Wrestling: Man for man, Maine East pleased with CSL wrestling results

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Maine East's Jesus Villegas, bottom, wrestles with New Trier's Alec McKenna in the 132 lb. weight class at the Central Suburban League conference tournament on Jan. 21, 2012, at Maine East High School in Park Ridge. | Rob Hart~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:30AM

Maine East deployed plenty of manpower as the efficient host of the 12-team CSL Tournament Friday and Saturday, but not enough of it was on the wrestling mats.

Attrition left the Blue Demons with only nine participants in the 14 weight classes. The good news was that five of them earned points by placing among the top six.

Juniors Aayush Shah and Markus Lukado and sophomore Jesus Villegas each finished fifth. Juniors Nenif Keso and Pablo Lopez both placed sixth.

Maine East wound up in ninth place with 54 points. As expected, the conference’s top four teams dominated the proceedings.

South champion New Trier won the crown with 259.5 points on the strength of six individual champs and 12 placers. North champ Deerfield (247.5), the pre-tourney favorite, scored in all 14 classes. Maine West (213.5) and Maine South (154.5) had 12 and 10 placers, respectively.

After a bye, Shah (20-5) shut out two 120-pound opponents and repelled Highland Park’s gritty John Ciancio 10-5 in the fifth-place bout. The Demons’ leader lost to a pair of ranked stars in Maine South junior Terry Calkins (29-4) and Deerfield senior Christian Hoogheem (26-5).

“The big thing for (Shah) is to stay in the middle of the mat and use his speed more,” said Maine East head coach Emiliano Hernandez.

Shah began his stellar campaign with 18 straight victories before facing many of the state’s best performers over the past month.

“Some of the losses have helped me learn what I need to work on. I still want to go from regional to sectional to State, but I have learned to think one by one match at a time,” said Shah, whose fourth-place finish in last year’s regional was one slot short of advancing.

Lukado (9-9) gamely scrambled back from a first-round setback at 195. He pinned Niles West’s Jason Chavez, lost to Maine West’s Zach Watson and closed with a first-period pin of New Trier’s Josh Thybony.

Villegas (13-4) pinned Highland Park’s Andrew Freeman in the fifth-place match at 132 following a win and two defeats. The Demons’ sophomore gained confidence last month with a victory on Deerfield’s Senior Night over a highly regarded Warrior. Villegas wants another shot at Maine West senior Colin Gratz (32-1), who breezed to the league title.

Keso (12-13) crafted two victories against three defeats in the 138-pound competition won by Maine South’s Dan Brewster.

In the 145-pound class, Lopez (10-18) stepped up with a pair of wins against two losses. He assured himself of a place with a hard-earned, 6-3 decision over Niles West’s Marc Coss.

Junior Federico Cabrales (7-2) had a victory as well as his first two losses at 182. A sore shoulder delayed Cabrales’s season debut, but he exploded out of the chute with six straight wins. In his first match of the season, he maneuvered his Glenbrook North opponent into a cradle for a pin.

Junior Jalen Lewis (152) went 1-2. Sophomore Eric Mendoza (170) picked up his second victory in only five varsity matches. Senior David Cirrincione lost twice in a difficult 160-pound field.

Maine East sorely missed injured junior Izzy Medina (12-2) in the 132-pound bracket. Junior heavyweight Billy Kounelis was lost for the season a month ago when he broke his collarbone.

Hernandez’s Blue Demons went 9-8 in duals, including 2-3 in conference, this season despite their youth, lack of roster depth and various injuries.

Maine East will focus on individual rather than team advancement in the Class 3A regional at Niles West on Feb. 4. Maine West and Maine South headline the eight-team field.