BELLEVILLE • Upset? What upset?
"I know he was ranked and seeded ahead of me, but I also knew that if I went out and wrestled my match, I could beat him,'' Althoff senior Kameron Harris said, after posting a tough 3-2 win over Carlyle's Kevin Roper for the 182-pound title at the Class 1A regional tournament at Althoff on Saturday afternoon.
Harris (30-4) had the lone takedown of the match and won with an escape early in the third period. Roper, a returning state qualifier, is 30-3.
"He's tough, but I just went out and tried to do my best,'' Harris said.
Harris' title put the finishing touch on a solid regional tournament for Althoff, which advanced seven wrestlers to the sectional next weekend at Robinson. The top four finishers from Robinson will move on to the state tournament Feb. 16-18 at Assembly Hall in Champaign.
"Getting to Champaign is what I've been working for," said Harris, who fell one match short of a state trip a year ago. "I lost by one point in the match that would've gotten me to state—that's not something you forget. But it's what drives me now; I'm working hard, trying to do everything I can to finish my senior year as strong as possible.''
Harris did not start wrestling until arriving at Althoff as a freshman. That first season, he did not win a single match.
"There's a different mindset to wrestling," he said. "The more I wrestled and learned about the sport, the more I started to enjoy it. One of my coaches challenged me to come out again as a sophomore, and I ended up doing a lot better...''
Still, football is where Harris sees his future. A running back, he ran for 1,377 yards and scored five touchdowns last fall, helping Althoff reach the state playoffs.
"I've heard from a few schools, but honestly, my focus to this point has been on wrestling,'' he said. "I definitely want to play football in college and I wouldn't be opposed to wrestling, too, if I found a school that wanted me to do both...''
Harris was one of two champions for Althoff on Saturday. The other was senior Michael Harris (no relation). A junior looking to make his third consecutive state trip, Michael Harris (17-7) dominated his way to the title at 126, winning by fall in the semifinals and by technical fall in the finals.
Althoff finished a distant second to Litchfield in the team race. The Panthers advanced 11 wrestlers, getting titles from Seth Newkirk (113), Justin Wright (138), Dolan Davidson (152) and Frank Hollo (195).
Litchfield finished with 221 points, while Althoff had 134.
Third-place Roxana advanced five and had a pair of regional champs in Jeremy Ogara (106) and Tyler Floyd (160). Ogara (29-11) won by fall in the first period while Floyd (35-4) posted a tech fall in his title match.
Carlyle will have six wrestlers at Robinson. The Indians were paced Saturday by champions Zach McAdoo (170) and Dre Cannon (285). Both McAdoo (20-8) and Cannon (23-7) won by fall.
Four wrestlers from Wood River advanced. The Oilers were paced by 132-pound champ Alex Anderson (22-9), who won by major decision.
At 220, freshman Nicholas Czar (18-2) became the first regional champion for the first-year program at Mater Dei after coming up with a second-period pin.
In Class 1A action at West Frankfort, the first-year program at Sparta, coached by former Edwardsville football and wrestling standout Joe Bevis, advanced two, including Anthony Carter (14-7), the regional champ at 120.
