Coalers control 1A Hersher Regional

HERSCHER − One-third of the 42 wrestlers to make it out of the Class 1A Herscher Regional on Saturday came from only one of the 10 teams present.

The Coal City boys wrestling team was dominant. All 14 of its competing wrestlers finished in the top three in their weight class, 10 placing first, two second and two third. All earned a spot in sectionals, which Coal City will host Friday.

With 313.5 points, the Coalers had 27 more points as a team than second-place Reed-Custer (149.5 points) and third-place Seneca (137) combined.

Coal City coach Mark Masters believes his team’s chemistry, built up over many years, propels the Coalers to performances like they had Saturday.

“This group of guys we have right now started with the Little Coalers program, most of them when they were 5 or 6 years old,” Masters said. “They’re friends, they hang out over the weekend together, most of them play football together. … The expectations are very high amongst themselves.”

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Wilmington's Logan VanDuyne wrestles Manteno's Jackson Piekarcyzk during VanDuyne's 190-pound match victory on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in the IHSA Class 1A Herscher regional. (Daily Journal/Tiffany Blanchette)

Coal City’s Landin Benson came into the regional as the top-ranked wrestler in the state at 175 pounds by Illinois Matmen after winning a state title at 165 last season. He won all three matches by fall Saturday.

“I think I can do better, and I want to strive to be better, but as a team we’re looking good right now. It’s all coming together,” he said. “We had a lot of spots that we filled up. We’ve been battling some injuries, so for some guys to step up and fill their spot is big.”

Other top-ranked wrestlers to get wins for the Coalers were Brody Widlowski, ranked second at 138 pounds, and Owen Peterson, ranked fifth at 113.

Reed-Custer had eight wrestlers advance, six with second-place finishes. Jeremy Eggleston, ranked fifth in the state at 138 pounds, was one of those.

“I’m feeling very good about the team’s performance,” Eggleston said. “There were a couple spots we may have slipped on, but we’ve got eight coming out, so I’m happy with that.”

Reed-Custer head coach Yale Davis said he hopes to see the team build on its regional performance as the Comets head into sectionals.

“I expect to see progress,” Davis said. “It’s about going out there and giving your opponent all you’ve got and working really hard. I feel like our kids will have progress going into next week and carry that into the weekend after.”

Seneca will send six wrestlers to sectionals. The Fighting Irish began and ended the day by getting two of the four first-place finishes not earned by a Coaler.

Raiden Terry, the top-ranked wrestler in the state at 106, picked up a title-bout win. Jeremy Gagnon was the highest-scoring wrestler for Seneca and ended Saturday with a win at 285.

“Overall, I’m really happy with us as a team,” Gagnon said. “We’ve got some young guys that are going to sectionals, and this is a really hard regional. There’s a lot of state placers in our future, I think.”

Seneca head coach Todd Yegge expects big things from Terry, Gagnon and the rest of the team’s sectional qualifiers – Chris Thompson (third at 113), Nick Grant (second at 165), Alex Gagnon (third at 175) and Landen Venecia (third at 190).

“We’ve got six guys advancing, and I don’t see any reason we can’t get four or five [to state] if we wrestle well,” he said. “But obviously, that’s no easy task.”

Central-Iroquois West finished fourth with 130.5 points and five sectional qualifiers. The team got second-place finishes from Evan Cox at 144, Gianni Panozzo at 150 and Giona Panozzo at 157.

Bishop McNamara placed fifth with 92.5 points and four sectional qualifiers, getting a second-place finish from Blake Arseneau at 132.

Wilmington placed sixth, with Logan Van Duyne grabbing a win at 190 to advance and Will Wilson finishing second at 175.

Owen Bollino and Everett Osenga both advanced for host Herscher with third-place individual finishes.

Peotone had three wrestlers compete in third-place matches, but all fell short of sectionals.

Dwight had only one sectional qualifier, Dylan Crouch, who advanced in style by taking first at 150.

Manteno had two wrestlers make it to third-place matches, but they came up short.