3A’s Individual State Championship results by the numbers

CHAMPAIGN • Once the medals were distributed and the bracket boards were handed over, the excitement of the after match began with celebrations in photography and interviews and the congratulatory hugs from coaches and teammates and families and programs immediately followed.  Additionally, there were the social media posts sharing images of a truly wonderful weekend, even though everyone’s moments were different, but everyone, in some capacity, shared the same environment with only emotions and perspective having different angles. 

Now that all is completed, the numbers, of course, become calculated, and a variety of information can now be compared and contested and measured and discussed. 

Following this year’s Individual State Championships, Rob Sherrill gathered a great deal of this information and tallied it all up and broke it all down again. 

Included in his breakdowns are the Top Ten team scores, how the placewinners were tallied based on their Individual Sectionals, which wrestlers placed down in Champaign compared to where they placed inside of their sectional.  Finally, Sherrill looked at how each age group, or year in school, performed, and which group had the greatest tournament based solely on medals. 

Below are Sherrill’s results of the state tournament from strictly a number’s perspective. 

Team Scores: Individual State Championships

Some years, the team that earns the most team points at the Individual State Championships proves to have the most productive overall team and ends their season with a double crown as they also move forward and claim the Dual Team State championship.  Other years, however, the best team at the individual tournament is not always the best in the duals.

Sometimes, the team champion at the individual tournament can stack a great deal of points based off a small handful of very good wrestlers who place extremely high.  Conversely, there are those teams with fewer high medal placewinners, or even fewer medal winners at all, who have a stronger collection of guys who take to the mat in the duals and win based on the team production in both their wins and their losses.  Of course, this is what distinguishes the individual from the team competition, and this is the beauty of both the individual and dual championships.

Here is a look at the Top Ten team finishers at this year’s championships:

01 • 131.0 • Marmion Academy

02 • 118.0 • Rockton Hononegah

03 • 117.5 • Chicago Marist

04 • 093.0 • Joliet Catholic Academy

05 • 073.0 • Chicago Mt. Carmel

06 • 071.0 • Warren Township

07 • 070.5 • Yorkville

08 • 064.0 • Oak Park-River Forest

09 • 059.0 • St. Charles East

10 • 047.5 • Fremd

Marmion and Hononegah came away as the top two finishers this weekend, but the team race in the individual tournament comes down to finalists more than it does depth.  Both teams are talented, and each team is loaded with young talent; however, the question that circles around how far a young and talented can go in the duals comes back to what the rest of the team can accomplish around those more high-level wrestles. 

Mamrion is still looking for their first Dual Team State championship, ever.  They have placed second three times and third on two additional occasions, but they are yet to solidify that trophy.  Is this their year?

Hononegah, like Mamrion, has never won a Dual Team State title.  In fact, the last time they trophied was back in 2014 when they placed fourth—Hononegah has three trophies, and all three are fourth place finishes.  Now, Hononegah has been banged up all seeing, so seeing a full Hononegah team will be interesting and provide for more clarity about how strong they truly are as a unit.  On paper, they have the ability to wrestle through several teams, but it just may come down to how much the injured wrestlers can tolerate and push themselves through. 

Marist, JCA, and Chicago Mt. Carmel, all of whom have won state titles, round out the top five, but number two Chicago Mt. Carmel took out number one Marist at the Sectional, 35-34. 

Here is a look at the IHSA Dual Team State Championship bracket:

Chicago Mt. Carmel, #2

Hononegah, #10

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Oak Park-River Forest, #17

Joliet Catholic Academy, #4

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Schaumburg, HM

Marmion Academy, #3

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Edwardsville, #11

Hersey, #12

Individual Sectional Production: Individual Championships

The Individual Sectionals have been a source of contention for several years in each of the three classifications.  Here are how the sectionals break down in comparison to each other.  Simply by the numbers, the difficulty and not as difficult

For each of the assigned sectionals, here are the numbers showing how each performed based on the total number of state medalists.

25 • Joliet Central Sectional

24 • Hinsdale Central Sectional

23 • Barrington Sectional

12 • Conant Sectional

Joliet Central Individual Sectional

Even though the numbers between the top three sectionals are extremely close, there must be a top sectional, and this year the Joliet Central Sectional proved to be just that.

Even though this sectional produced three champions, its wrestlers’ real prowess was seen in the medal matches where they captured six third-place medals and, more impressively, won a great number of Blood Round matches to push themselves into medal contention. 

Out of their three state champions, all three were first time champions, with only the undefeated, 35-0, Jonathan Rulo of Belleville East returning next year to defend his crown at heavyweight. 

03 • State Champions

04 • State Runner-Ups

06 • Third Place finishers

03 • Fourth Place finishers

03 • Fifth Place finishers

06 • Sixth Place finishers      

25 • Total Medalists

Hinsdale Central Individual Sectional

Hinsdale Central has been traditionally known as the most difficult Individual Sectional to qualify for the state tournament for about the past ten years, and these numbers will continually support that notion.

