Marshall's Plan Pays Off In Heavyweight Title Bout

Jeremy Marshall knew he needed a new plan if he wanted to capture the 285-pound title at the 59th annual Rus Erb Tournament at Glenbrook South.

And Marshall’s plan paid off in a big way for the big man.

Marshall found a way to beat his opponent in the title bout --- teammate Ian Sims --- in unorthodox fashion and became the first Wildkit wrestler to win the heavyweight title at the prestigious in-season tournament since Jeffrey Brown in 2009.

Sims, who is battling Marshall for the starting job and is his daily workout partner in the practice gym, was disqualified with an excess of stalling points in the second matchup between the two ETHS grapplers in the finals of a tournament in the past three weeks.

The two juniors see a lot of each other on a daily basis but it required some lobbying on the part of Evanston head coach Rudy Salinas to get tournament officials to allow two grapplers from the same school to enter at the same weight class.

Sims defeated Marshall in overtime at the Elias George Tournament at ETHS and both juniors rose to the occasion when the competition got tougher in the two-day tourney at GBS.

Marshall didn’t get a chance for payback against Richmond-Burton’s Colin Kraus, who pinned him in the finals last year at Rus Erb. That’s because Sims whipped him 14-6 in the semifinals to set up an all-ETHS finale after Marshall advanced by pinning Colin Hughes of Sycamore in the second period in his semi match.

“I’ve been working hard on wrestling in the neutral position (both wrestlers on their feet) to try to get some stalling points, and it just kept working against Ian,” Marshall said.

“Ian is very good at double leg takedowns so I really worked to defend against that and to try to get him in a bad position. That’s the first time I’ve used that strategy against him. Usually I’m out there trying to get some big throws (for takedowns). But I knew if I controlled the match (in neutral) he’d get tired. It’s very hard to go against each other in a match, knowing each other’s moves so well, so I just tried to work on his weakness.”

Salinas, who will face a difficult decision to choose a starter for postseason competition at 285, noted that Sims was slowed by a foot injury he suffered in that semifinal win. Sims had scored a memorable win in the final match of the day on Friday night when he rallied from an eight-point deficit --- in front of a large crowd gathered around the mat --- and scored a late 3-point takedown to knock out Hunter Johnson of Glenbrook South with a 12-11 decision.

Unable to shoot against his teammate --- the two also played varsity football together --- because of the pain, Sims racked up the maximum 5 points allowed against him for stalling and Marshall took the crown.

“Jeremy was able to dominate the hand-fighting and he won the favor of the official when he set the tone early in the match,” Salinas said. “So Jeremy fed off of that. When they wrestled at the Elias George tournament he didn’t get a break from that official.

“I wanted to be able to showcase both of them at this tournament and get them both some more experience because these are two guys who are really trying to better themselves. And it’s not an easy tournament to win. I lobbied to get them both in --- there are 20 schools here trying to get extra experience for guys --- and I’ll probably have to do the same thing again when we go to Wheaton Warrenville South.

“All I know is there were a lot of coaches there Saturday trying to get me to trade for one of my heavyweights.”

“I really wanted to win this tournament last year, and it was a chance for me to win against a very good competitor like Ian, and show my coaches and my teammates how much I want to win that varsity spot,” Marshall said. “I’ve learned that I need to wrestle smarter and not force things so much.”

Marshall is coming off an All-American performance over the summer and is becoming a thinking man’s heavyweight, in a weight class where brawn often takes precedent over brains. He dealt with a knee injury during national tournament competition in the summer and realized that he needed to add more strategy to his arsenal and not just to rely solely on his physical talents.

And it helps that Sims offers a challenge to him on a daily basis. Marshall actually talked Sims into continuing his mat career when Sims might have opted to limit himself to lifting in the weight room following the end of the football season.

“Ian and I are pretty good friends. We played on the Junior Wildkits (in football) together the whole time, since we were in third or fourth grade,” he said. “I wanted him to come back out for wrestling because I knew if he did I’d be working with someone who would push me every day. I begged him to come to the wrestling room after football was over.

“Having Ian as a (practice) partner is really a gift for me. We hang out pretty often and we have a math class together, too. We leave the competition on the mat, though. We don’t take it anywhere else. I push him to get better, and he pushes me to get better. He’s gotten way better and stronger and I’m very proud of him for that. I think this is good for both of us.”

Marshall’s title was the first at the local tourney since Ramin Abraham (220 pounds) and Rafael Salinas (170) both won championships back in 2018. The two heavyweights, and sixth place finisher Art Bytyqi at 157 pounds, led Evanston to an 11th place showing in the team standings with 63.5 points.

Richmond-Burton outscored Sycamore by a margin of 177.5 to 171 to earn the team crown.

Bytyqi, a freshman, won 3 of 6 matches at 157 and certainly wasn’t overwhelmed by the competition, although he did suffer falls in all of his losses. He opened with a technical fall (15-0) win over Khurshedov Jahongir of Buffalo Grove and also recorded wins against Kevin Ayala of Lake Park (second period pin) and Max Martin of Richmond-Burton (7-2).