Wrestling: Ricky Robertson avenges loss as Sandburg rolls past Minooka

Updated: January 14, 2012 6:01PM

Ricky Robertson found himself scrambling for a while on Saturday, but it all turned out well in the end for the Sandburg 170-pounder.

Robertson scored the winning takedown with 12 seconds left and picked up back points as time ran out, sealing his 11-8 decision over Minooka’s Jake Residori in the marquee match of the Sandburg Duals.

That was just one of many happy endings for the No. 2 Eagles, who won nine of the final 10 bouts to beat the No. 8 Indians 51-10 in the final of the eight-team, bracketed event.

Robertson, who lost 8-7 to Residori last season, remained unbeaten and lived up to his No. 1 ranking in Class 3A. The junior gave up the first takedown to Residori, who is ranked second in 3A, and was down 8-6 after Residori got another takedown with 55 seconds left in the match.

“He caught me a little off guard,” Robertson said. “I just tried to wrestle hard and get my points back.”

He pulled within 8-7 by escaping with 49 seconds left before winning it with the late flurry.

Was he expecting to be unbeaten? “Probably if you had asked me last year, no,” Robertson said. “But the way I’ve been wrestling this year, I mean, I expect to wrestle and keep on winning. Over the summer I wrestled at Fargo (in age-group nationals) and Cadet Duals. That prepared me well for this season. ... If anything, it gives me greater reason to wrestle with pride out there and keep going undefeated.”

Robertson’s win was Sandburg’s fifth in a row, boosting the Eagles’ lead to 31-7. Minooka’s Mitch Morris followed with an 8-4 decision at 182, but Sandburg got a 5-3 win from Billy Gore at 195 and falls from Pat Halpin (220) and Nate Sonneveld (285) to make it 46-10 before Jim Pellegrino ended the match with a technical fall at 106.

“Our big guys have been doing better throughout the year,” Robertson said. “Some of them are still learning. We’re starting to pick it up, up top and that’s what we need to do.”

“They had a good day,” Sandburg coach Eric Siebert said of the upper weights. “That’s been the part of our lineup where we’ve needed the most work. Wrestling, so much of it is mental. Once you start having some confidence in yourself, it’s amazing what you can do.”

Sandburg also had falls from Jim Panozzo (113) and Colin Holler (145), along with a tech fall from Sebastian Pique (120), major decisions from C.J. Brucki (152) and Chris Pajak (160) and a decision from Mitch Cook (138).

Mike McNulty (126) won a major and Bob Zabel (132) had a 5-2 win over John Pellegrino for Minooka.

“It’s a good measuring stick,” Indians coach Paige Schoolman said. “We didn’t match their intensity. They’re better than us today. ...

“We wrestle really well against kids we’re supposed to beat. (Against) those kids maybe a little better than us, we’re not stepping up and getting it done.”

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