lloyd beat East Peoria High’s Donny Cotton, also undefeated, 6-3 in the semifinals. Cotton had pinned Lloyd in last year’s tournament.
There were surprises as well.
Chicago Mount Carmel High, with former Northwestern wrestler Jason Erwinski as its first-year coach, led the field with three champions. Nobody was surprised by junior B.J. Futrell (103) and senior Christian Brantley (215), but senior Zeke Rowan shocked everybody by winning at 130. A dangerous counter wrestler, Rowan turned four shots by Naperville North High’s Neil Lopez into takedowns of his own as he won going away, 9-4. And at 119, Fox Lake Grant High freshman Lee Munster trailed much of the match, but a stalling call with 15 seconds remaining and a takedown that wasn’t awarded until an official’s conference after the buzzer gave him a 5-3 victory over Oak Park-River Forest High’s Lillashawn Coleman.
Both wrestlers were surprise finalists. Munster took Glenbard North’s Jimmy Chase down to his back for a 7-2 overtime victory in the second round, then spilled defending champion Chris Spangler of Naperville Neuqua Valley High, 4-2, in the semifinals. A third-period takedown helped Coleman edge Montini’s Carson Beebe, 6-5, in the other semifinal.
Futrell scored two takedowns to beat Carl Sandburg’s Jon Morrison, 5-3, and Brantley escaped in the fourth overtime to outlast defending champion Joe Fagiano of Chicago St. Patrick High, 3-2. It was a rematch of last year’s final and Indiana recruit Fagiano won by the same score.
The Chicago-area big boys dominated this tournament as never before. National powers Montini, Carl Sandburg, St. Rita and Carol Stream Glenbard North High all had two champions and New Lenox Providence High’s John Starzyk won his third state crown at 125.
Starzyk beat cross-town rival Josh Kratovil of New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central High, also a defending state champion, for the third straight week. With 25 seconds remaining and Starzyk nursing a precarious 6-4 lead, Kratovil nearly worked his way behind Starzyk for a tying takedown as the two worked near the edge. But, thinking he was out of bounds, Kratovil relaxed for a split second and Starzyk was ready, rolling him to his back, where Kratovil spent the final seconds fighting off a pin as Starzyk won, 11-4.
Glenbard North’s Tony Ramos (112), one of the nation’s elite wrestlers on his feet, rolled to the 112-pound crown and Northern Illinois recruit Bryan O’Connor (160) also won for the Panthers, whose six place-winners led everyone. Illinois commitment Jerome Ward (189) won his second crown for St. Rita and Carl Sandburg’s middleweight terrors, junior Conrad Polz (140) and Virginia Tech signee Matt Cusick (145), both repeated easily.
Junior Garrett Goebel (285) was Montini’s other champion. In fact, had official team scores been kept, Goebel’s victory would have lifted Montini past Carl Sandburg for the title, 119.5-117, and Benefiel would have taken the mat against Blanton with the additional burden of keeping the Broncos in the team chase. Glenbard North would have finished third at 113. It would have been the first time the meet would have gone down to the final match since 1969. So what was already an electrifying tournament could have been even more so.
Class A: Fresh off the greatest season in school history, Dakota High matched Mount Carmel with three state champions. Sophomore Seth Milks (112) won his second state title and seniors Vinny Alber (125) and Caleb Kraft (160) joined him as champions as Dakota pulled away from northwest Illinois neighbor Lena-Winslow High, 78-69. Coal City High’s John Odeen (145), who will join O’Connor at Northern Illinois next season, capped an unbeaten season with his second title.