IESA State Is Over. The Full Recap Is Here.

The IESA state wrestling tournament is officially in the books. Two days of bracket chaos, consolation comebacks, and championship matches that went down to the final seconds. The rankings are finalized. The medals are handed out. And we have a lot to talk about.

If you've been following our coverage from sectionals through Day 1, you already know these brackets delivered. Day 2 somehow topped it. We had two championship matches decided in tiebreakers, a 49-second finals pin from a repeat state champion, a #8 ranked wrestler who won a state title with all bonus-point wins, and a consolation comeback that might be the grittiest performance of the entire state series.

Let's get into it.

Across the 26 championship matches we tracked (95lb and up), only two went to tiebreakers — AA 95lb and A 112lb. Both produced first-time state champions, and both were decided by a single point. You can read the full breakdowns in the weight-by-weight recaps below.

For deeper coverage of the biggest individual performances, check out our IESA State Tournament Awards.

Weight-by-Weight Recap

95lb AA

We had Aiman Alimamatov (Vernon Hills Hawthorn North) ranked #1 and Samir Khalaqi (Rock Island Washington) #2 coming in, though you could have made a case for either order. Alimamatov wrestled like the top seed for three rounds: TF 17-1, Fall 1:58 over #5 Jayden Gianone, TF 18-2 over #4 Drake Zimmerman in the semis. Then the finals happened. Khalaqi made it a real match. These two went to double overtime before Alimamatov won it 4-3. Three tech falls or pins, and then he needed double overtime to win the one that mattered most. Alimamatov is a 7th grader. He'll be looking to repeat next year, unless he goes the IKWF route.

Khalaqi had a strong tournament in his own right. He pinned his way through Round 1 and majored #8 Ollie Voyles 10-2 in the quarters before beating #9 Gabe Arzer 9-4 in the semis. He was right there in the finals. On the consolation side, Zimmerman wrestled back from his semifinal loss and pinned Gianone in 2:57 for 3rd. Voyles took 5th with a 43-second pin of Arzer. Worth noting: Alimamatov, Zimmerman, and Voyles are all 7th graders. They'll be at different weights next year, but keep an eye on all three.

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95lb A

We said in our Day 1 recap that this bracket was going to be fun. All four semifinalists came from Sectional B (Riverdale), guys who had already wrestled each other weeks earlier. Rematches everywhere. And Jaxon Brunoehler (Sandwich) handled all of it. The #1 ranked wrestler won four matches, all by bonus: Fall 1:17, Maj 18-4, Fall 0:28, Maj 12-4 over #3 Briar Spooner in the finals. That finals score doesn't tell the whole story. Spooner kept it 5-4 going into the 3rd period before Brunoehler pulled away with 7 points in the final frame to turn a close match into a major. Spooner earned his finals spot the hard way — he trailed Dayton Patterson 4-3 with under a minute left in the quarterfinals, got a late takedown to take the lead, then held on for a 6-5 win. That match could have easily gone the other way. From there, he beat Carson Overacker 11-0 in the semis to earn his rematch with Brunoehler in the finals.

On the consolation side, Patterson was dominant in every other match he wrestled at state. He just ran into one bad minute against Spooner. He responded by tech-falling Deklyn Thompson 16-0 in the consolation semis, then majoring Gavin Somers 11-3 for 3rd. Thompson took 5th after pinning Overacker in the 5th place match. Both Patterson and Thompson are 7th graders who'll be back next year. Thompson had three wins over higher-ranked opponents at state, including a Round 1 pin of #4 Tyler Armstrong, which vaulted him to #4 in our post-tournament rankings.

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100lb AA

Dominik Budzyk (Bolingbrook Humphrey) pinned all four of his opponents. That includes #2 Kenryk Osborn in the semifinals and #4 Max Schmidt (Lake Zurich South) in the finals. Only Caleb Hardin made it to the third period against him. Schmidt had a great tournament on his own side of the bracket, tech-falling his R1 opponent 18-1, majoring #5 Nolan Thorpe 13-5 in the quarters, and beating #7 Jake Allison 6-2 in the semis. He earned that finals spot, and he was the only opponent all tournament to score on Budzyk. Schmidt got the first takedown in the finals, but Budzyk came back with a takedown of his own in the second period and found the pin. Here's the wild part: Budzyk needed just 7:48 of total mat time and only scored 14 points across four matches, outscoring opponents 14-3. That's the fewest points scored by any champion in A or AA. He just kept finding pins before the points had a chance to pile up.

