Guerin leaves it all on the mat in busy week

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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:39AM

Guerin’s wrestling team kept true to form last week with some close battles and a couple of victories in their six dual matches. The Gators fell to local rival Ridgewood to start their action on Jan. 11, as the Rebels came out on top 42-36.

The Gators followed that up with a two more six-point losses to Nazareth (18-12) and Fenwick (24-18) Friday, but they recovered to go 2-1 on Saturday at North Chicago, defeating Lake Forest 27-24 and Foreman 54-0, losing only to the host school 40-27.

“We gave it our heart this entire week, and that’s all we had to give,” said Guerin head coach Earl Danan. “We went out there aggressive and tried to do what we could do individually. Four of the duals felt like it could have gone either way, but the other teams came up with the bonus points, and we didn’t. These are situations we continue to raise awareness upon our wrestlers where points earned by individuals can impact the point difference in team results.”

Big performances by the Gators’ big guns were once again the backbone of Guerin’s week. Senior Alex Sullivan continued his great season, winning all five of his matches to put his record at a perfect 22-0 at 182 pounds. Freshman Juan Reyes also won five times at 113 pounds as did senior 220-pounder David Connelly. The victory for Sullivan puts him just six away from 100 in his career.

Junior Frank Fini won four matches at 106 pounds last week, while Jaime Santana posted three victories at 132 pounds. Freshman Nick Zagotta won twice at 106 pounds as did his classmate 195-pounder Michael Szczygiel. Senior Alex Acosta and junior Kevin Doyle split time at 160 pounds each winning once. Senior Hugo Dacensio at 195 pounds and freshman Andres Gonzalez at 220 pounds earned one victory apiece as well last week.

“We have some men that are starting to grow into themselves as wrestlers, and we’re getting a couple more back from injury and flu,” Danan said. “A few are under precautionary injury monitor, such as Sullivan, who is receiving physical therapy for his knee the past few weeks. Doyle is at the same scenario yet at 85 percent healed and just getting back into the swing of things. We’re really just trying to figure out who we are and how we’re going to compete when it comes down to postseason.”

The Gators make the short trip to Elmwood Park to face the Tigers and Illiana Christian on Thursday evening to round out this week’s action.