Salinas Starts Bracket Collection, Rules Regional

The facsimiles of individual weight brackets that tournaments often award to wrestlers who finish in first place in that bracket are more like earning trophies for those who aren’t familiar with the sport.

Those blown-up and reproduced versions of the actual bracket --- think of ceremonial checks that are presented on occasion --- aren’t always awarded at in-season or postseason tournaments.

That’s why it was a special occasion for Rodrigo Salinas on Saturday at the Class 3A Maine South Regional tournament in Park Ridge.

The Evanston freshman started what could be a collection of “brackets” in his mat career, scoring the Wildkits’ only individual championship at 157 pounds and setting the team qualifying pace as the Kits advanced seven grapplers to the Conant Sectional.

Salinas pinned top-seeded Anthony Macina of Elk Grove Village in 4 minutes, 46 seconds in the championship bout and boosted his record as a first-year varsity wrestler to a sterling 40-8 on the year.

Evanston’s other automatic qualifiers (top 3 finishers in each weight class advanced) included second place finishers Josh Marty (190 pounds), Manny Holloway (144), Bryan Lemus (138) and Eren Atac (132), plus third place finishers Xavier Starks (165) and Jeremy Marshall (285).

Salinas took advantage of that opportunity for a concrete reward, plus the chance to keep his season alive, while helping ETHS to a third place effort in the 8-team field. The Wildkits totaled 159 points while advancing half of the grapplers they entered in the competition, and trailed only Maine South (243.5) and Elk Grove Village (179) in the standings.

ETHS head coach Rudy Salinas, the freshman’s proud father, offered an explanation regarding the “bonus” for Rodrigo to bring back home with him.

“It’s not required by the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) to give out those brackets, so this is a nice treat,” Coach Salinas said. “They went to the extra effort and expense, probably because they were hosting the tournament and they thought they’d be giving them out to a lot of their own guys.

“This is the 8th (individual) regional championship for our family --- and the first time any of them has won a bracket like that. So this is another thing one of the brothers can say they have over the others.”

The youngest Salinas brother became the first ETHS freshman since Ricardo Salinas, back in 2018 at 152 pounds, to capture a regional crown. The only other frosh to accomplish that feat since 2000 was Chris Jackson at 112 pounds in 2003.

Salinas isn’t wrestling like a freshman at this point. He used the momentum gained from winning the title at the Central Suburban League tournament, plus the knowledge he keeps accumulating every time he steps on the mat, to handle the three foes he faced Saturday with relative ease.

“It’s awesome to get a bracket like this, because it’s something you can’t take for granted,” Rodrigo Salinas said. “It’s really cool, and really exciting, to win a regional, but this is just the first step (in the state tournament series). I just want to take it one match at a time and not look too far ahead.

“I’m still working as hard as I can to get to State. It’s like being in the classroom, because I’m learning new skills every single day and I’m focusing on improving those skills.”

He opened with a 10-1 trouncing of Maine South’s Deklan Ide, then blanked Tim Kato of Maine East 6-0 to advance to the finals.

Kato didn’t mount much of an offensive threat in the semifinal matchup and that’s because Salinas followed his game plan throughout all three periods.

“In that match, I knew he liked his face and that’s the kind of guy who usually throws off my rhythm,” Salinas explained, “so I didn’t even give him a chance to shoot against me. I just wrestled and got to my offense before he could get to his.

“The guy from Elk Grove was seeded ahead of me because he beat a guy from Oak Park that I lost to earlier. But I’m a whole different wrestler since that match, really since the conference tournament. I’m a lot more offensive and getting to my shots a lot quicker than I used to. Things have really been clicking for me ever since the finals in the conference tournament.”

Right now Coach Salinas would agree that there’s no limit to the learning curve for wrestler Salinas.

“I’m very proud of the whole team today. And I’m very proud of Rodrigo’s effort and focus,” said Rudy Salinas. “His growth is continuing on the right trajectory. Even when he has an off day, he still puts forth a maximum effort.

“I’m just glad that we’re a better team now at the end of the year than we were at the start. As a coaching staff, that’s something we try to hang our hats on. We didn’t have a great final round because we lost a couple of leads. But we also had guys who wrestled (finished) above their seeds, too.”

Salinas’ win snapped a string of losses for Evanston in the finals matches leading up to his weight class. At 132, Atac was pinned by No. 1 seed Luke Morrison of Maine South in 1:56. Another Maine South No. 1 seed, Jake Colleran, stuck Lemus in 3:27 in the final match at 138, and South’s Gavin Hoerr made quick work of Holloway at 144, winning via fall in 14 seconds.

Evanston’s other runnerup, Marty, was seeded No. 1 at 190 and reached the finals with a third period fall against Tommy Bezhad of Maine South. But he couldn’t cope with Elk Grove’s Mo Burt in the finale, losing a 13-2 major decision.

Both Starks and Marshall kept their respective seasons alive by bouncing back in the consolation bracket. Starks lost via pin to the eventual 165-pound champ, Logan Tosterud of Elk Grove, but eliminated Zomire Dilworth of Mather with a fall in 3:24 and then shut out Aidan Swenson of Maine South 8-0 in the third place match.

Marshall, a sophomore, scored pins in three of his four matches and secured a sectional berth by stopping Victor Nitchev of Maine East with a fall with 40 seconds remaining in the third place bout.