The biggest upset at this weight came in Round 1. Daniel Guerrero (Vernon Hills Hawthorn South) had been highly ranked at regionals but had a tough sectional, losing to an unranked wrestler and needing a medical forfeit to qualify in 4th. At state, he looked like a different kid. He pinned #3 Gabe Cadenas in Round 1, then nearly made the semifinals before Allison scored 8 points in the final 50 seconds of the third period to force sudden victory, where Allison got the first takedown to win 11-8. Guerrero picked up another solid win over Ben Gellings in consolation before running into #5 Thorpe in the blood round. He didn't place, but he earned his way back into our rankings at #7 after not being ranked coming in. On the consolation side, Thorpe wrestled back from his QF loss to Schmidt and beat Allison 7-2 for 3rd. Osborn took 5th.

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100lb A

Our top 4 ranked wrestlers all made the semifinals, which doesn't happen often. From there, Luke Ross (Monticello) took care of business on his side with a 17-0 tech fall over #4 Gavin Crowley. On the other side, #3 Hudson King (Sherrard JHS) pinned #2 Roosevelt Jackson in 53 seconds. That was a surprise. Jackson had been one of the strongest performers through regionals and sectionals, and King got him in under a minute. Ross had been dominant all tournament (Fall 0:44, Fall 2:05, TF 17-0), but King gave him a fight in the finals. It was 4-3 after the first period before Ross separated in the second and held on from there. The 12-5 final score looks comfortable, but King made him earn it early.

Jackson bounced back well in consolation, surviving a close 5-4 decision over #8 Ryan Stuart in the consolation semis, then pinning Crowley in 45 seconds for 3rd. Stuart took 5th with a 1-0 decision over HM Cameron Alpert, who made the podium as a 7th grader after not being in our top 10 coming in. Ross and King are both 7th graders sitting at #1 and #2 in our post-tournament rankings.

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105lb AA

This was one of the deepest weight classes in all of AA. Top to bottom, the bracket was loaded. And Matthew Owens (Long Grove Woodlawn) still managed to not allow a takedown or reversal in the entire state series. Our sources say he didn't allow a takedown all season. He won the title with a 4-0 decision over #4 Maddux Kennedy (Geneseo MS), who earned that finals spot by beating #2 Micah Schield 3-0 in the semis. That was the biggest result on Day 2. Schield had pinned his R1 opponent in 48 seconds and Jaxson Warmuth in 26 seconds in the quarterfinals, but Kennedy found a way to slow him down and control the match.

#3 Johnny Paun (Homer Glen Homer) opened with a 58-second pin and pinned his way through the quarters before losing to Owens in the semis. He wrestled back and pinned Schield for 3rd. Warmuth bounced back from his 26-second QF loss to wrestle all the way back to 5th, beating unranked Grayson Haas (Mascoutah) 10-4. Haas came in unranked and left as our new #6 after placing on the podium. Not a bad state debut.

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105lb A

Another Sectional B sweep. All four semifinalists came from the same sectional, just like 95lb. Jaxson Barton (Rock Island Jordan Catholic) was our Most Dominant Wrestler award winner for a reason. He outscored his four opponents 44-0 and was the only champion in A or AA to not allow a single point through the entire tournament. He capped it with a 45-second pin of Hunter Hovey in the finals. But Hovey deserves a lot of credit for the run he put together to get there. He came in ranked #5, beat #2 Evan Conn 9-3 in the quarterfinals, then pinned #4 Joe Gierlus in the semis. Beating the #2 and #4 ranked wrestlers back to back to reach the finals is no small thing.

Josh Forsythe (Braidwood Reed-Custer) was the other big story. He came in ranked #9 and upset #3 Nick Johnston in sudden victory 9-3 in Round 1, then pinned #10 Gavin Holian in the quarters. Barton stopped the run with a 17-0 tech fall in the semis, but Forsythe still finished 4th and jumped from #9 to #4 in our rankings. Gierlus wrestled back from his semifinal loss and pinned Forsythe for 3rd. Johnston also wrestled back from his R1 loss to take 5th. Unranked Reed Henson (Rochester) jumped to #7 in our post-tournament rankings after picking up two wins at state, including a 15-7 major over #6 Johnny Welninski in Round 1. Credit to Welninski for fighting back through consolation to place 6th after that early loss.

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112lb AA

#1 Benjamin Fobert (Moline John Deere) was the wrestler to beat all season and he looked the part through the semifinals. He pinned his way to the final four, and his semifinal against #4 Thatcher Christ was closer than the result suggests. Christ was only down 6-4 when Fobert got a reversal and found the pin. Christ wasn't far from pulling off an upset of his own. In the finals, Fobert and our Against All Odds award winner Parker Weller (DeKalb Huntley) wrestled a tight match before Weller found a pin in the third period to take the title. Full details on Weller's run are in our awards post.

Christ bounced back from his semifinal loss by pinning #2 DeShaun Wilder in 34 seconds for 3rd. Wilder had survived a 17-14 first-round battle with Leo Frometa on Day 1 and pinned #6 Finn Jaske in the quarters, so that one caught us off guard. Unranked Mason Noto (New Lenox Liberty) placed 5th. HM Rovell Henry (Bloomington JHS) took 6th.

