When he reached the Class 3A state championship match at 160 pounds in February, Johnny Mologousis stepped onto the title mat with a shoulder that had been popping out of its socket all season.
A week after placing second to Oak Park-River Forest’s Isaiah White, a doctor told Mologousis he had been wrestling with a torn labrum, the cartilage attached to the rim of the shoulder socket that helps keep the ball of the joint in place.
“I hurt it in the summer before junior year, but we figured we’d wait until after the season to get it checked out,” Mologousis said. “But then every time I wrestled, my shoulder would pop out and my arm would go numb. We didn’t know it would be that bad.”
Mologousis had shoulder surgery immediately after the state tournament and couldn’t wrestle for six months. That he was able to reach a state title match at all last season was a feat in itself.
“That tells you how tough he is, physically and mentally, to be able to wrestle the way he did last year,” Lions coach Griff Powell said.
After going 42-3 as a junior, Mologousis, an Illinois recruit, was the No. 1-ranked 170-pound wrestler in the state, per Illinois Matmen’s Dec. 6 rankings. Joining him in the Lions’ practice room are fellow senior captains Tyler Zeman, Elias Garcia and Zach Villarreal.
The four seniors have been riding on the varsity bus for a long time.
“It’s pretty neat that they came into high school together, and they’ve been varsity wrestlers together since they were freshmen,” Powell said.
At the Barrington tournament on Nov. 26, Villarreal (126) and Mologousis (170) won individual titles in the 27-team field, while Zeman (138) placed second and Garcia (132) took fifth.
The four seniors came up through the Lions’ grade-school program together, and each entered high school with different strengths and weaknesses. Powell said all four have worked hard to become well-rounded wrestlers.
“I was a big leg-rider in middle school, and (Powell) got me to work more on my feet,” Mologousis said. “Tyler’s first two or three years, he’d get a guy on the mat and just tilt, tilt, tilt. He’s one of the best tilters in the state, but he’s made a big improvement on his feet.”
Villarreal entered high school strong on his feet and has worked hard on his mat wrestling. He was the first of the four senior captains to medal downstate, taking sixth at 120 as a sophomore.
Villarreal didn’t qualify to wrestle downstate last year, which has fueled his senior season.
“Not making it downstate was depressing,” Villarreal said. “This year, I’m staying after practice for a half hour every day, working hard. This is my senior year, and I want to wrestle in college.”
Zeman placed sixth at 132 in Illinois last season, and his coach praised his work ethic.
“No matter who he is wrestling, you’re going to get the same effort from him every single match and every single practice,” Powell said.
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Like Villarreal, Zeman traces an increase in his work rate to a past failure.
“I think I always had that quality but I wasn’t working as hard as I could have been when I was a sophomore, and I just missed qualifying (downstate),” Zeman said. “After that, I wanted to always wrestle with an edge.”
Garcia, a state qualifier last year, is aiming to become a state place-winner for the first time, in his final chance as a high school wrestler. As one of Garcia’s practice partners, Villarreal witnesses first-hand Garcia’s desire to make that happen.
“He’s the hardest-working guy on the team,” Villarreal said of Garcia. “He’s here the longest, works the hardest at practice — he’s outstanding. And the best part of wrestling him in practice for me is that my weakness is wrestling tall, lanky kids. He’s one of those kids, and he’s a really good one.”
The Lions placed third overall at Barrington behind team champion Marmion and second-place Barrington. Freshman Jimmy Ruston (106) also finished fourth, and senior Alex Plotke (285) placed seventh. The Lions will compete in the Rex Whitlatch tournament at Hinsdale Central this weekend and the Cheesehead Invitational in Wisconsin in January.
“We have a lot of young guys in the lineup, so we have work to do to become a good dual team,” Powell said. “And those four seniors are committed to getting back downstate and getting up on that medal stand.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press