Area middle school wrestlers will compete in state meet

Fourteen middle school wrestlers from the three area schools have qualified for the IESA Class A State tournament which will be held Friday and Saturday in DeKalb.
Coal City will be sending eight qualifiers after finishing second overall (194.5 points) to Tremont (196) in the East Peoria Central Sectional held Saturday.
The Coalers had six wrestlers finish in second place and will now take the mat during the finals on Friday in the Convocation Center on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb.
Placing second were Brantley Brooks (75 pounds) a sixth grader, seventh grader Ryder Gill (80), eighth grader Jason Piatak (90), seventh graders Phoenix Senodenos (100) and Max Christensen (126) and eighth grader Gabriel Hamilton (185).
Coming in third place for the Coalers were seventh grader Gavin Roudis (100) and eighth grader Ryker Long (126).
Reed-Custer crowned two sectional champions on Saturday as eighth graders Cole Harris (90) and Colton Drinkwine (95) make their return to state. Other Panther wrestlers to qualify were second place eighth grader Nathan Vogler (167) and third place seventh grader Braydon Pratscher (135).
Wilmington has two state qualifiers who finished fourth during the sectional. Eighth grader Barry Switzer (275) and fifth grader Mason Strohm (65) both advance.
The state tourney opens Friday morning with the championship matches taking place on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.