IESA Headlines

2022 IESA State Wrestling Tournament

A field of over 600 wrestlers from 150 schools across the state will compete in the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) state wrestling finals at the 41st annual Boys State Wrestling Tournament held at the Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois March 11-12.

This year marks the second year of a 2 class system which is based on a school's 7-8 enrollment. There were 198 schools that entered the 2022 state series and half the schools were assigned to Class A and half were assigned to Class AA.

The first round and quarterfinal bouts in the championship bracket will be conducted Friday. Doors open for the public at 10:00 a.m. Friday and the action is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. There will be eight mats in use. All wrestlers will wrestle two matches on Friday and wrestling should conclude by approximately 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, the admission doors open at 8:00 a.m. for the public 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 5:15 p.m. Championship bouts for both classes will be conducted simultaneously on four mats. A complete time schedule is located at this link:

https://www.iesa.org/activities/bwr/IESA-BWR_Schedule.pdf

Single-day tickets are priced at $12.00 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 $7.00 each. Children below kindergarten are admitted free. 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. For advance ticket sales, 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 2022 Grand Marshals and the sectional place winners by site. Results from the state tournament will be posted continuously throughout the weekend. A listing of individual qualifiers by school is available at the following link: https://www.iesa.org/activities/bwr/rosters_State.asp?Year=2022

This year's Grand Marshals are Bob Bell from Lake Zurich, the long-time IHSA licensed official who was dedicated to the junior high schools in his area; Tim Gipe from Sandwich who has been instrumental in running wrestling tournaments in his area; and Steve Porter retired coach from Marseilles Grade School. Read more about the Grand Marshals at this link:

https://www.iesa.org/activities/bwr/2022/marshals.asp

The 2019 team champion in Class A was Coal City and the Class AA team winner was Homer Glen Homer.

The all-time record for most qualifiers in a single year by one school is 20---Wheeling Holmes advanced 20 wrestlers to the finals in 1986 and New Lenox also advanced 20 in 2006. This year in Class A, Coal City leads the way with 18 individual qualifiers while in Class AA, Grayslake MS has qualified the most individuals with 13.

The Convocation Center is hosting the IESA State Wrestling Tournament for the 19th year. The NIU campus is site of the event for the 23rd year.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Media wishing to cover the event must send an email from the general manager of the outlet with the name of the person attending the event to Nicole Schaefbauer (nicole@iesa.org) at the IESA Office by 12 noon on Thursday, March 10 to request credentials. Due to space limitations, one media pass per outlet is allowed.