Tigers’ terrific trio

Crystal Lake Central's Austin Marsden (top) defeats Geneseo's West Cathcart, 3-2, to capture the 189-pound championship at the IHSA State Wrestling Tournament in Champaign. (PhotoNews/M. J. Peters)

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CHAMPAIGN – Crystal Lake Central put an exclamation point on the season by winning three state individual titles at the IHSA State Wrestling Finals on Saturday.

Trevor Jauch at 125, Joey Kielbasa (145) and Austin Marsden (189) won state titles. It was the second consecutive state titles for Jauch and Kielbasa.

Marsden, a junior, won in his first year as a state qualifier. He beat Geneseo’s Wes Cathcart in a rematch of the Sterling Sectional championship match. Marsden won the sectional match, 9-0

“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a little kid.” Marsden said. “It feels awesome.”

Marsden got a reverse in the second period to go up, 2-0, but got reversed late in the third period by Cathcart to even the score.

With 14 seconds left in the match and starting in the down position after the reverse, Marsden was able to get the escape and the win.

“No one has held me down so far,” Marsden said. “But he gave me a run for my money. He was really good defensively.”

Kielbasa said that he and Jauch had an agreement to win another state title together.

With Jauch winning, Kielbasa knew he needed to hold up his end of the bargain.

Kielbasa beat Montini’s Frank Baer, 8-4, but started the match by being taken down in the first. Going down early proved to be more of an inspiration than a deterrent.

“When I got down I thought, ‘I better get going,’ ” Kielbasa said.

Kielbasa ended the first up, 6-2, after escaping and putting Baer on his back. After going up in the match, Kielbasa said he was confident but knew he couldn’t just be defensive.

“I felt like I had it locked up,” Kielbasa said. “You just have to be aggressive.”

Jauch outscored Carbondale’s Zane Richards, 5-1. The match was scoreless in the first period, but Richards got an escape to start the second. Jauch followed with a takedown to go up, 2-1.

Richards gave Jauch an escape to start the third hoping to get another takedown to even the match. Jauch held him off by being aggressive and with a little trickery.

“I was attacking every position I could get,” Jauch said. “False shoots got him off his game.”

Jauch wasn’t worried about getting taken down late in the third and feels he is the most dangerous standing up.

“I see it as I can take down anyone,” Jauch said. “My best is on my feet.”

Jauch and Kielbasa said that winning a second state title was more special than the first one. Kielbasa especially didn’t want to be a one and done winner.

“This one is more exciting,” Kielbasa said. “[A lot of people] win one and never win it again. It doesn’t look good.”  

Also for the Tigers, Taylor Servant (140) finished second after losing to Montini’s Steve Robertson, 13-6.

“We knew Taylor was in for a tough match,” Tigers’ coach Justin Lehr said. “He had a great tournament.”