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112lb A

If you ran this bracket 5 times, you might get five different winners. These guys had split matches during the season and were that closely matched. We called it the most evenly matched semifinal group in the entire tournament, and the finals proved it. #2 Brantley Brooks (Coal City) and #1 Kellan Spisok (Forrest Prairie Central) went to double overtime before Brooks won 3-2 in tiebreakers. Spisok had beaten #3 Owen Sowards 5-3 and #4 Uryah Wright 10-2 to get there. Brooks majored #5 Collin Haake 10-2 in the semis after a 4-0 quarterfinal win over #7 Ben Hadsall. Four top-5 wrestlers in the semis and the title came down to a single point in overtime. Spisok is a 7th grader who was our #1 coming in. He'll have a shot at the title again next year.

Sowards had a nice bounce-back after losing to Spisok in the quarters. He pinned Haake in 56 seconds in the consolation semis and then pinned Hadsall for 3rd. Haake took 5th. Worth mentioning: Haake came in as a 4-seed but was our #5 ranked wrestler, and drew #6 Legend Watson in Round 1. Watson had won his regional and sectional, and Haake majored him 19-9. That's the kind of tough draw that Sectional B created at this weight.

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119lb AA

All year, Dante Bruno (Grayslake) and Lucas Macdonald (Lake in the Hills Marlowe) looked like the clear top two at this weight. You could have swapped their 1-2 ranking and nobody would have pushed back hard. Bruno was sharp through the semis, majoring #3 Ben Bertelsman 12-0 in the quarters and edging #5 Drake Davis 3-1 in the semis. Macdonald was dominant on his side, including a 42-second pin of Jayvani Rodriguez in the semis. The finals was the match most people expected. Macdonald jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and was still up 5-4 after two. But Bruno put it together in the third, scoring a takedown to take the lead. A late takedown and near fall in the closing seconds widened the margin to 12-6, but this was a competitive, close match wire to wire.

The bracket had more depth than the top two. At sectionals, #6 Andy Suh pushed Bruno to a 4-3 match deep into the third period before Bruno closed it out, so Suh came in with some confidence. But a tough R1 draw against Rodriguez ended his championship run early. Rodriguez, a returning state qualifier, pinned Suh and then upset #4 Carson Russell 10-9 in a back and forth quarterfinal. Macdonald ended his run in the semis, but Rodriguez still finished 4th. Russell wrestled back from that one-point QF loss and pinned Rodriguez for 3rd. Davis took 5th. Suh won three consolation matches before running into Bertelsman in the blood round.

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119lb A

Jake Webb (Rochester) was our Most Outstanding Wrestler award winner for Class A. He beat four top-5 ranked opponents on his way to the title, capped by a 59-second pin of #4 Kenny Gersch in the finals. Full details on his run are in our awards post. Gersch earned his way to that finals match, pinning HM Eathyn Rivera in the semis after winning his first two matches by fall. Rivera had a great tournament of his own. He came in as an honorable mention, upset #3 Nick Trotter 9-8 in Round 1, and pinned #8 Wade Ball in the quarters to reach the semis. Taking 6th as an HM is a strong result.

On the other side of the bracket, #1 Brady Lowe (Gibson City GCMS) had beaten Webb 8-4 at sectionals, so we knew the semifinal could be close. But Webb had also lost 9-0 to Colin Neil in the sectional 3rd place match, so we weren't sure which version of Webb would show up at state. The one who showed up beat Lowe 5-2. Jude Egshig beat Lowe 10-5 for 3rd. #2 Kyler Kindelsperger (Port Byron Riverdale) lost to Webb 7-4 in Round 1 and had to take the long way, but he fought all the way back through consolation to finish 5th. He's a 7th grader, so we'll be seeing him again.

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126lb AA

We had Kardiais Richardson (Frankfort Hickory Creek) as the strongest wrestler in this class, but it was a really strong group. Kyrie Brown, Rayshaad Watkins, and Deandre Wilder were all capable of making deep runs, and we had a couple dark horses in JaDale Anderson and Danny Martinez who we thought could surprise some people. We were excited to see how it would all shake out. Richardson left no doubt. He tech-falled Jaxen Molitor 17-2 in Round 1, pinned HM Kyler Streib in the quarters, then pinned Rayshaad Watkins in the semis. Three straight bonus wins before beating Kyrie Brown 9-2 in the finals. Brown had a strong tournament of his own, majoring Deandre Wilder 15-7 in the quarters and tech-falling JaDale Anderson 17-1 in the semis. We mentioned in our Day 1 recap that the Brown-Wilder QF was closer than the score suggests, and Brown kept rolling from there. But Richardson controlled the finals wire to wire.

