Dec. 09--There is one fewer sure thing in Illinois wrestling this season, or maybe one different certainty depending on how you look at it.
Montini will not win the Class 2A title.
Why? Because after running roughshod through the division for all seven years of its existence, the Broncos have been bumped up to Class 3A by the IHSA's success factor.
Montini actually is an eight-time defending champ, having won the final Class AA title in the old two-class system in 2008. Now both 3A and 2A look more wide-open this season, with the Broncos adding another elite program in the top class and the rest of the better mid-sized teams no longer facing a familiar roadblock.
One of the teams poised to capitalize is Mount Carmel, which is coincidentally dropped from 3A to 2A this season. On Saturday, the host Caravan knocked off the Broncos 38-22 behind major decisions from Jake Tucker at 152 pounds and David Riojas at 170.
"It was a good victory for Mount Carmel, to get that monkey off our back," Caravan coach John Kading said, referring to Montini's recent dominance in the rivalry.
Is being in 2A good for the Caravan too?
"It is what it is," Kading said. "That's Mount Carmel's stance. That's where they put us and that's where we're going to wrestle. I can't control what the IHSA does. I just control -- and my coaching staff can control -- how our boys wrestle who's in front of us."
At some point, Kading expects downstate Washington to be in front of his team. The Panthers lost 34-25 to Montini in last year's 2A final and are top-ranked team in the class this season by Illinois Best Weekly.
Mount Carmel had a 6-5 edge in bouts won on the mat against Montini, which forfeited at 182, 195 and 220. Broncos coach Israel Martinez is hoping for reinforcements from his school's Class 6A football champs, noting that Brandon Andino, John Embrey and Joseph Spivak were all Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation state placers.
Still, Martinez said, "I'm not here to make excuses. At the end of the day, Mount Carmel was better than us today."
With a full lineup, however, Martinez isn't conceding anything, even moving up a class. Though young, the Broncos do return a pair of 2A state champs in Dylan Duncan (132) and Real Woods (106) along with state placers Jimmy Pawelski (126, second) and Will Lewan (120, fourth).
"We're ready for 3A," Martinez said. "We have a couple holes. We hope to get our football players out. (If so) we'll compete with any team in the state. We don't get our football players out, then we don't."
Milestone for Healy: Providence beat Bowen 70-10 at Mount Carmel on Saturday to give coach Keith Healy his 500th win in his 23rd season with the Celtics.
The Celtics won six consecutive Class AA titles from 1997 to 2002 and had three runner-up finishes in the next six seasons. Though recent years haven't yielded as much success, Healy is upbeat about his current team.
"I've got a good group of young kids, I've got some great senior leadership," he said. "That's really what it takes to try to build things back up."
mclark@tribpub.com
