Batavia Wrestling Finishes 2011 on a High Note

All the hard work in the practice room is starting to pay real dividends for the young Batavia Wrestling team.

The Bulldogs had a strong showing at the Don Flavin Invitational Tournament, held in DeKalb on Thursday and Friday (Dec. 29-30). It is the first time that the team entered this dual team tournament, and the wrestlers provided their supporters plenty to cheer about.

On Thursday, the 16 teams were divided into four pools and wrestled a round robin to determine seedings for Friday. After falling to state-ranked Hononegah by a score of 44-25 in their first match, the Dogs faced former conference foe DeKalb.

The dual was close throughout, and coming into the last match the teams were tied at 32 points each. With the outcome hinging on the heavyweight match, senior Alec Lyons came up big with a 6-2 decision to clinch the victory.

The Bulldogs carried this momentum into their last dual of the night securing a 42-21 win over Stillman Valley, second place in their pool, and the chance to wrestle for the fifth to eight spots on Friday.

Friday had its own share of drama as the Bulldogs avenged their early season loss to Naperville North, winning on criteria after the team score was tied at 31. This moved the team into the fifth-place match against AA eighth-ranked Bloomington.

The Dogs kept the match close early on, but a late surge by Bloomington was too much to overcome. Batavia finished the tournament with an impressive 3-2 record and 6th-place finish.

Individually, Joey Shump (120 lbs.), Anthony Scaccia (138 lbs.) and Mickey Watson (195 lbs.) went a perfect 5-0 during the tournament. Scaccia put on a dominant performance with four pins and a tech fall.

Laren Eustace (152 lbs.) and Alec Lyons (285 lbs.) picked up four wins each, and Jon Wagner (170 lbs.) and Trevor Kilgallen (145 lbs.) also had winning records of 3-2 and 2-1, respectively.

Who’s Next?

All levels of Bulldog Wrestling head to St. Charles East on Thurs., Jan. 5. The action starts at 5:30 p.m.

Then on Sat., Jan. 7, Batavia holds their Varsity Home Quad beginning at 9 a.m. at , 1201 Main St.

After the quad, all are invited to the Wrestling Alumni Open House and Display Dedication at 2 p.m., also at Batavia High School. To learn more about this special event open to the public, click .

The tournament information was courtesy of Neil Rudd and the Batavia Bulldogs Wrestling website.