Yorkville’s Jack Ferguson, Ryder Janeczko take third place at IHSA boys wrestling individual state meet

CHAMPAIGN — Yorkville senior Jack Ferguson knew he had a little juice left in the tank.

Trailing 2-1 with just 23 seconds left against Huntley sophomore Radic Dvorak in the Class 3A 157-pound third-place match, Ferguson, who was in the down position, knew he needed to escape Dvorak’s grasp to tie the match.

Instead, he got something better.

As the whistle blew to resume wrestling, Ferguson turned himself around, securing a reversal with 11 seconds left. He added two more on a nearfall to secure a 5-2 decision to take home a third-place finish at the IHSA boys wrestling individual state meet at the State Farm Center.

“I know my gas tank is great and I knew I had to give it everything I had and I knew I could get out,” Ferguson said. “And as soon as we got in that scramble, I got those two reversal points.”

“It’s not what I wanted though, I wanted to be on the top. I’ve just got to make the adjustments. I still think that I’m the best in the state, and that’s the mind set I’ve got to have in all of my matches in the next week (in the team duals).”

Also taking third place for the Foxes was senior Ryder Janeczko. After placing sixth in the Class 3A 157 bracket a season ago, Janeczko defeated Hononegah’s Kurt Smith with a 10-3 decision to secure third in the 190-pound division.

“It’s nice to be on the podium after standing on the floor last year,” Janeczko said. “I just came out strong. I set the tone early and kept going after it.”

Yorkville also had two wrestlers take fourth place, with sophomore Van Rosauer (150) and senior Luke Zook (175) both suffering defeats in their third-place matches.

Plano senior Richie Amakiri also walked away with a fourth-place finish in the Class 2A 190-pound bracket. After losing in his first match of the tournament, Amikiri said that he realized that he needed to go back to wrestling the way he and his team had worked on over the past four years.

“I just thought about it more and realized that this is just like every other match,” Amakiri said. “I was scared of things going bad on my first trip to state, and it made me wrestle bad. So I just realized that I needed to wrestle my way.

Sandwich sophomore Cooper Corder ended up taking fifth in the Class 1A 144-pound weight class, getting a 15-5 major decision victory over Roxana’s Logan Riggs in his final match.

Corder, who took fifth in the 138-pound weight class last season, said that he had a lot of inspiration from his older brother Miles, who fell just short of placing in the same weight class at state a season ago.

“Seeing where he was at last year and now being here, it’s super cool,” Corder said. “Ultimately, my goal is to get better each year. And placing this year is something I was happy with. At practice, my brother would always tells me to just put my head down and start running at him and just do what I do best — stand out there and have fun."

Also taking fifth place in Class 2A was Yorkville Christian’s Aiden Larsen. The senior got a 6-3 sudden victory over IC Catholic’s Kannon Judycki to avenge his loss to him in the quarterfinals.

Oswego’s Brayden Swanson took home All-State honors in the Class 3A 144-pound weight class. The senior walked away with a sixth-place finish after falling in his final two matches.

Plano’s Caidan Ronning (157) and Sandwich’s Devon Blanchard (215) fell just short of earning All-State honors after losing their blood round matches.