Coal City advances to dual-team state with 80-0 domination in sectional

COAL CITY − Just three days after setting a school record with seven individual medalists at the IHSA Class 1A Individual State Finals, Coal City wrestling was back on the mats at home for team sectionals.

The Coalers, the third-ranked Class 1A team in the state, cruised to an 80-0 win in their dual against King College Prep, winning seven matches by fall, one by technical fall, one by decision and another five by forfeit. They will head down to Bloomington on Friday for the state quarterfinals, coming off a second-place finish last season and two years removed from a team state championship in 2023.

This will also be the fifth trip to state for the Coalers in the last seven years. They placed second in both 2019 and 2020.

Coal City head coach Mark Masters said he wanted to see the team show up and take care of business Tuesday. He was pleased with the results.

“It was kind of what we expected,” he said. “Go out there and have great effort to try to get ready for Friday and Saturday.”

Cooper Morris, fresh off a second-place finish at state Saturday, won his match at 132 pounds Tuesday. Brody Widlowski, who also finished second at state, won via forfeit at 144.

As for the other five Coalers state medalists, Owen Peterson (120 pounds), Aidan Kenney (150) and John Keigher (215) all won by fall, while Landin Benson (175) and Cade Poyner (190) triumphed by forfeit.

Also winning by fall Tuesday were Luke Munsterman (138), Noah Houston (157) and Jake Munsterman (106). Jason Piatak (113) won by technical fall 18-1, and Alec Waliczek (285) won a 4-2 decision. Both Culan Lindemuth (126) and Brock Finch (165) were beneficiaries of forfeits.

The team state finals will cap a busy and challenging week for wrestlers from Illinois' top programs. After facing the toughest competition of the season at individual state Feb. 20-22, they had just three days before rolling into team sectionals, and then just three more days before team finals.

Masters said that perhaps the toughest part of that busy schedule is making sure guys are able to find time to reset between the individual finals and team sectionals – especially those who maybe came up short of where they hoped to be.

“The big thing mentally is trying to recover from not meeting goals this past weekend,” he said. “This is the epitome of individual sport, and when things don’t go your way, you need to find out how you’re going to recover. Wrestling is a lot more representative of life. You’re going to have disappointments, adversity. How are we going to respond to that?

“That’s what this week is about: How do we respond to the adversities we faced this past week? Hopefully we can peak mentally and physically this Friday and Saturday.”

The Coalers' opponent in Friday’s quarterfinal will be an Olympia team ranked 12th in Class 1A. After that could be a potential matchup with second-ranked Marian Central Catholic in the semifinals, and should the Coalers get through that, top-ranked Vandalia may be waiting in the finals.

Coal City has been strong top to bottom this season, qualifying 13 wrestlers for state, the most of any program among all three classes. Having that depth certainly does not hurt, but Masters said that in tough duals like the ones that lie ahead, that is not always enough.

“We’re a tough out, but it’s always going to be about matchups,” he said. “That’s going to be the key part Friday and Saturday. Can we get the matchups that we want? That’s the key part, but sometimes if it comes down to a flip, who wins the flip is who wins the dual.”