2A’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 • 188.5 • IC Catholic Prep

02 • 158.5 • Montini Catholic  

03 • 116.0 • Washington

04 • 070.0 • Providence Catholic

05 • 065.0 • Antioch

06 • 058.0 • Geneseo

07 • 055.5 • Chicago Brother Rice

08 • 047.0 • Rochelle

09 • 045.0 • Deerfield

10 • 044.0 • Civic Memorial

Over the course of the season, and now into the state championships, it is certainly no surprise to anyone that ICCP, Montini, and Washington have secured the top three spots in the team race. 

For the duals, however, ICCP and Montini will, most likely, square off in the state semifinals, while Washington will have to battle on their half of the bracket to make, again, another finals appearance.  Once there, Washington is known to make the right moves at the right times and ready their wrestlers to win the big matches and the close matches and secure wins and the right kind of losses in order to close out duals for titles. 

This year should be another great run for all the teams, but the curiosity will be which team Washington will face in the finals, and if their Panther Magic can work through and provide for a seventh state title in the last ten years.

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

Crystal Lake Central, #9

Mahomet-Seymour, #24

–

Chicago Brother Rice, #8

Washington, #3

–

Chatham Glenwood, #13

Montini Catholic, #2

–

IC Catholic Prep, #1

Geneseo, #4

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.

29 • Crystal Lake Central Sectional

23 • Hinsdale South Sectional

21 • Washington Sectional

11 • Lincoln Sectional

Crystal Lake Central Individual Sectional

With 29 state medals coming out of this sectional, it is undeniably the most talented.  Now, the Washington Sectional also saw eight finalist and four champions, but where Washington had no third-place finishers, there were 14 third place match participants and the nine third-place finishers out of the Crystal Lake Central Sectional—this surely distinguished itself from the other 2A sectionals. 

04 • State Champions

04 • State Runner-Ups

09 • Third Place finishers

05 • Fourth Place finishers

02 • Fifth Place finishers

05 • Sixth Place finishers      

29 • Total Medalists

Hinsdale South Individual Sectional

With six finalists and two runner-up wrestlers coming out of this sectional, the distribution between third, fourth, fifth, and sixth place is fairly even.  A very balanced sectional coming in at number two in the medal count. 

04 • State Champions

02 • State Runner-Ups

03 • Third Place finishers

06 • Fourth Place finishers

04 • Fifth Place finishers

04 • Sixth Place finishers      

23 • Total Medalists

Washington Individual Sectional

With eight finalists and two champions, it is clear that this sectional knew how to wrestle into Saturday night’s Grand March and championship bout.  The most odd statistic is no third-place finishers in a group that placed eight fifth-place finishers.  It is almost a championship bout or bust sectional.  Overall, however, a very competitive group and very much in balance with Hinsdale South and arguably Crystal Lake Central when looking at the numbers in the finals.  

04 • State Champions

04 • State Runner-Ups

— • Third Place finishers

02 • Fourth Place finishers

08 • Fifth Place finishers

03 • Sixth Place finishers      

21 • Total Medalists

Lincoln Individual Sectional

The Lincoln Sectional did not prove to be close in competition as the other three 1A sectionals.  With only 11 medalists total, the overall depth of this sectional was rather shallow.  Yes, there were two champions and six total finalists, but it appears that if the wrestler was not already well above the others in skill, then there was not as much of a punch outside of the few third, fourth, and sixth-place finishers. 

Certainly, this sectional can be improved upon by pulling a more competitive regional out of the Crystal Lake Central Sectional, and swapping it out with a regional here; thus, providing more balance and opportunity.

02 • State Champions

04 • State Runner-Ups

02 • Third Place finishers

01 • Fourth Place finishers

— • Fifth Place finishers

02 • Sixth Place finishers      

11 • 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

Even though the senior class collected five more medals that the junior class, the junior class pushed 11 into the finals and came away with an astounding seven state championships—four more than senior and sophomore class, and one more than both of those two classes combined.  The three seniors to win, and the six runner-up finishers, will leave a nine wrestler vacancy for next season.  Will it be the juniors stepping in as the new senior class, or will the sophomore and freshman mature and grow in their wrestling enough to overtake the medal count?  Here is the breakdown:

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.

–

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