Being mistaken for your brother comes with the territory in the Oster family.
“People will come up to us and say, ‘I remember when you beat whoever in that match,'” Lockport coach Josh Oster said. “Yeah, yeah. That was my brother. That stuff happens a lot, but you get used to it. We wrestle a pretty entertaining style, so I think people enjoy it.”
No one, however, will confuse Lockport’s Shayne Oster for one of his four older brothers if he wins Class 3A’s 145-pound state championship Saturday in Champaign.
“I can be the only two-time state champ, so I can hold that over them,” Shayne Oster said.
The Northwestern recruit became the third brother to win a state title last season, joining Jake and Jameson, the latter a current Northwestern wrestler.
“We talk wrestling outside of the wrestling room, but that’s because wrestling is a large part of our family,” Josh Oster said. “It’s not like we’re showing wrestling moves at Christmas dinner.”
One of Illinois’ top wrestling families will be rooting hard for second-seeded Shayne Oster (31-3) this weekend, though 145 pounds is a challenging division.
St. Rita’s Austin O’Connor (40-0) is the top seed. O’Connor seeks his third state title as one of the top uncommitted juniors in the nation. He’s 131-4 for his career.
“He’s kinda who I’ve been looking at all year as who I’d wrestle in the finals,” said Shayne Oster, who ranks top 10 academically in his class. “We’re the two best kids in the weight.”
Adding some spice to the potential bout, O’Connor is a Lockport resident and lives a few miles from Shayne Oster. The two have never met in competition but trained together during the offseason and at national tournaments.
“I’ve coached Austin plenty of times in the offseason,” Josh Oster said. “He’s a fun kid to coach and watch, always moving and attacking. …That’s kind of similar to what we do.”
Deep waters: Class 2A’s 145-pound division isn’t too shabby, either. The Southland qualified contenders in Lemont’s Egan Berta, Lincoln-Way West’s Kyle Ruettiger, Tinley Park’s Ceasar Clark and Mount Carmel’s Dillon Hoey.
Berta (40-2) has been the best of the bunch. The junior holds wins over Ruettiger, Clark and Hoey.
“I don’t want to be wrestling against scrubs,” Berta said. “I want to wrestle the best of the best.”
He’ll get his chance this weekend. In addition to the Southland standouts, Geneseo’s Hunter Grau, a returning state champion, is the top seed.
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Tread lightly: Another tough bracket is 3A’s 126-pound division. Five Southland wrestlers will vie for the title, headlined by St. Rita’s Jake Silzer, an Illinois recruit seeking his third state medal.
Silzer (31-4) is seeded second behind Glenbard North’s Austin Gomez (36-1), an Iowa State recruit.
Providence’s Ben Emery, Marist’s Andy O’Brien, Lockport’s Brandon Ramos and Lincoln-Way Central’s Vinnie Piunti are also in the mix.
Like Silzer, Piunti enters state as a sectional champion.
“I’ve definitely gotten better since the season began,” Piunti said. “I’m reaching that peak to end my high school career.”
By the numbers: Paced by two-time state champion Rudy Yates, Sandburg led the Southland’s 3A schools with eight state qualifiers. Providence and Lockport were next in line with six apiece.
Mount Carmel qualified a whopping 13 wrestlers in 2A. Marian Catholic and Tinley Park broke program records with 10 and eight qualifiers, respectively.
“I call this my legacy team,” Tinley Park coach John Pfeffer said. “Only two of our guys, Eric (Schultz) and Ceasar, had previous wrestling experience.”
Logan Malloy is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
State tournament
Where: State Farm Center, Champaign.
When: Thursday, 1 p.m. (preliminaries, beginning with Class 1A). Friday, 8:30 a.m. (quarterfinals, beginning with 1A, followed by first-round wrestlebacks), 7 p.m. (semifinals). Saturday, 9 a.m. (quarterfinal and semifinal wrestlebacks), 1 p.m. (third- and fifth-place matches), 5:30 p.m. (Grand March, followed by championship matches).
