For an early-season match, Wednesday’s wrestling quadrangular meet featuring Seneca, Reed-Custer, Ottawa Marquette and Pontiac featured plenty of postseason type of action. It was also Seneca’s “Pack the ‘Rock Night,” and the Irish also held a food drive to benefit local food pantries.

In the end, both Seneca and Marquette went 2-1 on the night, with Seneca defeating both Pontiac and Marquette and Marquette beating Reed-Custer and Pontiac. Seneca’s loss was to Reed-Custer in the Irish’s first match of the night.

Reed-Custer got off to a fast start against Seneca, as Collin Brown won by forfeit at 106 pounds and Colton Drinkwine pinned Chris Thompson at 113. Raiden Terry got the Irish on the board with a 12-2 major decision over Cole Harris before Reed-Custer’s Kaeden Wood pinned Wyatt Coop at 126. In the 132-pound bout, the Comets’ Jayden Sanche pinned Ethan Othon to put his team ahead 24-4. Rylan West then scored a technical fall over Devon Daemike at 138 before a 29-4 Reed-Custer lead.

Seneca had an answer as Avery Phillips won by technical fall over Nathan Kuntz at 144, Chase Rod pinned Maddix Payne at 150 and Gunner Varland scored an 18-5 major decision over Reed Newbrough to bring the Irish to within 29-25.

Reed-Custer’s Nathan Vogler pinned Gryphon Wills at 175, then Seneca’s Landen Venecia won a 19-3 technical fall over Aidan Schultz at 190. The Comets’ Dominic Alaimo won by fall over Colton Angeloff at 215, and Seneca’s Landyn Ramsey beat Christian Mounts 3-1 at 285 to make the final score of 41-33 in favor the Comets, who entered the match ranked 13th in Class 1A by illinoismatmen.com.

Seneca won its match against Pontiac 43-29, getting wins from Thompson at 113 (forfeit), Coop at 120 (forfeit), Terry at 126 (5-2 over Jack Voigts), Othon at 132 (pin over Layne Kuerth), Varland at 157 (15-2 major decision over Hunter Christensen), Matt Beverly at 165 (forfeit), Venecia at 190 (pin over Rory Gonzalez) and Angeloff at 215 (pin over Gabe Dayton).

“This was a very fun night,” Seneca coach Todd Yegge said. “We had a big crowd with ‘Pack the ‘Rock Night,’ and we collected canned goods for local food pantries. That was the goal, especially at this time of year.

“We started a little slow against Reed-Custer, which is a top-15 team in the state. Then Marquette beat them and we beat Marquette. As the night went on, our guys got better. Raiden Terry wrestled up a class at 126 twice and got two nice wins, Gunner Varland wrestled well and some of our young guys like Parker Jones, Devon Daemike and Wyatt Coop had good matches.”

Against Marquette, the Crusaders got off to a 6-0 lead when Dakota Harmon won by forfeit at 106. Coop won by fall over Logan Leskanich at 120 before Terry got a pin over Logan Huenfeld at 126. Marquette’s Koby Clark pinned Othon at 132. Daemike got a pin over Guy Runyan at 138 before Beau Thompson of Marquette pinned Mike Kucinic at 144. Rod won by pin over Zane Waters at 150 before Varland pinned Bryson Manley at 157. Jones pinned Logan Parini at 165 before Marquette’s Bobby Speaks won by pin over Wills at 175. Venecia won by forfeit at 190, Marquette’s Alex Schaefer won by pin over Angeloff at 215, Ramsey won by forfeit at 285 before Thompson ended the night with a pin over Connor Eggers at 113 to give Seneca a 54-28 win.

“We had a real good night,” Marquette coach Trent Lyons said. “We knocked [off] a top-15 team in the state in Reed-Custer. We got the rematch of Alex Schaefer against Dominic Alaimo, who met in the blood round at state last year and Alaimo got the win. Alex got the win this time, which was good to see.

“The best thing about tonight was that everyone did their job. Riley Leifheit took a loss against Reed-Custer, but he bounced back and got a nice pin against Pontiac.”