We also highlighted Anderson's run in our Day 1 recap. We bumped him from unranked to #7 the week before state, and he responded with a Maj 13-4 in Round 1 and an 8-7 comeback in the quarters where he was down 7-4 heading into the 3rd period. He ran into Brown in the semis and Watkins in the 3rd place match, but finishing 4th after coming in unranked a week earlier is a statement. Watkins took 3rd after his semifinal loss to Richardson, pinning Anderson for the bronze. On the consolation side, Wilder wrestled back to 5th with a TF 15-0 over Danny Martinez. Martinez had his own tough road, losing to Streib in Round 1 and fighting through four consolation matches to finish 6th. Streib deserves credit for that R1 upset over a #5 ranked wrestler, moving from honorable mention to #8 in our post-tournament rankings.

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126lb A

Hawk Amy (Princeton Logan) qualified for state last year but fell short of the podium. He came back much stronger, and it showed. Three sub-minute pins in his first three matches, then an 18-1 tech fall over Jax Alderin in the finals. Nobody was close. Behind him, this bracket was chaos. We said in our Day 1 recap that this was the only weight class in A or AA where two semifinalists were unranked or honorable mention. That held up. Unranked Alex Thompson (Rock Island Jordan Catholic) majored our #2 ranked James Mullens 17-3 in Round 1, then tech-falled #8 Carter Scott 16-1 in the quarters. He lost to Amy in the semis but took 3rd with another 17-3 major over Abram Funderburk. Thompson came in as a 4-seed from his sectional and left as our #3 ranked wrestler.

Alderin had a solid path to the finals, beating #3 Grady Gallagher 12-2 in the quarters and HM Braxton Acklin 13-2 in the semis. Acklin had his own nice run from honorable mention, including a Maj 12-3 win over #6 Brady Wills in Round 1, and finished 6th. Funderburk's story is worth telling. He came in ranked #10, lost to Alderin in R1, and then won four straight consolation matches, including a 39-second pin in the consolation semis, to finish 4th. That's a wrestleback.

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135lb AA

Cj Abrantes (Lake Zurich South) is our Class AA Most Outstanding Wrestler for a reason (see our awards post for the full breakdown). Three tech falls and a 49-second pin of Andrew Lyons in the finals. Back-to-back state champion. Lyons had been dominant on his side of the bracket, tech-falling Eli Morris 18-2 in the quarters and Max Shenberg 18-1 in the semis. He's a 7th grader who ran into the best wrestler in the bracket in the finals. He'll be back.

Shenberg's story was one of the best at this weight. We covered it in our Day 1 recap: he lost twice at sectionals, dropped to honorable mention, and the two guys who beat him were in consolation while he was in the semis. He lost to Lyons in the semis but came back and majored Trenton Summer 14-0 for 3rd. That's a strong bounce-back for a guy whose ranking took a hit at exactly the wrong time. Summer had a solid tournament, pinning Beckett Gehring in R1 and majoring Mason Seiler 8-0 in the quarters before running into Abrantes in the semis. He finished 4th. Nolan Barnes lost to Jake Brooks in Round 1 but won four straight consolation matches, including a sudden victory win, to take 5th.

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135lb A

Max Branham (Rochester) was our #1 coming in and won the title, but he had to earn his last two wins. In the semifinal, Emery Crutchfield held him scoreless through two periods and led 1-0 on an escape. Branham finally broke through in the 3rd, starting on bottom and hitting a reversal, then locking up a 4-count near fall with 18 seconds left to win 6-1. The finals against Cruz Cortez were even tighter. It was 1-1 going into the 3rd period. Branham again started bottom, got the reversal to go up 3-1 with 44 seconds left, then turned Cortez into a pin. The score was only 3-1 when he found the fall. Both Crutchfield and Cortez made him work for it. Cortez earned that finals spot. He beat Alex Castillo 8-2 in the quarters, then knocked off Grayson Mangara 10-3 in the semis. Two strong wins over guys we had ranked above him coming in.

Grayson Mangara had a couple of hard-fought matches but still reached the podium. He edged unranked Dominic Campbell 12-9 in Round 1 and beat Cruise Murphy 10-5 in the quarters before Cortez got him in the semis. He finished 6th. Crutchfield took 3rd with a 6-3 decision over Zack Babcock, who wrestled back from a quarterfinal loss to finish 4th. Murphy is a 7th grader and finished 5th. Higdon had one of the more impressive Round 1 moments with a 28-second pin of Joel Lemus before running into Branham in the quarters.

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145lb AA

We said it in our Day 1 recap: this bracket was total carnage. Unranked Lance Dekker upset #3 Ashton Bengala in Round 1. Robert Hubka knocked off #2 Noah Wasielewski in sudden victory in the quarters. Henry Coburn pinned #4 Jaxson Pernat in the quarters. By the time the semis were set, every top-5 wrestler except Abayomi Alase (Bloomington Evans) was gone from the championship bracket. This weight just couldn't figure out the right pecking order.

