Marshall Breaks Through With First CSL Mat Crown

Ask Jeremy Marshall and he’ll tell you his wrestling resume won’t be complete until he wins Illinois High School Association regional, sectional and state championships.

But first things first. The Evanston senior heavyweight, who continues to climb the all-time list of winners in program history, took a step Saturday he hasn’t taken before.

Marshall lived up to his No. 1 seed and claimed the 285-pound title at the Central Suburban League tournament held Saturday at Niles North. He and teammate Rodrigo Salinas (165 pounds) scored Evanston’s only individual crowns as the Wildkits placed 6th in the team standings with 113 points.

Coach Rudy Salinas’ squad jumped five places in the team standings compared to a year ago, and despite the fact that the Kits only entered 8 individuals in the competition this year. Deerfield won the team title with 253 points, ahead of Glenbrook South (177), Maine South (173.5), Niles North (121), Glenbrook North (119) and ETHS in the 12-team field.

Evanston also counted 3rd place finishes from Diego Lopez at 175, Art Bytyqi at 190 and Brooks Tyler at 215.

Marshall finally got the monkey off his back, breaking through for his first CSL crown after frustrating tourney losses as a freshman, sophomore and junior that denied him a chance to mount the top of the awards podium.

There was no stopping him Saturday. He earned byes for the first two rounds, defeated New Trier’s Cooper Kemnitz 10-3 in the semifinals, and improved to 37-1 on the season by pinning Daniel Cisneros of Maine West in 1 minute, 24 seconds in the title bout.

“It feels great,” declared Marshall. “I’ve never gotten to the finals since my freshman year, and I’ve always wanted to get to the finals --- and win it. I was upset that I didn’t make it before and I had my mind set on winning it this year.

“This is just the first (postseason) hurdle. This is just the start. I know this is a big win, but I want to win them all. I want to be a regional champion, I want to be a sectional champion, I want to be a state champion.”

Marshall’s advantage going forward is clear. He’s a heavyweight who actually takes shots on offense and doesn’t just try to muscle his foes and play defense in the middle of the mat, hoping to score the minimum number of points necessary to stay alive in a given tourney.

His athleticism is at an elite level and he could challenge for that IHSA heavyweight title that Jeffrey Brown won back in 2010. With 129 wins, Marshall now ranks 7th on the career list at ETHS and needs seven more victories to match 1989 grad Shannon Gillespie, the next one on the list.

“This year I’m pushing the tempo and trying to keep the pace up in my matches,” Marshall said. “It’s offense, offense, offense. I try to keep working for attacks and looking for takedowns. The longer I’ve been working with the coaches here, the more moves I have that are harder to defend. I’m not saying I’m unstoppable, I just want to keep working and improving so that if you’re able to defend one thing I’m doing, I want to have something else I’m able to go to.”

While Marshall was able to break through for his first CSL title, Rodrigo Salinas showed that he wouldn’t let a little thing like knee surgery keep him from dominating again this season after an entire year off. He won his second conference tourney championship by surrendering just a single point in three matches Saturday, including a technical fall (17-1) versus Jonathan Weissmueller of Deerfield in the finale.

Salinas, now 31-2, was seeded No. 1 for the tourney and his impressive season has come despite the fact that he’s still coping with the injury that sidelined him for all of his sophomore year and is still limited somewhat offensively.

The rest of the state of Illinois really doesn’t want to see him back at 100 percent --- at least not until next year.

“It feels great to be back with my teammates and I’m really happy to be wrestling again,” said the junior standout. “After winning conference when I was a freshman, that was my goal again this year, too. But this is 100 percent more satisfying because of all the work I had to put in to get here.

“Today I just tried to keep up a high pace and tempo and I felt good once I got going. This year I think I have a higher wrestling IQ, and that really helps. Last year I took a step back (watching from the sidelines) and got to talk to a lot of wrestlers, a lot of coaches and developed more of an awareness. I’ve tried to be smart about (wrestling with) my knee and I’m almost back to normal now.”

Rudy Salinas pointed out that his youngest son has won all of his matches but one in decisive fashion this year, either via fall, technical fall or major decision.

“He’s not 100 percent yet, but he’s getting better every week,” said the proud coach/father. “I can’t toot his horn enough. He’s so reliable and so coachable. He’s still developing his offense, still working to find his comfort level (after the injury), but his mindset is right and he didn’t give up an offensive point in the entire tournament. That’s pretty impressive.

“I’m very pleased that Jeremy (Marshall) was able to get that conference championship that eluded him just because of one bad match in the other years. He could have been a 3-time champion and he was definitely the best in the tournament this year. We’ve had a ton of 100-match winners who aren’t conference champions, but this is just a stepping stone for Jeremy. He’s looking at the bigger picture for regional, sectional and State.

“I thought we were capable of having more champions today, but if the lessons we learned this week help us advance next week at the regional, then so be it.”

Lopez, Bytyqi and Tyler were all seeded in the top two in their respective weight classes but had to bounce back from semifinal upsets.

At 175, Lopez lost 12-7 to eventual champ Marty Greif of Maine South, then took out his frustrations and earned 3rd place with a 21-5 technical fall against Danny St. John of Deerfield. Lopez improved to a 37-4 on the season.

Bytyqi also lost to the eventual champ at 190, where Highland Park’s Daniel Derbedyenyev pinned him in 5:05. The ETHS sophomore then showed his resilience with a 13-6 thumping of Jacob Shamoon of Glenbrook South, the No. 1 seed, in his third place matchup.

Tyler, a freshman on the rise, contributed a 3rd at 215. At 31-7 overall, he could be a difference maker when the Wildkits compete at the Illinois High School Association regional tournament next Saturday at Rolling Meadows.

“In a big weight class as a freshman, Tyler has been outstanding for us,” praised Coach Salinas. “His growth is still exponential. He’s a better wrestler than he was 10 weeks ago, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the future.”