Local qualifiers
Class 3A
106 — Jake Lindsey, Providence, 31-8; Hassan Johnson, Brother Rice, 28-3.; Domenic Zaccone, Stagg, 38-3. 113 — Louie Hayes, Sandburg, 40-2. 120 — Abdullah Assaf, Lockport, 18-3.; Josh Ramos, Providence, 36-10; Kevin Stearns, Sandburg, 43-2. 126 — Ben Emery, Providence, 35-12; Andy O`Brien, Marist, 32-13; Vinnie Piunti, Lincoln-Way Central, 35-9; Brandon Ramos, Lockport, 36-11; Jake Silzer, St. Rita, 31-4. 132 — Juan Bazaldua, Providence, 21-9; Jake DiBenedetto, Lincoln-Way East, 40-7; Rudy Yates, Sandburg, 40-0. 138 — Dominick Ambrose, Providence, 24-13; Christian Robertson, Sandburg, 33-5.; Baylor Fernandes, Lockport, 30-10; Jimmy McAuliffe, Reavis, 36-3. 145 — Austin O`Connor, St. Rita, 43-0; Shayne Oster, Lockport, 31-3. 152 — Kyle Karpinski, Marist, 27-13; Cole Smith, Providence, 39-7; Trevell Timmons, Lockport, 23-6. 160 — Ben Schneider, Sandburg, 37-8; Michial Foy, Crete-Monee, 40-6. 170 — Brian Krasowski, Sandburg, 40-4; Jake Tisza, T.F. South, 37-3. 182 — Patrick Brucki, Sandburg, 44-2; Brian Burns, Lincoln-Way East, 37-6. 195 — Lavall McNulty, Crete-Monee, 35-3; Rodsean Graham, Eisenhower, 32-8. 220 — Diata Drayton, Marist, 30-4; Jake Dudeck, Lincoln-Way Central, 34-6. 285 — Sam Diehl, Lincoln-Way East, 37-10; Bryan Ditchman, Lincoln-Way Central, 42-2; Audel Ochoa, Argo, 24-2; Malik Scates, Sandburg, 28-19; Ronald Tucker, Lockport, 42-4.
Class 2A
106 — Kurtis DeGroot, Oak Forest, 27-10; Travis Ford-Melton, Marian Catholic, 39-0; Chris Kennedy, Lincoln-Way West, 33-9; Sam Tijerina, Rich East, 30-12; Aaron Zebrauskas, De La Salle, 19-4. 113 — Joey Egan, Mount Carmel, 31-14; Brandon Musleman, Oak Forest, 37-5; Kevin Radcliff, Rich East, 34-8. 120 — David Devine, Mount Carmel, 11-4; Donnell Washington, Marian Catholic, 37-5. 126 — Carlos Champagne, Marian Catholic, 38-2; Justin Emmick, Tinley Park, 28-15; Gehrig Simon, Lincoln-Way West, 29-16; Dom Stump, Oak Forest, 37-9; Yahya Thomas, Mount Carmel, 34-4. 132 — Kendall Coleman, Mount Carmel, 33-10; Josh Jones, Marian Catholic, 38-6; Trevor Koepke, Tinley Park, 34-10; Joey Schloegel, Lincoln-Way West, 25-8. 138 — Justin Idrovo, Tinley Park, 30-13; Jack Mulay, Mount Carmel, 32-13; Harry Sellers, Bremen, 26-7; Mohammed Taylor, Marian Catholic, 34-5. 145 — Egan Berta, Lemont, 40-2; Ceasar Clark, Tinley Park, 32-4; Dillon Hoey, Mount Carmel, 36-11; Sean Rickert, De La Salle, 20-16; Kyle Ruettiger, Lincoln-Way West, 34-8. 152 — Joey Davies, Tinley Park, 29-12; Jake Kirkman, Lemont, 35-8; Jake Tucker, Mount Carmel, 38-3. 160 — Jose Champagne, Marian Catholic, 27-0; Damyen Gothard, Lemont, 23-11: Cameron Lopez, Mount Carmel, 34-6; Anthony Stengel, Tinley Park, 31-12. 170 — Kordell Norfleet, Marian Catholic, 30-0; John Polk, Lemont, 33-10; David Riojas, Mount Carmel, 38-4; AJ Stengel, Tinley Park, 36-8. 182 — Johnny Drozd, Mount Carmel, 34-7; Addison Klausner, Marian Catholic, 33-5; Cody Ralston, Rich South, 35-2; Trevor Schmidt, Lincoln-Way West, 32-11. 195 — Michael Adleke, Marian Catholic, 5-4.; Eric Schultz, Tinley Park, 40-0; Sylvane Smart, Evergreen Park, 31-6; Dru Worker, Mount Carmel, 34-6. 220 — Jordan Bills, Lincoln-Way West, 26-14; Nick Graziano, Oak Forest, 35-3; Jeffery Griffin, Marian Catholic, 32-14; Chuma Ifezue, Rich South, 37-5; Leo Ortiz, Mount Carmel, 26-11. 285 — Marshawn Bunch, Hillcrest, 8-3: Matthew Reyes, Mount Carmel, 33-3; Solomon Smith, De La Salle, 23-9.
Class 1A
132 — Jessie Ellis, Illiana Christian, 35-3.