Alase figured it out for them. We don't have a "hardest to score against" award, but if we did, Alase would make a strong case. He's an immovable object on the mat. Steady, patient, consistent. He pinned his first two opponents (the first in 36 seconds), tech-falled Coburn 18-0 in the semis, then majored Hubka 10-2 in the finals. Even his closest match was a major decision. Hubka was the surprise of this bracket. He came in ranked #8 and ground his way to the finals with three tight wins: SV-1 over Bryson Gentry in R1, SV-1 4-1 over Wasielewski in the quarters, and a 4-2 decision over Kade Hensley in the semis. That's three matches decided by a combined 5 points. Hensley took 3rd by pinning Coburn. Wasielewski wrestled back from his QF loss to take 5th. Angelo Pizza finished 6th after a tough draw that put him across from Alase in the quarters.

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145lb A

Maxym Kurchanov (Prospect Heights MacArthur) was one of our strongest favorites to win a title at this tournament. He had been dominant all season, and his path to the finals showed why: Fall 1:18, TF 17-1, TF 17-1. He was scoring at will. Joseph Renteria (Sandwich) was our #2, and he'd had a dominant season of his own, though he came in with a couple losses, including one to Sheinburg at the Homer tournament. But Renteria looked like a man with a game plan in the finals. His defense was the story. Kurchanov hadn't been slowed down all year, and Renteria didn't allow him a single point. He started bottom in the 2nd period, got the escape to go up 1-0, followed up with a takedown, and then found the pin. Credit to Renteria for having the discipline to shut down Kurchanov's offense and finding the finish when it mattered.

We mentioned in our Day 1 recap that we hadn't given Sam Rendtorff (Richmond Nippersink) enough credit. He proved it again by pinning Camedyn Schneider in the quarters, but ran into Renteria in the semis and lost 14-7. Max Brown took 3rd after losing to Kurchanov's buzzsaw in the semis (TF 17-1), coming back to beat Rendtorff 9-5 for the bronze. Schneider wrestled back to 5th. Luke Medlin came in as an honorable mention, lost to Schneider in Round 1, and then tech-falled his way through consolation (17-0, 20-2) to finish 6th. That's a strong response to a first-round loss.

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155lb AA

We knew Joseph Ponterio (Homer Glen Homer) was the real deal. Last year at 145, he was one sudden-victory takedown away from potentially winning state. He lost that match and had to watch someone else take the title. He came back this year and cruised through the season. His only hiccup all year was splitting matches with Vinn Tunis, who went the IKWF route for state and took 3rd there. The question coming in was whether Yaseen Abbed or Caleb Cushman could slow him down. Ponterio's path to the finals didn't leave much doubt: Fall 1:22, Fall 2:29 over Jonathan Mitial in the quarters, then a 53-second pin of HM Milton De La Rosa in the semis. Abbed was actually up for the challenge in the finals. The score was 7-4 going into the 3rd period, and it felt like Ponterio was in a real match for the first time all tournament. Then he opened it up in the 3rd and pulled away for a 13-4 major. Credit to Abbed for making Ponterio work for two periods. He earned that finals spot with a Dec 8-1 over Noah Carvajal in the quarters and a Dec 6-1 over Cushman in the semis.

We covered De La Rosa's bracket-busting run in our Day 1 recap. He came in as an honorable mention 4-seed, upset #4 Cole Thomas in Round 1, and pinned his way to the semis before running into Ponterio. He took 5th. Cushman bounced back from his semifinal loss to pin Carvajal for 3rd. Carvajal came in ranked #8 and finished 4th, a solid run. Josh Lovelady took 6th after fighting through consolation, including a 41-second pin along the way.

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155lb A

We had Eric Giaquinto (Princeton Logan) and Zyler Pozos (Forrest Prairie Central) as our clear top two at this weight, and the bracket put them in the semifinals instead of the finals. That semifinal is covered in our awards post, where Pozos won our Class A Wrestleback Warrior award. The short version: Pozos was up 6-1 going into the 3rd period, and Giaquinto found a pin. What Pozos did after that loss tells you everything about him. Giaquinto was dominant everywhere else. A 46-second pin in the quarters, a Maj 13-0 in Round 1, and then a pin of Clayton Bush in the finals. Bush had a strong tournament of his own, pinning Bo Mattox in the quarters and Preston Long in the semis to earn his finals spot.

Bryce Lamb had one of the tougher roads to the podium. He lost to Mattox by a 14-0 major in Round 1, then rattled off four straight consolation wins (TF 17-2, TF 20-2, Maj 15-1, Dec 8-2) to reach the 3rd place match, where he ran into Pozos. Mattox took 5th after his quarterfinal loss to Bush. Long finished 6th after a solid run that included a tight 7-5 quarterfinal win over Emil Williams.

