Coalers, Comets to battle Thursday for ICE title
It will be a clash of titans on Thursday when Coal City travels to Reed-Custer to likely decide who will be the Illinois Central Eight Conference wrestling champions.
Both teams are undefeated in the ICE and have full rosters to boot.
The Coalers are 37-2 overall and are formidable, having won the 60-team Abe’s Rumble dual team challenge in Springfield, IL last month and claiming the esteemed Princeton Invite Tournament Jan. 7, with enough individual wins for first by a 57-point margin.
Reed-Custer, 17-5 overall, finished a respectable 11th at PIT, missing the top 10 by half a point. And they’re on a roll with two big wins last week before hosting the 23-team Comet Classic tournament on Friday and Saturday, in which they placed fourth.
The Comet Classic included several ranked teams from across the state as they squared off in the beautiful RC Fieldhouse.
There’s no doubt Coal City is more battle-tested with 17 more matches so far on their schedule with their only losses to defending 2A state champions Joliet Catholic and 2A Lincoln-Way East. On Saturday they stood up to Dakota, a 1A powerhouse with a 2020 state championship in a dual at Princeton. The Coalers led most of the way before Dakota took a 31-30 lead with only two weight classes left. Coal City got back-to-back pins at 220 and 285 to win it 42-31. Don’t be surprised if Dakota will be in their path later during the dual team state finals. They also beat Princeton 52-25. Double winners were Brody Widlowski, Jack Poyner, Joey Breneman, Braiden Young and Drake Dearth.
On Thursday at home the Coalers shutout Wilmington 82-0 and defeated Herscher 72-9. After Thursday’s toss up match at Reed-Custer, Coal City heads to Wilmington on Saturday for the ICE Conference tourney. Regionals start Feb. 4.