Redhawks go 1-1 on Opening Day

By Gary Larsen

Practice is one thing, but the first day of competition is a whole other animal.

“You’re only as good as the competition you’re wrestling, and when you’re wrestling the same guys in the room you really don’t know where you stand,” Naperville Central coach Rob Porter said.

Porter was pretty happy with the season’s first step taken by his Redhawks, during the annual Naperville quad on Wednesday at Naperville North.

Central fell 47-20 to Neuqua Valley to open the night, and then won 34-19 over Waubonsie Valley. Like every coach present, Porter saw vast room for improvement in his squad.

But he liked his boys’ effort throughout.

“We did a real good job on our feet, keeping the motion, keeping them off our heads, and being able to get into our ties,” Porter said. “I thought that was really, really good tonight.”

Josh Tardy (130), John Graeber (135), Andy Kovalsky (140) all went unbeaten on the night, while Cam Needham (152), Steve Bus (189), Johnny Gustin (285), Jon Williamson (112), and Nick Santos (119) all earned victories on the mat.

The Redhawks wrestled without one of the anchors of their lineup on Wednesday, as Adam Gebner sat out with a minor injury. “It’s not serious. We think he’ll be back on Saturday,” Porter said.

The Redhawks host Batavia, Downers Grove South, and Lane Tech in a quad on Saturday.

Tardy, Kovalsky, Graeber, and Bus all posted wins against Neuqua, and Kirk Cherep battled well in an overtime loss at 125 pounds. All but one of the 13 matches wrestled between the two teams resulted in bonus points.

“We did a really good job of getting the first takedown today,” Porter said. “We had seven first takedowns out of thirteen against Neuqua Valley, and all but two first takedowns against Waubonsie.”

Of the 12 matches wrestled between Central and Waubonsie, the Redhawks won 7 of them. Tardy posted his second major decision, while both Kovalsky and Graeber posted their second pins of the night.

“The big one today was John Graeber,” Porter said. “He had two pins today and looked awesome. “He worked hard to get down to (135) and we gave him our ‘I’m Somebody’ award for recognition.”

Graeber dropped down in weight this year to fill the slot at 135.

“I had a lot of motivation today,” Graeber said. “I wanted to work my hardest in my first match, and in my second match I’d wrestled (Waubonsie’s Jon Manix) three times and lost to him twice.”

Graeber pinned Manix 56 seconds into their match. Kovalsky was happy to win twice by pin, but was by no means satisfied with his performance.

“I expected more from myself, and today I saw where my conditioning was,” Kovalsky said. “It will be there down the line, because that’s what we’re working for. But it’s definitely a confidence boost to get two pins.”

Cherep again wrestled well in the win over Waubonsie, but with a 5-0 lead in the second period he fell victim to a pin by one of the Warriors’ top wrestlers in Max Garbis.

Needham tangled with Waubonsie’s Elton Manuel in one of the wildest matches of the night, winning a 17-14 decision that put his side up 23-3. Waubonsie forfeited at 160 before posting a trio of decision wins that made it 29-13.

That’s when Williamson and Santos put things out of reach with pins at 112 and 119 pounds. Santos rebounded well after battling hard with the state’s top-ranked 112-pounder in Neuqua’s Matt Cavallaris.

One season after qualifying for the team state finals for the first time in program history, the Redhawks continue to build on that tradition.

“We’ve become like a family. We hang out, and we’ve definitely grown closer together,” Kovalsky said. “We definitely have the teamwork here. We push each other a lot and that helps us all out.”