By Molly Mueller
Sports Editor
Prospect’s wrestling team began the post-season competitions with a Mid-Suburban League East title along with the regional championship.
According to head coach Tom Whalen, the team had been going after the regional title for a while and this year was very successful.
“I was proud of our kids,” Whalen said. “It was a goal of our’s the last two years. We fell a little short last year and it’s been a focus since the end of the season in 2013 till now. We worked hard at it and they accomplished their goals. [The team] had their sight set on it the whole season and they got the job done.”
With the regional win, the team qualified for the team sectional meet Feb. 25 against Rockton Hononegah High School at Libertyville. If the Knights win that meet, the team then qualifies for the team state final Feb. 29 in Bloomington.
“We have a tough match up against Rockton Hononegah,” Whalen said. “They are one of the better teams in the state, one of the better teams in the nation. They beat us 42-11 earlier in the year and we are hoping to close the gap and give us the opportunity to win it in the end.”
The Knights also had 10 individuals who qualified for the individual sectional this past Saturday: freshman Vince Lobono (wrestling at 106 lbs.) took second at regionals, sophomore Alex Preissing (113) had a third place finish, junior Chris Rivera (120) also had a second place finish, senior Sam Lobono (138) with another second place, senior Mike Ragucci (152) won the regional title, freshman Matt Wroblewski (160) also took first place, senior Brian Maigler (170) had a second place finish, sophomore Tanner Stobel (182) with a second place, senior Jackson Wrede (195) won the regional title for the second year in a row and junior James Ford (220) also took home a regional title.
Of the ten sectional qualifiers, only Ford was able to qualify for the individual state meet with a 4-3 OT win during the sectional meet at Barrington. Strobel and Wrede came close as well, but narrowly lost to miss the cut-off.
Ford will compete in his first state meet Feb. 20-22 in Champaign.
