Wrestling: Buffalo Grove’s Rathje claims title at MSL Meet

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Matt Conrad of Barrington (top) battles Chase Ori of Buffalo Grove during the 120-pound third-place bout at Saturday's MSL Tournament. Ori earned a 6-1 decision. | Joe Cyganowski ~ For Sun Times Media

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:12AM

Buffalo Grove senior Jordan Rathje and Barrington junior Coord Wiseman could well wrestle each other at 145 pounds in the coming weekend’s Class 3A Stevenson regional.

If they do, Rathje is hoping to do better than the 3-2 decision he posted over Wiseman Saturday, on the title mat of this year’s Mid-Suburban League tournament.

Rathje (29-2) won his first MSL title and is having a whale of a season, but then wrestlers live in a constant state of hunger to get better.

“It wasn’t my best match and I could see (Wiseman) again, so there’s room for improvement,” Rathje said. “That was really my only tough match between today and yesterday so I’ll use it as a stepping stone.”

Rathje and the Bison placed third behind MSL champion Barrington and second-place Schaumburg at this year’s MSL meet. Rathje was the team’s lone MSL champion but three other Bison reached the title mat and placed second in Joe Madio (126), Brian Egan (132), and Matt Zabrin (160).

Chase Ori (120) and Bryan Wellbank (138) placed third for Buffalo Grove, Anthony Coyoc (106) finished fifth, and Rob Mowery (113), Jamie Coyoc (182) and Eddie Haro (285) placed sixth.

Along the way, Egan (25-8) beat a wrestler going for his third MSL title in a 9-7 overtime decision win over Fremd’s top-seeded Ronnie Hauser, before losing 9-5 on the title mat to Hersey’s Conrad Bugay.

“Our game plan going in was to focus on the mat because (Hauser) is really good in neutral,” Egan said. “Earlier in the season I wrestled him and he caught me early with a five-point move and beat me. I had to watch out for the tosses.

“I’ll keep working hard and see how things go at regionals. Hopefully I’ll see (Bugay) again at the sectional. I want to work on my feet a little bit more. I feel good on top and bottom. I can ride pretty well but neutral is really where I really need to improve.”

Top-seeded Rathje posted a pair of technical fall wins to reach his title match, where he used his strength from the top position to ride Wiseman into a stalling call that essentially gave Rathje the win.

“I rode him out for a while, got that stalling call and rode him out,” Rathje said. “I thought maybe I could turn him or maybe go into overtime and after I got that stalling call I just had to ride him.

“I hadn’t wrestled him and really had no idea what to expect. He’s strong and he’s good on his feet. He took me down and I wasn’t expecting that, so I have to be smarter on my feet.”