Kahok girls finish regular season with tourney title

By Mark Jurgena

The end of January was a big one for the Collinsville girls’ wrestling team.

They took a first place finish at the 618 Invite in Edwardsville one day after bringing home a third place finish at the NCHS Wrestling Girls Invite in Normal on Jan. 20.

Collinsville is at the IHSA Granite City Regional this weekend. Those who qualify will move on to the Virden (North Mac) Sectional next weekend.

618 Invite

The Kahoks racked up a big tourney win on Jan. 19 at the Jon Davis Wrestling Center in Edwardsville.

Collinsville scored 153 points with second place Belleville West racking up 119 and Triad taking third with 111 points.

“Honestly, words can’t describe how happy I am for this team!” began first-year Collinsville coach Adam Gillespie. “Leaving the Jon Davis Center with a team championship and five individual champions is an amazing feeling. I feel like they’re all really picking up a lot of momentum as we head into regionals. Our regional isn’t going to be easy by any standards, but they are proving to themselves that they are capable of doing it! This team pushes themselves so hard day in and day out to put Collinsville on the map as a wrestling town.”

Ivanna Torres, Jazelle Young, Emma Ford, Londyn Long and Addyson Bailey all brought home first place finishes at the 618 event.

Harlee Hart took second in her weight class, Jaylah Harris was third and Neveah Hamer-Burries was fourth.

“I can’t think of a better way to finish out our regular season tournament schedule,” Gillespie said. “As a team, they have compiled three first team finishes, one second place and two third place finishes!”

NCHS Girls Invite

The previous day they competed in Normal at the NCHS Wrestling Girls Invite bringing back a top three finish at the 28-team event.

Collinsville scored 124 points with Homewood-Flossmoor taking second at 139 and Joliet (Central) was first at 192.

Both Long and Leann Cory brought home individual championships from the tournament.

Long won the 125-pound class by beating Izy Paranto of East Peoria in the first round in 21 seconds. Calliope Willman of Metamora won the championship in 45 seconds.

Cory won the 145-pound title. She beat Isabella Randolph of Washington in 12 seconds and Cali Fulcher of Heyworth in 38 seconds.

She finished off the tournament beating Taylor Sutton in 2:21 while trailing by a 6-3 score.

Torres took third at 110 by winning two of three matches.

She began the day with a big pin over Dilaliah Lopez of Homewood-Flossmoor at 2:37. Lopez was up 10-0 at the time.

Torres lost to Lily Gwaltney of Ottawa, 4-3, in the semifinals.

Finally, she beat Kaydence Klein of Metamora at 1:20.

Young brought home a fourth place finish at 115.

She began her day with a pin of Lilyan Daniels of Mahomet-Seymour in 3:13 then beat Lily Robinson of Stanford (Olympia) in 58 seconds.

Valerie Ruiz-Flores of Joliet (Central), who went on to win the event title, pinned her at the 5:31 mark of the semifinals. Young dropped the third place match to Autumn Starr of Bloomington at the 3:57 mark of the third place bout.

Ford was fourth at 120 with a 2-2 record.

She beat Maribelle Uhe of Normal (West) with a pin at 1:30 then beat Taniyah Bradley of Homewood-Flossmoor at 2:18.

Ava Mayer of Pekin beat her in the semifinals with a pin at 3:43 then Lucie Eisenbarch of Rochester outpointed Ford 12-6 for third place.

Jaylah Harris brought back sixth place with a 3-2 record on the day.

She beat Aubrie Porras of Morris with a pin at the 1:01 mark, then fell to Molly O’Connor of Lemont at 2:18.

Harris beat Niya Ambrose of East Peoria with a pin at 1:07 then beat Kitzia Racey of Normal (West) at 2:43.

She lost in the fifth place match to Amara Nwoye of Homewood-Flossmoor at the 1:36 mark.