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167lb AA

Marshall Gray (Lake Zurich North) is our Class AA Most Dominant Wrestler (see the awards post for the full breakdown). Ten straight tech falls across regionals, sectionals, and state. Nobody else did that. We'll leave it there.

The real drama was on the other side of the bracket. We had Owen McGee and Gray as the top two in this class and figured they'd meet in the finals. Lincoln Calvo had other plans. He beat McGee 13-8 in the quarterfinals, one of only a couple times a #1 ranked wrestler was knocked out before the finals. Calvo then pinned Eric Roberson in the semis to earn his spot across from Gray. The finals was Gray being Gray (TF 15-0), but Calvo's run to get there was impressive. McGee responded well, wrestling back with a tech fall and two pins to take 3rd, including a 43-second pin of Roberson in the 3rd place match.

We covered Parrish Thompson's Cinderella run in our Day 1 recap. Unranked coming in, he pinned #8 Chase Junge in Round 1, then pinned #3 Kane Warren in the quarters after Warren had built a 7-0 lead. Gray ended the run with a TF 18-3 in the semis, but Thompson left state ranked #6 in our post-tournament rankings after coming in completely off our board. Jhovany Moore took 5th. He's a 7th grader.

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167lb A

Deven Alcala (Oregon JHS) won the title, but he had to survive the semifinals first. Noah Tellor had him down 7-5 going into the 3rd period, and Alcala found a pin. That's the kind of match that can go either way. In the finals against Jameson Quinn, it was a different story. Alcala jumped out to a 7-0 lead early and wrestled tough the rest of the way to win 11-5. Quinn is a 7th grader, and his semifinal was one of the wildest matches of the tournament: a 15-13 decision over Dylan Nor.

We were surprised by both Tellor and Nor. Neither was on our radar before sectionals, and both made the semifinals. Tellor took 3rd by pinning Nor. Nor came in and pinned his first two opponents (30 seconds in R1, 55 seconds in the quarters) before running into Quinn's scoring barrage in the semis. Kristofer Higdon is a 6th grader who lost to Ashyr Deyo 10-8 in Round 1 and then pinned four straight opponents through consolation, including a 27-second pin, to take 5th. He's one to watch. Caleb Olano finished 6th after upsetting #5 Oliver Heist in Round 1.

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185lb AA

We said in our Day 1 recap that this was the dream scenario: our top four ranked wrestlers all in the semifinals. We thought it would come down to Thomas Scheuer and Isaiah Rubo in the finals. Ben Illingworth (Glen Ellyn Hadley) had other plans. His semifinal against Rubo was one of the best matches of the tournament. Rubo was up 5-3 going into the 3rd period. Illingworth chose top. For a minute, he couldn't do much with Rubo. Then, with 39 seconds left, he found the right position and scored a 4-point nearfall. He kept working from top and found the pin with 20 seconds left. It was a great, highly competitive match, and it changed the narrative of this bracket. The finals against Scheuer was another close, gritty match, and Illingworth again found a late pin. He had to beat the #2 and #1 ranked wrestlers back to back, and he did it with late pins in both.

Scheuer earned his finals spot with a Dec 8-3 over Kayden Cannon-Johnson in the quarters and a Dec 12-7 over Davon Henderson in the semis. Rubo bounced back from the semifinal loss to edge Henderson 7-6 for 3rd. That's a tight match between two guys who left everything on the mat. Anthony Pietuszka took 5th by pinning Atticus Harkey. Both Pietuszka and Harkey fought through consolation after tough quarterfinal losses.

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185lb A

Jeffery Ferkel (Taylor Ridge Rockridge) was our #1 and wrestled like it. A 39-second pin in Round 1, a 54-second pin in the quarters, a Maj 10-0 over Brody White in the semis, and a pin of Ian Young in the finals. Ferkel was in control all tournament. Young is a 7th grader and had the most explosive path to the finals we saw at this weight. He opened with a 21-second pin, added a 54-second pin in the quarters, then pinned Noble Steen in 22 seconds in the semis. Three sub-minute pins. He ran into Ferkel in the finals and lost by fall, but he'll be back.

Steen's story is one of the best of the season. We're told he wasn't injury cleared to start wrestling this season until a couple weeks before regionals, which is why he wasn't in our rankings three weeks ago — we simply hadn't seen him. He pushed Ferkel to two close matches at regionals and sectionals, beat multiple ranked wrestlers, and vaulted to #4. At state, he beat #2 Bentley Gibson in the quarters while leading 10-1 before finding the fall. Young ended his semifinal in 22 seconds, but Steen responded with a TF 15-0 and a pin of White to take 3rd. To find that kind of form and have the conditioning to compete at that level after missing most of the season is seriously impressive. Zane Krehbiel lost to Cristofer Rodriguez in Round 1 but wrestled back to 5th, finishing with a 35-second pin of Landyn Stein in the 5th place match.

