In the final match of the wrestling meet on Friday, Jan. 8 against Evanston, New Trier Wrestling held on for a 35-34 win.
It was a close competition for the New Trier wrestling team. Evanston was closing the gap on New Trier’s lead and had a chance to win the meet in the last match between sophomore wrestler Andrew Moy and Evanston’s Jack McCliesch.
“In order to win, we needed Andrew to not get pinned. Both guys were on their backs, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen in that last match,” recalled sophomore wrestler Jack Tangen. Although Moy lost his match 11-9, he successfully did not get pinned, so Evanston couldn’t claim the six points to win.
Varsity Wrestling Coach Marc Tadelman, who has been coaching wrestling at New Trier for seven years, was pleased with the team’s performance but also acknowledged the team had room to improve.
“This was one of the closer meets that I’ve been involved with as a coach. I was happy that we were able to win, but we’ve certainly got some areas that we can improve upon in the future. It wasn’t a perfect meet, but our guys really gave a good team effort and we were able to get the win.”
Senior wrestler Willem Kupets also noted that the Trevians didn’t have any heavyweight wrestlers in the 285 weight class, so they had to forfeit the match and give Evanston the equivalent of a free pin, or 6 points.
Other wrestlers also had successful performances on Friday. Willem Kupets faced Evanston’s Izzy Fox and won by injury default. “I got a takedown on [Izzy Fox] and he got a bad leg cramp…the time ran out before he could choose to continue, so I won the match. Still, I would’ve liked to have a full match with him.”
Not all the Trevians were able to win their matches. Tangen wrestled David Rivera-Kohr, who is ranked seventh in the state. Rivera-Kohr took down Tangen seven times, and even though he lost the match 15-5, he was still glad that he didn’t let Evanston get any additional points.
Sophomore wrestler Russell Sanchez also had a tough match. He took a knee to the left side of his face, leaving a significant cut right above his left eye. He ended up losing the match 7-4.
“The match started out just fine,” said Sanchez, “but I slowly became less and less aggressive. This has really showed me that I need to stay aggressive throughout my matches and set-up my moves more effectively.”
Before the meet, Coach Tadelman said that the Trevs would have to work hard to win. “There has always been an intense rivalry between Evanston and New Trier, making this meet one of the biggest of the season. Even before I was here, we’ve generally beaten them, but they’ve been gradually improving,” he said.
Sanchez also foresaw the conflict he would face as a new member of the varsity team. He said, “I did pretty well last year, but jumping up to varsity has been a huge leap. Even though we’ve beaten Evanston for a while, it’ll be a challenge for all the sophomore varsity wrestlers.”
The Trevian wrestlers also travelled to Waubonsie Valley on Saturday, Jan. 9, for a Quad meet, where New Trier wrestled Waubonsie Valley, Yorkville, Lemont and Marmion. The Trevians lost to Waubonsie Valley and Marmion 46-30 and 52-30 respectively. Tadelman said, “We definitively could’ve done a better job in certain areas. We’re always looking to improve, and we really learned a lot since we faced some of the best teams in the state.”