WRESTLING: Eagles 6th, Oilers 11th at CM Tournament

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BETHALTO -- A total of 14 teams took to the mat on Saturday at the 38th Annual Civic Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Civic Memorial High School.

It was the first tournament of the season for many of the teams, including the Mattoon Green Wave, who took both the team championship and the title for outstanding individual.

The Green Wave placed first with 196 points. Vandalia finished second with 185.5 and Jacksonville came in third with 135.

The Civic Memorial Eagles came in sixth with 115.5 points, and the East Alton-Wood River Oilers finished 11th with 80 points.

The individual award went to Mattoon's Trevor Edwards, who won the 113 weight class with two byes, a pin against Waterloo's Seth Dillard and a 6-0 decision victory in the final match against EA-WR's  Drew Sobol. The tournament was the first Edwards has competed in since finishing third at state last year.

Edwards, a senior, attributed his victory in part to his experience wrestling Sobol in the past.

"I knew who my opponent was in the finals, and I knew what I would have to do since I had wrestled him a couple of times before in the past year," Edwards said.  "So I made the game plan ahead of time and basically did what I had to do."

Dave Sobol, the Oilers' head coach and father of Drew Sobol, had very high praise for Edwards.

"That kid is tough as nails. Last year he finished third at state, he had 2 losses all year and one of them to Drew (Sobol), and that kid is just tough and he deserved it. He looked so good," coach Sobol said.

The other local standout at the tournament was CM's Brandon Carpenter (195),  who placed first after pinning all of his opponents en route to facing Vandalia's Garret Stewart, whom he also pinned at 2:41 of the final match.

CM head coach Chris Jordan said of Carpenter, "He's one of our team leaders. He has been doing this for awhile now. I wasn't surprised to see him pinning his way through the tournament."

CM got a strong effort from Hudson Brown (120), who finished second with a pin, a 6-4 decision and another pin at 1:11 against Bryce Kirk of Waterloo before being pinned by Tanner Swain of Vandalia at 2:50 of the first-place match. The other CM placers were Brady Christenson (4th at 138),  Eian McIntire (5th at 152), Nash Sine (6th at 126), Michale Spurgenson (7th at 182), Brandon Copeland (8th at 160), Zach Wells (8th at 132), Will Davis (8th at 170) and Trevor Tendyck of the JV squad (8th at 145).

Jordan, who is in his first year as the Eagles’ head coach, was pleased with the way his young team fought in the tournament.

"We have a lot of freshman and sophomores in the lineup," he said.  "We only have three seniors and we have no juniors in the varsity lineup, so most of the team are freshmen and sophomores and we didn't know what to expect. But I think 10 placers turned out pretty good."

As for EA-WR, Jake Erlson (160) nabbed third with a bye, a 2-0 decision and a 10-0 decision against Kyzick Bell of Jersey. Zach Kincade (220) also placed third, with 2 pins and a 5-1 decision. Austin Hammond (120) nabbed seventh place for the Oilers and Adam Copeland (220) finished eighth.

The Oilers dropped six places from last year’s tournament, where they finished fifth with 130.5 points. Coach Sobol said his team will continue to improve as the season goes on.

"This is not where we want to be," coach Sobol said. "But this is just the first tournament of the year and we're going to keep going after it."

Absent from the Oilers' lineup was Zac Blasioli, who won the 152 championship in last year's tournament. He hurt his neck in practice and hopes to recover soon.

"(Blasioli's injury) was one of those neck things, so you don't fool with it," coach Sobol said. "I'm going to keep him out as long as I see fit and I am going to try and get him back for the Mascoutah tournament hopefully.”

CIVIC MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

Team standings -- Mattoon 196, Vandalia 185.5, Jacksonville 135, Highland 129, Waterloo 121, Civic Memorial 115, Champaign Central 95, East St. Louis 88, Maplewood-Richmond Heights 86.5, Jersey 80.5, EA-WR 80, Cent

Individual champions

106 -- Anthony King, East St. Louis

113 -- Trevor Edwards, Mattoon

120 -- Tanner Swain, Vandalia

126 -- Kar’mel Brewer, Maplewood-Richmond Heights

132 -- Tyler Dunn, East St. Louis

138 -- Oliver Davis, Benton

145 -- Jayvin Quinn, Mattoon

152 -- Dalton Hall, Champaign Central

160 -- Devin Wills, Highland

170 -- Michael Brown, Mattoon

182 -- Gavin Smith, Jacksonville

195 -- Brandon Carpenter, Civic Memorial

220 -- Garrette Branson, Mattoon

285 -- Anthony Enlow, Vandalia