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215lb AA

Last year, Max Michalski (McHenry MS) and his teammate Henry Miller both made state at 215 and were both ranked in our top 3. That's an unusual feat at this weight class, and even rarer to have both ranked that high. Unfortunately, they both ran into opponents peaking at the right time and lost in the quarterfinals, finishing 3rd and 5th. The two guys who beat them ended up meeting in the finals. Max was only a 7th grader then. He came back this year even more dominant. Like Budzyk at 100, Michalski was incredibly efficient: 16 points scored through four matches, a 16-1 margin, and just 7:49 of total mat time. A 33-second pin in R1, a 59-second pin in the quarters, and a pin of Amarion McNeal in the finals. The only wrestler to go the distance was Frankie Martinez, who battled him tough in the semis before falling 4-1.

Chase Cabrera (Bloomington JHS) is our Class AA Wrestleback Warrior (see the awards post for the full story). The short version: he was our expected finals opponent for Michalski, got pinned in 47 seconds by Finn Kitchen in the biggest upset of the tournament, and then pinned five straight opponents through consolation to take 3rd. McNeal earned his finals spot from the #6 seed, beating Jaxson Spies 15-9 in the quarters and pinning HM Elias Garcia in the semis. Garcia made the semis as an honorable mention after beating Kitchen in the quarters, continuing the chaos that bracket produced on Day 1. Spies is a 7th grader who wrestled back to 5th.

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215lb A

Luke McClaine (Port Byron Riverdale) was a heavy favorite coming in, and he backed it up. He outscored his opponents 47-3 at state, and the only points he allowed were three escapes. Fall 1:42, Maj 16-2, Fall 2:19 over Logan Stripens in the semis, Fall 2:20 over Drake Watson in the finals. We mentioned in our Day 1 recap that the McClaine-Stripens semifinal was the matchup we wanted to see, and McClaine handled it. Stripens had been sharp with a 37-second pin in R1 and a 1:15 pin in the quarters, but McClaine was on another level.

Watson was the surprise of this bracket. He's a 7th grader who came in ranked #5, pinned his first two opponents (59 seconds and 47 seconds), then edged #3 Sebastian Perez 4-3 in a tight semifinal to reach the finals. He ran into McClaine, but making the finals as a 7th grader from the #5 seed is a strong statement. Stripens bounced back to take 3rd with a Dec 8-1 over Camren Herron. HM Brody Olano took 5th in a tiebreaker (TB-1 8-7) over Perez.

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275lb AA

Tristan Morgan (Shorewood Troy) is a 7th grader who pinned every opponent he faced at state. A 15-second pin in R1, a fall in the quarters, a fall over Clinton Willey in the semis, and a pin of Josiah Barrera in the finals. He was the #1 seed for a reason. He'll be back next year, that's a scary thought.

We covered Barrera's Day 1 run in our recap: 48 total seconds of mat time through two rounds, including a 35-second pin of #8 Chanse Briggs and a 13-second pin of #3 Rylee Dillin. Barrera kept the momentum going with a pin of Shael Laasiri in the semis, but Morgan was too much in the finals. Still, going from a rough sectional and a #9 ranking to the finals is a run Barrera should be proud of.

Willey's story was one of the best at this weight. We covered his redemption arc in our Day 1 recap. He was ranked #2 before sectionals, lost to unranked Ayden Pelayo, dropped to #7, and then clawed his way back. His 5-4 quarterfinal win over #2 Damari Ferguson, needing a score in the 3rd period, was one of the grittiest wins of the tournament. He lost to Morgan in the semis but pinned Laasiri for 3rd. Ryan Rice took 5th with a Dec 9-3 over Caleb Johnson.

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275lb A

This bracket did not go according to anyone's plan. Kristopher Maple (Murphysboro MS) is our Class A Against All Odds winner (see the awards post for the full breakdown). The headline stat: 4:40 of total mat time across four matches, two and a half minutes less than the next shortest mat time by any champion in A or AA. He pinned his way to the finals in 1:36, 57 seconds, and 20 seconds.

The other half of this story is Colton Mueller (Jerseyville Community). He wasn't in our rankings coming in. We're told he didn't start wrestling until midway through the season, for the first time. He majored Zach Icenogle in R1, pinned #3 Kaleb Green in the quarters, and then beat #1 Bentley Von Ruden in a tiebreaker in the semis. That's two top-3 ranked wrestlers taken out by a kid who picked up the sport a couple months ago. In the finals, Mueller was up 3-0 after the first period and battling. In the 2nd, Maple countered with a takedown and nearfall, but Mueller injured his ankle in the process and couldn't continue. It's always unfortunate to see a finals end that way, especially when the kid was competing the way Mueller was. We hope for a speedy recovery. Sometimes pure athleticism and grit can take you far, and Mueller proved that this weekend.