In the state championships, the Hinsdale Sectional title bout at 126 pounds, and was also the State Championship title at 126 pounds.  Additionally, and outside of that match, the Hinsdale Central Sectional earned four wins to three losses record in the state championship matches winning titles at 138, 157, 165, and 190 pounds.

Overall, the higher number of odd medals to even medals prove how strong a sectional Hinsdale Central was, as well as producing the second highest number of medalists in Illinois 3A.

05 • State Champions

04 • State Runner-Ups

06 • Third Place finishers

01 • Fourth Place finishers

04 • Fifth Place finishers

04 • Sixth Place finishers      

24 • Total Medalists

Barrington Individual Sectional

This year Barrington proved to be the third most successful Individual Sectionals in 3A by the numbers, but as close as the top three are, all separated by one medalist, there was much parity in each of them as far as medal distribution.  Barrington, therefore, comparatively, proved to be as competitive as the other top two.

With 23 medalists, just one less than Hinsdale and three less than Joliet Central, Barrington saw its greatest numbers in the even-placed medals. 

Overall, Barrington matched the highest number of finalists with nine, the same as Hinsdale Central, and pushed the second most wrestlers into the third-place match, eight, while Joliet Central was first with nine.

04 • State Champions

05 • State Runner-Ups

02 • Third Place finishers

06 • Fourth Place finishers

03 • Fifth Place finishers

03 • Sixth Place finishers      

23 • Total Medalists

Conant Individual Sectional

In what has proven to be the least competitive sectional over the past several years, the frustration lies in if the IHSA will do anything with the Individual Regionals to either seed the sectionals by placing in appropriate regionals or simply making the easier fix and simply moving around a few regionals into new sectionals to balance out what is a great imbalance.  The disparity in placewinners is simply too much to ignore any longer. 

Headed into the Individual Sectionals, Conant housed the least number of ranked wrestlers.  On the other hand, Joliet Central had the most ranked wrestlers competing to qualify for the state tournament.  For those at Joliet Central, many who did not qualify out of their sectional, traveled downstate only to see two, three, even four wrestlers that they defeated over the course of the season who qualified for the state championships through the Conant Sectional.

If St. Charles East and Oak Park-River Forest’s combined two champions and three additional placewinners are removed from these numbers, the Conant Sectional has seven medalists, no champions, and still no third-place finishers.  This sectional needs to be reconfigured.

02 • State Champions

01 • State Runner-Ups

—  • Third Place finishers

04 • Fourth Place finishers

04 • Fifth Place finishers

01 • Sixth Place finishers      

12 • Total Medalists

Here are the numbers for each Individual Sectional stacked for easier juxtaposition. 

Medals earned based on Sectional placement

In this next category, the list to the left indicates the Sectional placement, while the medal count is based on how well that wrestler fared at the state championships.  For example, if a wrestler was a sectional champion and placed third in Champaign, he would be calculated in the “Champion” row and under the “3rd” category where he medaled.

Medals by class

This year’s senior class did an amazing job of wrestling themselves in the finals and into the third-place bout.  Overall, 40 seniors ended their individual season with medals around their necks, and that is not only good for those individual wrestlers, but it is a testament to those programs.  Moreso, it allows other wrestlers in those programs to believe that they too, as seniors, can exit their high school wrestling career with an All-State honor of their own.

Now, what will be interesting is if the junior class or the sophomore class rise to the openings being vacated by this senior class. 

Team and Individual Breakdowns

Listed below are this year’s feats across the state as each accomplishment is something that should be recognized and appreciated within and outside of its classification.

• For the first time in its history, Belleville East has crowed a state champion in Jonathan Rulo (3A, 285).  The junior concluded his season with a state title, as well as a perfect 35-0 record.

• For the first time since 1943, East St. Louis claimed a state champion in junior Pierre Walton (2A, 165).  This title stopped the 82-year span between state champions for the Flyers, the most for any school in the history of the IHSA Individual State Championship tournament.

Here is a look at a few other schools who were able to break through and claim a state champion after several years:

• Joliet West claimed its first state champion in senior Carson Weber (3A, 150) for the first time since 1981.

• Joliet Central claimed its first state champion in senior Charles Walker (3A, 215) for the first time since 1985.

• Tremont claimed its first state champion in senior Bowden Delaney (1A, 165) for the first time since 1985.

• Niles Notre Dame claimed its first state champion in sophomore Ray Long (2A, 106) for the first time since 1994.

• Fremd claimed its first state champion in senior Evan Gosz (3A, 144) for the first time since 2005.

• Vandalia claimed its first state champion in their 47-0 sophomore Max Philpot (1A, 113) for the first time since 2007.  And claiming their first, they claimed a second champion, a 54-0 senior, two weight classes later in Tyson Waughtel (126).

• Chicago DeLaSalle claimed its first state champion in senior David McCarthy (1A, 285) for the first time since 2012.

• Providence Catholic claimed its first state champion in freshman Justus Heeg (2A, 150) for the first time since 2012.

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• TC LIFONTI / LEAD WRITER FOR ILLINOIS MATMEN / tclifonti.com