By Matt Cuartero

Batavia was up one point, 26-25, on Kaneland during Senior Night at the the wrestling meet on Jan. 31, 2015. One match remained. The last match of the night was for the win. The winner of the match would decide the winner of the night. The final wrestling weight match was at 220 lbs. Batavia junior Dylan Uzumecki pulled off a victory resulting in a pin. The match was over during the opening seconds of the second period.

Uzumecki had comments about this last win.

“I didn’t expect to have a match tonight,” Uzumecki said. “It was senior night, so I was surprised there wasn’t a wrestler on the same class as Mitch, (Krusz) but I wrestled confidently anyway. It was a good match.”

Batavia won that day by a mere five points, with a final score of 31- 26, beating Kaneland in the last non-conference match before Regionals and Sectionals began for IHSA wrestlers.

The first two matches of the night resulted in swift victories for Batavia. This put an early lead on Kaneland with a score of 11-0. The second match was a loss with Dylan Doranski, with a score of 3-5 during the match. A good neutral struggle was presented with both Doranski and the Kaneland wrestler, which made the match exciting. The overall score was now 11-4.

There was another loss with Seth Winkle, but it was a close match, with Winkle having two reversals on his opponent. Luke Schultz had a nice takedown in the next match and earned a victory, with a match score of 7-2. The next two matches resulted in a victory and a loss.

Eric Wallerstein had a very exciting match to watch, with a smart escape on the boundaries of the mat, wheelbarrowing his opponent. He earned a victory in his match.

Matt Pohorsky, Jake Birkaug, Derek Nutley and Noah Frazier unfortunately lost their matches against Kaneland, but all of them were very close. Only one of the matches out of the four resulted in a fall against Batavia.

Dylan Uzumecki won the match for Batavia as he scored the winning points for his victory.

Batavia varsity wrestling competed in IHSA Regionals on Sat., Feb. 7. The team took fourth out of nine with three seniors – Uzumecki, Krusz, and Frazier – advancing to the IHSA Sectional meet on Sat., Feb. 14 at Downers Grove North High School.