Nathan Durano pinned #2 Charlie Schradeya in 12 seconds in the quarters, the fastest pin of the entire tournament, but then ran into Maple's buzzsaw in the semis (20 seconds). Schradeya is a 7th grader who wrestled back to take 3rd. Von Ruden took 5th after his tiebreaker loss to Mueller.

By The Numbers

18/26 — Number of #1 ranked wrestlers who won their state title (9 in AA, 9 in A)

8/26 — Championships won by non-#1 ranked wrestlers (Webb at #7 and Maple at #8 were the biggest surprises)

0:49 — CJ Abrantes' championship match pin over the #2 ranked wrestler

0:12 — Nathan Durano's quarterfinal pin at A 275, one of the fastest pins of the entire tournament

TB-1 — Two championship matches went to tiebreaker-1 (AA 95, A 112). Both were decided by one point.

5 — Consecutive wins by Chase Cabrera after losing his first match, the longest consolation comeback of the tournament

3 — 7th grade state champions (Alimamatov, Morgan, Ross)

1 — 6th graders who placed at state (Higdon, A 167lb, 5th)

20 — Total underclassmen (7th grade or younger) who earned All-State placement

School Spotlight

No school won more than two individual state titles in either division, but six programs managed to pull it off.

Most Champions (AA)

• Homer Glen Homer — 2 champions, 8 total placers, most team points across both divisions
• Shorewood Troy — 2 champions
• McHenry MS — 2 champions

Homer Glen Homer finished roughly 50 points ahead of the next closest AA school. Manhattan placed 6, and Morris GS and Bloomington JHS each placed 5.

Most Champions (A)

• Sandwich — 2 champions
• Rochester — 2 champions
• Princeton Logan — 2 champions

Westmont JHS led all Class A schools in team points with 6 placers. Jerseyville Community also placed 6.

Rock Island Jordan Catholic

They only sent 6 wrestlers to state, but five of them placed: a 1st, two 2nds, and two 3rds. That's the 3rd most team points of any school at the tournament — with a fraction of the roster. Last year they sent just two wrestlers to state and came home with a 1st and a 3rd. This program doesn't send many, but the ones they send are prepared.

Parity

One of the bigger storylines across both divisions this year was parity. Last year, a few teams ran away with massive point leads. This year, outside of Homer Glen Homer's dominant AA performance, the team races were much tighter. More programs placed multiple wrestlers, and more programs were in the mix. The gap between the top and middle of the pack shrank significantly.

7th Graders (and One 6th Grader) Coming Back Next Year

The future of IESA wrestling showed up this weekend. These underclassmen didn't just qualify for state. They placed.

7th Grade State Champions:

• Aiman Alimamatov — AA 95lb, 1st place
• Tristan Morgan — AA 275lb, 1st place
• Luke Ross — A 100lb, 1st place

Three 7th graders won state titles this year. All three will be back next year as the favorites at their weight classes. Alimamatov won his title in a tiebreaker. Morgan won his by pin. Ross won his by decision. Different styles, same result.

Other 7th Grade All-State Placers (AA):

• Andrew Lyons — 135lb, 2nd
• Drake Zimmerman — 95lb, 3rd
• Ollie Voyles — 95lb, 5th
• Jhovany Moore — 167lb, 5th
• Jaxson Spies — 215lb, 5th
• Garrett Smith — 100lb, 6th

Other 7th Grade All-State Placers (A):

• Hudson King — 100lb, 2nd
• Kellan Spisok — 112lb, 2nd
• Jameson Quinn — 167lb, 2nd
• Ian Young — 185lb, 2nd
• Dayton Patterson — 95lb, 3rd
• Gavin Somers — 95lb, 4th
• Deklyn Thompson — 95lb, 5th
• Kyler Kindelsperger — 119lb, 5th
• Cruise Murphy — 135lb, 5th
• Cameron Alpert — 100lb, 6th

And One 6th Grader:

• Kristofer Higdon — A 167lb, 5th place

A 6th grader placing at state. He has two more years of IESA eligibility. Remember the name.

That's 20 underclassmen who placed at state this year. The future of IESA wrestling is in good hands.

Wrapping Up

That's a wrap on the 2026 IESA state wrestling season. From sectionals through state, this has been an incredible ride. The upsets were real. The comebacks were inspiring. And the performances at the top were exactly what you'd hope to see from the best middle school wrestlers in Illinois.

Congratulations to all 156 All-State placers across both divisions. And to the parents, coaches, and friends who made the trip, thank you for making the atmosphere what it was.

Final rankings are live on the site. See you next season.

Check out our earlier coverage: AA Sectional Recap | A Sectional Recap | AA State Day 1 | A State Day 1