Batavia wins own wrestling invitational

Published in the Kane County Chronicle on
January 13th, 2008

Batavia wins own wrestling invitational
By KEVIN JENISON - editorial@kcchronicle.com
Comments (No comments posted.)-->BATAVIA – Showcasing its depth and led by a trio of first-place finishes, Batavia came out on top Saturday at the 25th Batavia Wrestling Invitational.Logan Arlis, with a record of 27-2, led the way for the Bulldogs in the 16-team field with a first-place finish, 4-0, against Seth Bonic of Morris, at 103 pounds. Arlis was also the winner of a hard-earned “Most Outstanding Wrestler” award for the 103-140 division.“The team pulled together and we all wrestled strong,” Arlis said. “We have a real good tournament team.”Batavia’s Rocco Wade (23-8) won the 135-pound division. Wade, with a loud fan base in the stands, beat Austin Hanabarger of Sterling, 7-4.“I’ve been working pretty hard and it paid off,” Wade said. “I did some things I don’t normally do in my matches, and it all came together.”In the 160-pound division, there was a hint of revenge in the air for one Bulldog. Danny Watson (27-4) left the mat after a hard-fought first-place victory, 2-1, against Kyle Czarnecki of Buffalo Grove.“I was real happy because I lost to [Czarnecki] 8-4 a couple weeks ago,” Watson said. “He was one of my [four] losses, and so I came back and beat him this week.”On top of having three of its wrestlers take first place, Batavia had a total of six make the finals. Charlie Ryan made it to the finals of the 125-pound division before falling to Matt Leibforth of Lemont. Matt McCarter, seeded third, battled Gordy Kickels of Lemont in the 189 finals, losing by technical fall.Ethan Huggins had a tough outing in the finals of the 215 division against Ryan Mussatto of Downers Grove North, falling by decision, 6-4, on a late call.“That was a rough call,” Batavia coach Tom Arlis said. “It’s not fair to do that to a wrestler. It messes with their psyche,” Arlis said, referring to how Huggins had thought the match was over, but with a few seconds remaining, the official made a late call that sent the pair to overtime. “I talked with the ref, and although we agreed to disagree on the call, we both agreed that it came too late in the match.”Through eight hours and 362 matches, Batavia beat 15 teams on its way to the tournament victory. Coming off a pair of tough matches, both mentally and physically the past few days, the Batavia wrestling team impressed its coach.“What can I say, they wrestled out of their minds,” Arlis said. “It was crazy.”