Galesburg's wrestlers a dual win from school record after Red Out Night victories

GALESBURG — Sophomore John Willis is the lone member of Galesburg High School's wrestling team who wore a singlet that represented the school's colors on Tuesday night inside John Thiel Gymnasium.

The Silver Streaks ditched their traditional silver and gold for red in support of heart health education and research and also to honor former wrestler and Galesburg wrestling coach John Chapman, a 1986 GHS grad, who died from a heart attack July 24, 2010, while running the Bix in Davenport, Iowa.

"It's a great opportunity to just remember what he did for Galesburg wrestling and also to promote the importance of heart health," current Silver Streaks wrestling coach Greg Leibach said. "My own mother passed from a heart attack so I always think about her on Red Out Night, and it reminds me just how suddenly a tragedy like that can happen.

"If we can encourage people to take advantage of those blood pressure checks when they're available and stay in tune with their heart health then I feel we can prevent some of those tragedies before they happen."

Galesburg grabbed a pair of victories in the triple dual meet to move to 15-2 in duals, which ties the school record, and the Streaks have a pair of duals left on the schedule.

"I give a lot of credit to this senior class," said Leibach, who is in his sixth season. "They've been a big help. They've been large in numbers ever since they were freshmen and they're really high character people. Not only the lineup but the atmosphere in the (wrestling) room is all built around them.

"I just hope that they get the finish they're looking for in their senior season, and I hope what they have helped to grow can get passed on to the next classes," Leibach added. 'It just continues with the trajectory that they've set."

Streaks not really challenged

The Silver Streaks opened against the United Red Storm, and they won 83-0. Knoxville edged United 30-24 after that, and then GHS downed the Blue Bullets 74-6.

Streaks sophomore Rocky Almendarez secured a win in the third period over Knoxville's Joe Wall in 132 pound action. Galesburg senior Santana Castellano (128) won via pinfall in the second period against the Blue Bullets' Mitchell Parish.

Willis secured a victory over Knoxville's Tyler Plack in a battle of 170 pounders. Streaks senior Jashon Parks (182) grabbed a win via a fall a minute into the first period.

Knoxville’s Hunter Johnson (106) won via pinfall in the second period against Galesburg sophomore Angelo Abdallah.

In a battle of cousins, Galesburg sophomore Christian Delacruz (112) edged Knoxville's Bryce Delacruz 11-9. The rest of the Streaks’ wins against the Blue Bullets came via forfeits.

Galesburg sophomore Hannah Almendarez secured a win via fall in the first period versus United's Pasha Gibson. The Streaks' other wins via fall against the Red Storm came from sophomore Gauge Shipp (120), Rocky Almendarez (126), senior Alex Baughman (145), senior Che Thomas (152), sophomore Nick Makwala (170) and Parks (182).

And Galesburg's grapplers were focused on their technique.

"With some exciting competitions — conference, regionals, etc, — coming up this next month, we've talked a lot on not just focusing on the win-loss result. They have to make sure that they are putting out an improved version of themselves out there every time they step on a mat," Leibach said. "You can lose and still show nice adjustments in your wrestling. There are times if you're not mentally focused you can win a match but actually take a step backwards in terms of quality of your wrestling.

"We've been focusing a lot on our bottom wrestling and that is one of the things I was looking at tonight."

Blue Bullets decimated by injuries

Knoxville was forced to forfeit six different weight classes against both Galesburg and United.

"Coming into the season, I looked at this meet as a great dual with Galesburg against us," said Blue Bullets coach Mike Leab, who is in his seventh season. "We had nine kids sitting and that changed a lot of the dual. Galesburg is a great team and you can't go out like that against them.

"Injuries are brutal for us. We have six of our guys — 126, 152 160, 195, 220 and heavyweight — gone right now," Leab added. "We should get five of them back before the regional and then we should be fine then."

Knoxville will be without its leader on the mat — senior Hunter Fox — the rest of the way.

"The key tonight was just to keep our heads up," Leab said. "Our best wrestler and leader broke two vertebrae in his back two weeks ago and the morale has been pretty bad.

"I was hoping tonight to show out a little better against Galesburg to get that morale back up," Leab added. "We're still fighting. We'll still be there in the end."

Red Storm still building

The United wrestling program has only been in existence for three seasons, and the Red Storm are still building a foundation.

"We're getting better week by week," said United coach Logan Thiele. "We just have to keep getting matches. That's the only way we're going to get better. We've had a few canceled due to weather and things like that. We're just trying to learn something.

"We're trying to keep everybody healthy. We've got a few that are sick," Thiele added. "We're better this year than we have been in the past. We're just going to keep growing."

Matthew Wheaton can be reached at (309) 315-6073 or at mwheaton@register-mail.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewlwheaton

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg Streaks wrestling team gets the red out, easily grabs wins