Lockport senior Andrew Blackburn-Forst has a chance to pull off quite a trifecta in an eighth-month span.
Blackburn-Forst won a championship at the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association state meet in June, starred at defensive end for the Porters’ Class 8A football state champions in November and hopes to cap February with his first Illinois High School Association wrestling state title.
“Most people dream about placing at state, let alone winning it,” Blackburn-Forst said. “Me possibly having three in a row like this — first in wrestling, first in football and hopefully first in wrestling again — it’s pretty crazy to think I could do that.”
Blackburn-Forst took the first step Saturday, winning the 220-pound championship at the Class 3A Homewood-Flossmoor Regional and helping Lockport capture its seventh straight team title.
The Porters, ranked No. 6 in Class 3A, scored 229 points to hold off No. 5 Lincoln-Way East (215.5). The Griffins upset Lockport for the SouthWest Suburban Blue title, winning the teams’ dual by tiebreaker criteria.
Lockport will take on No. 9 Yorkville in a dual team sectional Feb. 22 at a site to be determined.
Top-ranked Blackburn-Forst (28-5), whose only losses are to out-of-state wrestlers, pinned both his opponents in just 46 seconds combined, needing only 18 seconds in the final against No. 5 Justin Thomas of H-F.
“He keeps doing what he does,” Lockport coach Josh Oster said of Blackburn-Forst. “He gets in there, puts pressure on and gets someone on their back and doesn’t let them off their back.”
Blackburn-Forst recently committed to wrestle at Northern Colorado after debating the concept of continuing with football.
“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s a little sad for me to say goodbye to football. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for it.
“I could have went Division III and done both, but the chance to wrestle in the Big 12, it’s an opportunity not to pass up.”
David Vukobratovich (113), Logan Swaw (152) and Brayden Thompson (170) also won regional titles for Lockport, which advanced 12 wrestlers to the Granite City Sectional. Thompson (38-0) stayed undefeated.
Swaw’s championship was especially vital as he beat Lincoln-Way East’s Jack Marion 4-2.
“I’ve wrestled him three times now and it’s always close,” Swaw said. “He’s a really tough wrester, so I’m glad I could come out on top. It’s definitely our goal to get that team state title, so we needed this.”
Rich Township’s Nasir Bailey (34-0), a North Carolina recruit, earned technical falls in all three of his matches to win the title at 132.
“I just want to put by my best performance out there and peak when the time is right,” Bailey said. “I just wanted to show my dominance over my opponents.”
H-F’s Vincent Robinson (26-2), ranked No. 1 at 126, won by tech fall over Lincoln-Way East’s Connor Koehler.
“I wanted to get on my attack more,” said Robinson, a North Carolina State recruit. “I know state is coming up and I want to be aggressive from here until the rest of the way. That’s what I’m best at.”
Robinson’s brother, Jaydon (145), also won a title for the Vikings, as did Deion Johnson (106) and Haku Watson-Castro (182).
Other champions were Lincoln-Way Central’s Joey Malito (120) and Conor Smetana (138) and Lincoln-Way East’s Dominic Adamo (160), Connor Lindaur (195) and Alex Knaperek (heavyweight).
Although they fell short in the team chase, it has been a memorable season for the Griffins, who went 21-0 in duals.
“Halfway through the season, we saw, ‘Wow, we’re undefeated,'” Adamo said. “We never looked at ourselves as being an undefeated team. We just wanted to be a competitive team.
“It’s just been fun week in and week out.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
