CHAMPAIGN, ILL. • Belleville West's Mech Spraggins, who finished second at 120 last season, won his preliminary match in the 126-pound weight class Thursday night at the Class 3A state championships.
Spraggins defeated Sean Murray of Wheaton North on a 3-2 decision to advance. The junior improved to 33-1 and will take on Zach Synon of Prairie Ridge in the quarterfinals Friday.
Skyler Procasky of Belleville East upped his record to (34-3) with an 11-2 major decision over Anthony Scaccia. He will now take on Tim Corse of St. Rita.
Granite City sent its three middleweights -- Chad Whitford (152), Justin Valencia (160) and Josh Dowdy (170) -- to the quarterfinals
Whitford (36-10) downed Jacob Kroeger of Willowbrook 6-4; he will face Davonte Mahomes of Oak Park-River Forest. Valencia (44-9) beat Joe Kennedy of Reavis 6-4 in overtime; Valencia will wrestle Farai Sewera of Lake Park. Dowdy (42-10) went into overtime to take down Eric Krieger of Naperville North; he will meet Alex Benoit of Chicago Marist.
Senior Taylor McGiffen of Alton (45-1) scored a 13-5 major decision over Brandon Warren of Aurora West at 182. McGiffen squares off with Jameer Thurman of Proviso West.
Senior Blake Blair of Edwardsville (39-4) beat Noah Fleckenstein of York 6-0 at 195. Blair wrestles Ryan Berg of Naperville Central.
CLASS 2A
Triad freshman Cole Wysocki (106) and Civic Memorial senior David Pearce (126) each won their preliminariy matches.
Wysocki (45-2) scored an 11-0 major decision over Briley Schultz of Antioch, and Pearce (23-2) grabbed an 8-0 lead before pinning Sam Karim of Ridgewood in 4:22.
Wysocki will meet Jordan Lind of Pontiac in the quarterfinals, while Pearce squares off against Jake Latanski of Lemont.
Cahokia's David Frazier pinned Damon Cloe of Marengo at 3:55 at 152. Frazier, a senior moved to 37-2 and will face Austin Culton of Sycamore in the quarterfinals Friday.
Jake Tindle of Triad (46-1), who finished fourth last season, will square off with Nathan Jackson of Marian Catholic in the quarterfinals of 170 Friday after each won preliminary matches Thursday. Tindle scored a 4-2 decision over Steve Pozeg and Jackson (36-1) won by technical fall 29-14 over Mark Hendricks of Marengo.
Mascoutah senior Lavion Mayes, a three-time state qualifier who finished third at 145 last season, scored a 6-3 preliminary triumph over Jimmy Brennan of Lemont in a 145-pound match. Mayes, whi improved to 40-1, will take on Johnny Major of Burlington Central in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Also at 145, Bernard Gantt, a senior from Cahokia, advanced with a 4-1 decision over Adeyemi Sosina of Bremen. Gantt (30-7), whose brother Thomas was second in 2011, faces Connor Bass of Yorkville in the quarterfinals on Friday.
CLASS 1A
Althoff had a second wrestler advance to Friday's quarterfinals when Kameron Harris (182) overwhelmed Sam Donovan 9-2 in Thursday's preliminaries. Harris, a senior, improved to 34-4. He will face R.J. Troyue of Newman Central Catholic.
Also at 182, Kevin Roper of Carlyle (33-4) pinned Brendan Butler of Illinois Valley Central at 2:53. Roper will square off with defending state champion Jake Apple of Dakota (28-0) in Friday's quarterfinals.
FIRST QUARTERFINALISTS
Althoff junior Michael Harris and Roxana senior Tyler Floyd were the first area wrestlers to advance to Friday's quarterfinals in the Class 1A individual tournament at Assembly Hall.
Harris, wrestling at 126 pounds, improved to 21-7 when he scored a 13-5 major decision over junior Logan Snyder (29-13) of Mercer County.
Floyd, a senior at 160, upped his record to 38-5 as he jumped out to a 5-0 lead and eventually won 5-2 over Brandon Sklavantis of Oregon. Floyd will wrestle in the quarterfinals Friday against Robbie Irvin (32-1) of Hoopeston.
