Caruso Wrestlers Take Third at State Meet

Behind state champion Dylan Utterback and three other medal winning performances, the Caruso Middle School wrestling team finished third in the State Meet Friday and Saturday in DeKalb while Shepard Middle School was 20th among the 100 teams.

Joining Utterback, the 85-pound champion, on the medal stand from Deerfield were teammates. The Blue Jays improved from 14th last year.

Utterback was dominant yielding only one point in his four matches. After pinning his first round opponent, he won 9-1 in the quarterfinals, 4-0 in the semifinals and 5-0 in the title bout.

Holden Heller, a champion a year ago in 80, placed second this year winning his first three bouts, 6-1, 10-7, 5-3, before being nosed out of a second title, 5-2.

Reece Heller earned a third place finish at 75 that did not come easy. After a first round win and a quarterfinal loss, he had to come back through the consolation round to compete for third place, pinning his opponent there in less than a minute.

Perovic breezed into the semifinals of the championship bracket pinning two opponents and defeating a third, 5-2. After dropping his semifinal and consolation bouts, he walked away with a fourth-place medal.

Kerstein and Klough brought fifth place medals back to Deerfield. After a first-round loss, Kerstein worked his way to the fifth place match where he won, 13-1. After an opening round win and a quarterfinal loss, Clough blanked his next three opponents for fifth place.

Every Caruso athlete scored points. They were Matthew Templeton (70), Erin Karp (145) and Aaron Brailov (95). Adding to Shepard’s total were Jonny Bloom (65) and Leo Kolodkin (145). Also participating from Shepard were, Tommy Blassberg (167), Robby Wyatt (155), Alex Burns (105) and Will Corona (135).

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