Tyler Lockhart made a statement down in Champaign on Saturday.
Competing in the IHSA boys state finals wrestlebacks, the 126-pound Sycamore senior squeezed past Grayslake Central’s Krish Sahu, 2-1, in his consolation semifinal.
Lockhart placed fourth after dropping his third-place match, 11-5, to Mattoon’s Tristan Porter, one of three medalists for the Spartans.
“I came to make a statement,” Lockhart said. “I wanted to get up on the podium and I did that.”
There was little time to recover from Friday’s loss in the semifinals for Lockhart, who advanced to state for the first time.
“I knew I had to go,” he said. “I lost in the semis but knew I had to go right back to it, to my next match and try to get third. I fell short, but got fourth. He (Porter) was strong. It was a good match. He was just faster and just beat me there.”
When Lockhart walked into his high school four years ago, he told himself medaling was the goal.
“Ever since freshman year I felt like I wanted to get onto that podium,” he said. “And I finally did it so it feels good to finally get here, to get that goal.”
Liam Schroeder let loose in his final at 113, taking fifth place with a 10-6 decision over Deerfield’s Jayme Cohen.
“I would say the biggest thing for me in my last match was just kind of just letting loose, and that’s something I didn’t do in the two matches that I lost,” Schroeder said. “So I’m disappointed, but there’s no point in really hanging onto the past. It’s just, I kind of just let it all go while wrestling my fifth-place match, and left it all out down on the mat and I’m happy. I’m glad.”
Grayslake Central’s Vince DeMarco denied Schroeder’s bid to get to the finals on Friday after he opened with a pair of tech fall wins on Thursday.
“The first day, obviously, it was great,” Schroeder said. “The semifinal match, I didn’t wrestle as good as I wanted to, so it was a little disappointing, so I came here today, this morning, wrestled in the consolation semis, also didn’t wrestle how I wanted to.”
After dropping his quarterfinals match on Thursday, Cooper Bode has had to battle for his senior life at 165. He worked his way back into the consolation semifinals, losing 5-4 to Civic Memorial’s James Wojcikiewicz.
He placed sixth after losing an 18-6 major to St. Rita’s Micah Spinazzola.
Bode also placed sixth last year but at 175.
Jayden Dohogne also competed this weekend for Sycamore, going 1-2 on Thursday.
DeKalb’s Ayden Shuey went 0-2 at 132 and Cam Matthews went 1-2 at 150 for the Barbs.