Jimmy Kennedy didn’t need the element of surprise Friday night in the 103-pound Class AA state quarterfinals.
The Grant junior had wrestled with Romeoville’s Jeremy Johnson many times as summer teammates at Overtime Wrestling Club in Naperville and with Team Illinois at last summer’s Junior Nationals. That didn’t stop Kennedy from putting an 11-1 takedown clinic defeat on Johnson.
“I knew what was coming,” Johnson said. “I knew he was really good. He’s probably going to win state. I knew he was that quick, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Kennedy, who takes a 40-0 record into Saturday morning’s semifinals against Neuqua Valley’s Brian Spangler (38-2), was second to Naperville North’s Nick Fanthorpe in last year’s state finals. Johnson was second in Class AA two years ago.
Kennedy didn’t waste any time, getting his first takedown 15 seconds into the match with a single leg drop. He released Johnson and then got his second takedown with 55 seconds left in the first period. He got a takedown in each of the two final periods and back points in the third.
“I tried to take him down a couple of times and got him out of position, setting up my single,” Kennedy said. “I used my quickness.”
Providence junior Sean Reynolds didn’t know much about Hubbard’s previously unbeaten Travis Hammonds but kept his own record perfect at 140 pounds with a 5-4 victory.
The match was as a close as the score indicated. Reynolds (39-0) got his first takedown with a second left in the first period, and Hammonds had a takedown waved off late in the second period.
Hammonds (25-1) scored a reversal to start the third period that tied the score at 4-4. Reynolds then escaped with 1:14 left for the winning point.
“I didn’t wrestle my match,” said Reynolds, who in the semifinals will meet Minooka’s Scott Sherber, whom he defeated in the Geneseo Invitational. “I kind of wrestled more like him, and that’s not what I wanted to do at all.”
The quarterfinals set up some excellent semifinals. Fanthorpe, 38-0 and winner of 80 straight matches, will meet 42-1 Brandon Precin in one 112 semifinal. Peoria Notre Dame’s Duke Burke (39-0) will face Machesney Park Harlem’s Brandon Lozdoski (43-0) in one 152-pound semi, while state champion Mike Poeta of Highland Park (42-0) meets Maine South’s Nick Fallico (40-2) in the other.
At 215 pounds, returning Class AA state champion Russ Weil (36-1) of Minooka meets Bolingbrook’s Kyle Williams (35-0) in a rematch of a year ago.
The only upset in the first round came at 152 pounds as Glenbard North’s Tony Dieppa defeated Marian Catholic’s Colin McKillip 5-1. McKillip, fifth in ’03 at 145, came into the tournament with a 38-0 record and was considered a possible finalist. Dieppa lost to Lozdoski 14-3 in the quarterfinals.
