Hawks bring home 1A wrestling regional title

BYRON – The Hawk wrestlers put together a solid performance at the IHSA 1A Byron Regional on Saturday, Feb. 8 to take their first regional championship since 2008, when the Hawks finished third in the state under Coach Nate Rogers.

The local regional with teams like Byron, Dakota, Lena-Winslow-Stockton, and Stillman Valley has been a hard nut to crack. During the dry spell for Oregon, all have won regional championships. Dakota, Lena, and Stillman have all brought home hardware from state, including a run of four straight top finishes and five total by Dakota, and two titles and a second and a third for Le-Win. The reputedly “toughest regional in the state” has been just that for Oregon.

But Saturday was different. Twelve of fourteen Hawk wrestlers advanced from the regional to the sectional, set for the Blackhawk Center starting Friday at 4 p.m. and continuing Saturday morning.

The Hawks did a fabulous job in the semifinals in Byron, winning seven matches. But the high team score was bouncing back and forth between Oregon and Lena-Winslow all day before the Hawks took control and won the tournament in the consolation semifinals.

In a powerful run, all six Oregon wrestlers in the wrestleback round of four won, five by falls and one by a major decision. Those 23 points left the Pantherhawks in the dust.

Lena crowned four champions and had four second places. They lost both of their third place matches. Byron sent five to the championship mat and won two and added three third places to advance eight.

Dakota had two champions and two third place winners. West Carroll sends four including two runners-up. Stillman Valley had two champions and a third place, Galena one champion and a third, and Winnebago had two second places. Durand, Genoa Kingston, and Rockford Boylan were shut out of the medal mix.

For the Hawks, all but one on the third place mat won to advance to the next level. And over on the first place mat, the Hawks collected four championships. In the semifinals and finals on both sides of the bracket, the Hawks racked up 16 pins, six of them over Lena wrestlers.

Oregon finished with 251 points to 210.5 for Le-Win-Stockton. Byron was a distant third with 179 points.

Champions for Oregon were Isaiah Perez at 120, Preston Labay, taking his third regional title at 126, Nelson Benesh at 132, and Levi Benton at 138.

Perez and Benton are both freshmen and Benesh is a sophomore. Finishing second for Oregon were Josiah Perez at 113, Andrew Young at 175, and Seth Rote at 190. All but Rote had first round byes.

In the all important third place matches, Jordan Lowe at 106, Jackson Messenger at 144, Jaydon Berry at 150, and Ethan Mowry at 157 pinned for the medal. Briggs Sellers at 285 won 7-2.

At 215, Landon Elder lost by a fall in the third place match and will be an alternate for next week. Leyton Kenney represented the Hawks at 165.

Lowe had a pin and a major decision before he pinned with a wing and half nelson at 4:42 in the third place match. Josiah Perez had a takedown in a half nelson at 2:36 but never got going in an 11-4 loss in the final.

Isaiah Perez pinned with a butcher in 39 seconds in his opener and scored a reverse with 20 seconds left to get a 6-5 win in the first place match.

Labay reversed to the back at 4:41 to win the semifinal and rolled off his back to pin at 1:31 in the title match.

Benesh started with a takedown in a cradle in 36 seconds and pinned at 1:11 with a scrape at the edge of the mat for first place. Benton went from a butcher to a half nelson at 4:27 in his first match and pinned with the half nelson in a swim move at 1:57 for the championship.

Messenger sucked back with a half nelson at 1:30 in his first match, lost to the eventual champion by a pin in 28 seconds in the semifinal. He pinned with a scrape in the first period in the consolation semifinal and drove his opponent to his back at 1:15 in the third place match.

Berry took a half over the front in his opener, got pinned in a cradle by the eventual champion in the semifinal, pinned on a reverse to the back at 2:09 in the wrestleback semifinal, and ran a half nelson at 2:57 in the medal match, defeating a Lena wrestler.

Mowry caught a half nelson in 41 seconds in his opener and got pinned in a cradle by the eventual champion in the semifinal. In the consolation semifinal, Mowry got a takedown in a half nelson in 33 seconds, and he pinned with a wing over the front in 47 seconds in the medal match.

Young ran a wing at 1:45 in his first match and rolled to a 12-0 major decision in the semifinal. He lost a 17-1 technical fall at 2:32 in the first place match. Rote got a takedown in a half nelson in 24 seconds to start. He was down 8-3 when he rolled into a half nelson and pinned at 2:52 in the semifinal. In the title match, he was on his back in a cradle before he was pinned in a half nelson at 1:35.

Elder got a takedown to the back in 40 seconds to start. He lost a 20-2 technical fall to the eventual champion in the semifinal. In the consolation semifinal, he was down 13-1 when he reversed off his back to pin at 3:47, but he got pulled back and pinned at 1:27 in the medal match.

Sellers put in a half nelson at 1:28 in his first match, lost a chicken wing at 1:33 in the semifinal, scored a takedown in a half nelson in the consolation semifinal and had an escape and two takedowns in a 7-2 win for the medal. Kenney lost both of his matches by falls.

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Oregon's Josiah Perez (right) battles Dakota's Brandon White for first place at 113 pounds at the 1A Byron Regional on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. Perez won the match to advance to the Oregon Sectional. (Earleen Hinton)