Austin Tracey found himself in a tough position during his 182-pound bout against Oregon’s Garret Moser in the Hubs varsity wrestling team’s nonconference match with the Hawks at Rochelle Township High School on Tuesday.
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ROCHELLE — Austin Tracey found himself in a tough position during his 182-pound bout against Oregon’s Garret Moser in the Hubs varsity wrestling team’s nonconference match with the Hawks at Rochelle Township High School on Tuesday.
Trailing 3-1 late in the second period, Tracey used his speed to maneuver around Moser and score both a 2-point reversal and a 3-point near fall to take a 6-3 lead entering the third period. As the crowd applauded the senior captain, he followed up with three more points in the final period to beat Moser by 9-3 decision and help the Hubs take down Oregon 61-15.
“I was working on escaping and the headlock was there so I took it,” Tracey said. “I hip-tossed him and put him on the mat. He almost rolled out of it but I was able to keep myself to the mat and the period ended… It changed the match dramatically for me and it hyped me up. It made me feel much better about myself since I started off the season pretty rough.”
With his team down 12-6, Rochelle freshman Grant Thompson tied the match with a victory by fall over Oregon’s Kwon Donghyun at 126 pounds. Hawk grappler Noah Paul edged Rochelle’s Justin Hernandez in a 138-pound bout by 4-3 decision, but Hub junior Eddie Villalobos picked his teammate up with a 11-2 major decision win over Chris Alaniz at 145 pounds. Junior Jacob Fore then dominated Oregon’s Austin Ebert, winning by fall at 152 pounds.
“It felt great and I’ve been putting in a ton of work to make myself and the team better,” Fore said. “I want to help the team out and I’m going to wrestle my hardest and go from there. We’ve been picking up the tempo in the mat room, and we’ve been staying in there longer and putting in the work."
Tracey’s victory over Moser gave the Hubs a 43-15 advantage before senior Alex Harvey made quick work of Oregon’s Jeff Gracyalny at 195 pounds with a fall victory. Senior Bazil Bennett (220 pounds) and junior Nick Henson (285 pounds) earned forfeits to close out Rochelle’s sixth straight team victory.
The Hubs improved to 7-4 overall with the wins over Oregon and Plano, who did not show up for Tuesday’s meet and will concede a forfeit. Rochelle will face Ottawa on Thursday.
“Things are starting to come together for us,” Tracey said. “We’re fine-tuning a lot of things in practice and we’ve picked up the pace. We’re putting the effort in and it’s transferring over to our matches.”
