IESA Headlines

2013 IESA State Wrestling Tournament

A field of 456 wrestlers from 123 of the 143 schools that entered the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) state wrestling series will compete this weekend in the 34th annual Boys State Final Wrestling Tournament at the Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

There will be a total of 703 bouts over the two days with competition in 19 weight classes. The 123 schools with at least one wrestler advancing to the State Tournament represents 86 percent of the total number of schools that entered the state series. It is the eighth time in IESA history that the state final wrestling field included 100 or more schools. In 2006, there were 100 schools with qualifiers, in 2007 there were 106 represented at the State Tournament. Wrestlers from 109 schools in 2008 competed. In 2009, 105 schools were represented. In 2010, 107 schools were represented and 2011 saw 113 schools with at least one wrestler in the finals. Last year, 124 schools advanced at least one wrestler to the big stage.

Breakdown of the competitors by grade in school is: 15 fifth graders, 39 sixth graders, 110 seventh graders and 292 eighth graders.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Friday and bouts will begin on eight mats at 3:30. The preliminary round and first round bouts in the championship bracket will be conducted Friday. Doors open at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and wrestling resumes at 9:00 a.m. Semifinals are set to begin Saturday afternoon at approximately 12:30 p.m. Championship bouts are scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. Championship bouts will be conducted simultaneously on two mats.

Single-day tickets are priced at $10.00 each day for high school students and adults. Price of single-day tickets for senior citizens (age 62 and above) and students in grades K-8 is $5.00 each. Children below kindergarten are admitted free. For the first time, advanced ticket sales for the state finals at the NIU Convocation Center are now available through Ticketmaster. Those who purchase their tickets in advance will bypass the ticket purchase line and simply proceed to the admission door. If you want to purchase tickets in advance simply go to www.ticketmaster.com, type in NIU Convocation Center and then find the IESA Wrestling Finals link. The standard Ticketmaster surcharge will be applied.

Visit www.iesa.org for additional information regarding complete pairings by weight class, team rosters, the 2013 Grand Marshals and the sectional place winners by site. Results from the state tournament will be posted continuously throughout the weekend.

Grand Marshals are Bill Stonitsch, current wrestling coach at Channahon and a former member of the IESA Wrestling Advisory Committee; and Frank Filippi of Glen Ellyn, a licensed IHSA official with 40 years' experience who also served on the IESA Wrestling Advisory Committee.

There are four state champions returning from a year ago, all with the hope of recapturing last year's finals magic. Deerfield Caruso's Holden Heller is back a year removed from winning the 80 lb. weight class as a sixth grader, this time competing at 85 lb. Homer Glen Homer has a pair of returning state title winners beginning first with last year's 75 lb. winner in Abdullah Assaf. Assaf is back to the state scene as an eighth grader now competing at the 90 lb. weight class. Fellow Mustang teammate, Trevell Timmons, is also back after capturing first as a 7th grader in the 112 lb. weight class last year. This time around, Timmons will tangle with an ultra-competitive 126 lb. field. Lastly, Josh McKinney of Canton Ingersoll returns as an 8th grader following his 85 lb. state championship triumph of a season ago. Hoping to duplicate 2012's success, McKinney jumps up four weight classes, qualifying for state at 105 lb.

Mahomet-Seymour is the all-time leading producer of individual state champions with 42. Sandwich is next at 25 followed by Bloomington JHS at 23, New Lenox (Oster-Oakview Liberty, and Martino), Coal City and Shorewood Troy at 20. They are the only schools in IESA wrestling history to have 20 or more individual champions. Fox Lake Stanton 18, DeKalb Huntley 17, and Channahon 15, are next in order.

The all-time record for most qualifiers by a single school is 20---Wheeling Holmes advanced 20 wrestlers to the finals in 1986 and New Lenox also advanced 20 in 2006. This year, Homer Glen Homer qualified the most wrestlers for the state tournament with 12. O'Fallon Carriel qualified 11 wrestlers for the finals while Bradley Central and Cahokia Wirth each qualified 10 wrestlers.

The Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs lead in team titles with 6, the last coming in 2009 with 152 points. Mahomet-Seymour won its other team titles in 1984-92-93-94-96. Second is the New Lenox program with 5 titles--1986, 87, 89, 2002, and 2003. Tied for third in team titles are DeKalb Huntley and Bloomington JHS with four each.

The team championship appears to be a wide open race this year. Any of the sectional champions or runner-ups is likely to walk away with the team title. Look for the team champion to come from one of the following schools: O'Fallon Carriel, Cahokia Wirth, DeKalb Clinton Rosette, Homer Glen Homer, Bradley Central, Deerfield Caruso, Sterling Challand, or Glen Ellyn Hadley.

The Convocation Center is hosting the IESA State Wrestling Tournament for the 10th straight year. The NIU campus is site of the event for the 14th consecutive year.

Media wishing to cover the event must contact Steve Endsley at the IESA Office by 12 noon on Thursday, March 7 to request credentials. He may be reached via email at steve@iesa.org.