February wasn`t exactly Ed Rossolille`s month, but the Proviso East senior likes March just fine.
Rossolille`s 21-12 decision over Joliet Central`s Karl Wilkinson gave the Pirates the Class AA wrestling championship Saturday night. Proviso edged the defending champion Steelmen 25-21 at Assembly Hall.
Mahomet-Seymour won the Class A championship with a 28-14 victory over Kaneland. Mahomet, which won the tournament three years ago and was second last year, became the first two-time dual state champion.
Rossolille was ranked as one of the top 185-pounders in the state at the start of last month, but he caught a virus and was slow to recover. His weight dropped to 181, and his stamina dropped even lower. He finished fourth in last week`s sectionals and did not qualify for the individual portion of the tournament.
”When I got down here and looked up at that award stand, I felt down,”
he said. ”There were nine guys down here that made it to state that I beat this year. I could have done better than the team thing. The only thing I can say is you better stay healthy. If you get sick, it`s real hard.”
Proviso, rated No. 1 all year by the Tribune Coaches` Poll, was without 119-pounder Terry Murphy, who injured his hip in taking sixth invidually. On top of that, heavyweight Ricky Stewart was exhausted from a 7-5 loss in the individual finals to Wheaton North`s Dave Fank.
Rossolille tried to get the match over in a hurry but couldn`t pin Wilkinson. He led 12-4 in the final period, but that evaporated to a 13-12 lead with 34 seconds left. Rossolille scored a takedown with 20 second left and took Wilkinson to his back twice for the final margin.
”I knew it would come down to me,” he said. ”I knew it. Joliet was really pumped up, and we didn`t have Murph. Ricky took second in the state and didn`t have anything left, so it was up to me.”
Proviso East, which breezed to the finals with a 37-17 quarterfinal victory over Marist and a 30-21 victory over Leyden, got off to its usual fast start. The Pirates won four of the first six matches and led 21-6 after Blair Walker`s pin of Doug Widlowski at 145.
Robert Bond (105) scored a major decision followed by Roosevelt Williams
(112) and Bobby Walton (126) decisions and Maurice Fields` (138) superior decision.
Joliet Central came back with its strength at 155 and 167 with Steve Harmon, sixth in the individual, and Scott Edman, runner-up. Harmon trailed Proviso`s Fred Woodson 9-5 with little more than a minute left but reversed him and scored three near fall points to tie the match. Another three-point near fall gave him the match. Edman was a 4-1 winner over Stanley Hays to cut the margin to 21-15.
