BGHS Wrestler Rathje Finishes 5th in State

Bison Jordan Rathje was the dean of the area wrestlers with a fifth-place finish in the 145-pound weight class at Saturday's state tournament.

Running through his first two matches, Rathje blanked Colin Griffin of Oswego East, 8-0, and edged Rico Zayas of Maine West, 5-4, to reach the semifinals before losing to Bryce Brill of Mt. Carmel, 14-4.

Once in the consolation round, Rathje dropped the semifinal round to Corbett Oughton of Minooka, 4-0, before registering a 6-2 victory over Coord Wiseman of Barrington for the fifth place medal.

Ratje’s teammate, Brian Eagan, won his opening round match at 132, 5-1, over Troy Valdez of York before falling in the quarterfinals to Robbie Mikenis of Lincoln Way Central, 5-2, and then dropping his first consolation round bout, 3-2, to Austin Graham of Metea 
Valley.

Buffalo Grove’s other entry, Matt Zabrin, was eliminated in the first round, 6-5, to Dan Rowland of Willowbrook.

Stevenson wrestlers Justin Weber and Mark Jalcover were eliminated early, but not before Weber moved into the consolation quarterfinals of the 152-pound weight class.

Weber lost his first-round match to Devnote Mahomes of Oak Park, 9-3, and then outpointed Chad Whitford of Granite City in the initial consolation round, 6-4, to earn a shot at a medal. Weber then lost to Anderotti, 4-1, before he could earn a spot at an individual award.

Jolcover dropped his first match, 5-1, to Carlos Jacquez of Aurora West.