It’s not so much a new and improved Joe Gomez wrestling for Glenbard North this season, it’s the old Joe Gomez returning to form.
There wasn’t much wrong with the Gomez of the last two seasons, when he finished third and second at 125 pounds in the state tournament. The problem was the comparison to his freshman year, when he won the Class AA state title at 119.
The view from the top of the awards stand is much nicer than the one below. He wants to stand there again next month in Champaign.
“The state championship means so much to me,” said Gomez, who is wrestling at 130 pounds this season. “I don’t want people to think my freshman year was a fluke. I want to prove I can do it again. I want to prove it to myself that I can still be a state champ and that I am a state champ.”
Gomez was a flurry of activity his freshman year. He was the aggressor, forcing the action. As he has gotten older and his repertoire has expanded, he has developed a successful counterattack. More and more he set a trap for unsuspecting opponents; they would make a move and Gomez would counter.
While Gomez was winning, his scoring was down. Match scores narrowed, partly because opponents knew who he was and wrestled not to get pinned. It was frustrating, but it was hard to argue with his success. He made it to the state finals last season and lost 7-5 to Moline’s A.J. Lavender. The loss caused him to reflect on his style and what had made him a state champion.
“Last year I was more of a defensive wrestler,” said Gomez, who started the season with a career record of 140-5. “This year I’m going to be more offensive and try to create my own shots. It makes it frustrating, but when you wrestle for four years, not everyone is going to come at you and wrestle you.
“It’s more of a mentality than anything physical. If you just believe you’re going to go out and open up, take more shots, you can. If you think of yourself as more of a defensive wrestler, you will be. After last year at state, I realized I only took one or two shots. I wasn’t the same Joe Gomez I was when I won state. I want to be that Joe Gomez again.”
Gomez is starting to wrestle like himself again. He is ranked No. 1 in Class AA at 130 by Illinois Best Weekly rankings and has a 25-0 record. In last Saturday’s Leyden Invitational, he had two first-period pins and an 11-4 decision. He was voted the outstanding wrestler at the Fuetz Invitational at Conant, where he defeated nationally ranked three-time Indiana state champion Angel Escobedo of Griffith. At The Clash, a national dual meet tournament this month in Rochester, Minn., Gomez was selected to the all-tournament team as Glenbard North finished fourth among 32 teams.
“He has improved on his shooting [going in for takedowns],” Glenbard North coach Mark Hahn said. “All he is doing this year is shooting. Last year he used a front headlock and counters. This year he’s been aggressive on his feet.”
Last summer Gomez worked on his offense, and it paid off with a third-place finish in the Junior National Freestyle Championships, a showcase for college recruiters. Gomez defeated University of Minnesota recruit Mack Reiter in the third-place match–and signed with Illinois in November.
