Wrestling: Barrington nabs second straight conference crown

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Elk Grove - Jared Parvinmehr Barrington Battles Ivan Gomez Schaumburg at 113.Mid-Suburban League wresting championships. | Joe Cyganowski ~ For Sun Times Media

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:24AM

After Barrington’s wrestling team posed for pictures holding this year’s Mid-Suburban team championship trophy, Broncos individual champion Mark Shealy (182 pounds) discussed what it’s been like to compete with one of Illinois’ premier teams.

“I was on JV last year, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have given to be a part of this,” Shealy said. “I knew that I had to step up and fill an opening this year, and being on a team of this caliber, I didn’t want to be a weak link on the team.”

Barrington hardly had a weak link anywhere in winning its second consecutive MSL title. Six of the MSL’s 14 individual champions on Saturday wore the Broncos’ Red-and-White: Shealy, Jared Parvinmehr (113), Kevin Conrad (126), Nick Shealy (152), Ryan Wilt (195) and Ben Calamari (285).

Barrington had 13 place-winners overall in earning a 281.5 to 186 edge over second-place Schaumburg. Buffalo Grove placed third, followed by Conant and Prospect.

Like Mark Shealy (29-4), junior Conrad (24-8) is making the 2011-12 season count. Asked when the season started if he envisioned a conference title in his future, Conrad answered by confirming how tough it is for anyone to crack the Broncos’ rugged starting lineup these days.

“I came into the year just hoping to make varsity — honestly,” Conrad said. “The past two years were tough for me to wrestle varsity. I just wanted to make the lineup, and take it step by step from there.”

Conrad worked well from the top position in securing an 8-4 title-match win over Buffalo Grove’s Joe Madio, while Mark Shealy beat Prospect’s Dan Fiumetto 3-1 over for his title.

Parvinmehr (28-2) dominated in winning his second MSL crown, capped by a tech fall win over Schaumburg’s Ivan Gomez. Nick Shealy (24-10) and Wilt (25-7) posted pins on the title mat, while Calamari (29-5) used a late third-period takedown to win 4-2 over top-seeded Igor Romanowski of Wheeling.

“That was a great win for Ben Calamari. He wrestled well,” said Barrington coach Ken Hoving. “Mark Shealy, Nick Shealy and Jared wrestled well — we had a bunch of guys that wrestled well. We had a couple of guys that had a couple hardships, but that’s wrestling. As a team, we did well. We came in expecting to win it and we did.”

Losing close matches on the title mat were Adrian Gonzalez (29-2 at 106) and Coord Wiseman (27-7 at 145). Barrington received third-place finishes from Michael Lurz (23-7 at 160), Cameron Thomson (31-1 at 170) and Daniel Davidson (22-13 at 220).

Matt Conrad (12-10 at 120) took fourth, and Joe Thorn (24-12 at 138) placed fifth for a Barrington team that was tested along the way but still dominated the MSL field for the second consecutive season.

“It’s the team unity we have,” Wilt said. “Every one of us cares about how everyone else is wrestling, and we feed off of each other. That carries us from match to match. We have a lot of really good individuals but they all work together as a team.”

First-year varsity coach Hoving walked away with an extra sense of pride after Saturday’s win.

“Most of these seniors, when they were freshmen, I was their freshman coach,” Hoving said. “I’ve been able to see them grow as they’ve gone through the system, and it’s kind of emotional to see them from where they started, and now where they’re at. They’re a great group of young men and I couldn’t ask for a better team, overall.”