SYCAMORE — The four best teams in the Interstate 8 Conference, including Rochelle Township High School, battled in Sycamore on Friday for the semifinal and championship rounds of the varsity dual wrestling tournament. The Hubs walked away with a pair of tough losses, falling 44-28 against Kaneland in the semifinals before dropping a 40-33 dual against Sandwich. Rochelle (20-7) ultimately finished in fourth place out of eight Interstate 8 teams this year.

“I thought we wrestled really well at the start of the meet, but we didn’t finish as well as we could have,” head coach Alphonso Vruno said. “Sandwich bumped a lot of their guys up from their previous weights and they competed at a really high level against us. We came out flat against Sandwich, but the Kaneland dual was unbelievable… We put ourselves in the best position to win the dual, but we have to tip our caps to Kaneland for a great match.”

Kaneland

Freshman Tommy Tourdot squared off against Kam Scholl at 106 pounds, taking an early lead before Scholl bounced back with a pair of takedowns to earn a 6-3 decision. After Cameron Phillips scored a pin for the Knights at 113 pounds, senior Ivan Pineda put Rochelle on the board at 120 pounds, rallying to defeat Anthony Morales with a 9-6 decision.

Kaneland’s Caden Grabowski followed with a pin at 126 pounds, but sophomore Wesley Brown helped the Hubs bounce back, holding off Dean Baldridge for a 3-2 decision at 132 pounds. Senior Grant Thompson and junior Caleb Nadig then scored back-to-back pins at 138 and 145 pounds, defeating Cole Olsen and Ade Sanni to give Rochelle an 18-14 lead in the dual.

Freshman Brock Metzger extended the Hub lead at 152 pounds, totaling four reversals in a 12-7 major decision over Jacob Franzen. Kaneland won the next three bouts at 160, 170 and 182 pounds behind two forfeits and one pin. With Rochelle trailing 26-22, senior Ben Harvey delivered a pin at 195 pounds, beating Max Pietak to set up a huge showdown between Hub senior Noah Messer and Kaneland standout Miles Ripper at 220 pounds.

The bout went into overtime, with Messer nearly scoring two points in the third period to potentially secure the victory. But Ripper ultimately outlasted Messer in overtime, scoring a pin to win the bout before 285-pounder Nate Diaz ended the dual with an 8-4 decision.

“Noah wrestled really hard,” Vruno said. “He gave Ripper everything and then some. I thought that Noah had the match won at certain points.”

Sandwich

Tommy Tourdot opened the third-place dual against the Indians at 113 pounds, pinning Ashlyn Strenz in the first period. Sandwich won the next three bouts at 120, 126 and 132 pounds, scoring a technical fall, a major decision and a pin to take a 15-6 lead. At 138 pounds, Sandwich’s Evan Reilly held off Grant Thompson in a tough battle for a 5-1 decision.

Caleb Nadig recorded his second win of the day at 145 pounds, scoring four takedowns and a near fall before pinning Nolan Bobee. Leading 18-12, the Indians earned an 11-2 major decision at 152 pounds as well as forfeits at 160 and 182 pounds. In between forfeits, Sandwich recorded a pin at 170 pounds. With Rochelle trailing 40-12, Ben Harvey stopped the bleeding at 195 pounds, totaling two takedowns for a 5-2 decision against Sandwich’s Alex Alfaro.

Rochelle closed the dual out with forfeits at 220, 285 and 106 pounds for Noah Messer, sophomore Jaden Cook and freshman Riley Damask. The Hubs will host Amboy and Dixon on Saturday at 10 a.m. for their final wrestling meet of the season.

“It hurts that we lost both duals tonight,” Vruno said. “We talked about how we need to regroup and how we can’t let such a great season fizzle out. We need to come back and, regardless of we win or lose, wrestle hard. If we can put together two more solid performances, then I’ll consider that a win in some ways. We want to compete.”