Wills battles to second place at Lincoln tourney

Highland High School junior wrestler Devin Wills led the Bulldogs with a second-place finish at 160 pounds at the Lincoln Tournament, held Thursday and Friday at Lincoln High School.

Although he suffered his first defeat of the season, Wills still went 5-1 against a field featuring 25 teams from around the state of Illinois to hike his impressive season record to 15-1. In addition, he racked up 47 points toward Highland’s team score.

Wills pinned his first four opponents, including three of them in the first period. He needed just 50 seconds to smother Waterloo’s Cole Glowacki. Wills then needed only 61 seconds to stick Quincy’s Zane Bodi. The Highland junior had to battle the duration before scoring a fall at the 5:38 mark over Limestone’s Hunter Jarvis.

Wills also made short work of his quarterfinal foe after pinning Sam Hoffman of Normal Community in 1:25 to advance to the semifinals, where Wills battled to a 7-4 decision over Antioch’s Nico Garcia.

Finally in the title bout at 160 pounds, Wills was pinned in the second period by Quincy’s Hunter Yohn at the 2:25 mark of the match. Yohn pinned all six of his opponents to win the championship and boasts a 20-3 season record.

Highland’s next best finishers was Colton Brown (16-6), who earned eighth place and 26 points at 120 pounds; Alex Reed, who went 5-2 and placed ninth while collecting 27 points at 182 pounds; Tanner Schranz, who went 4-3 and placed 10th while picking up 21 points at 106 pounds; and Tanner Burke, who earned 11th place and 17 points at 132 pounds.

Overall as a team, Highland placed 18th out of 25 teams.

This story was originally published December 30, 2017 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Wills battles to second place at Lincoln tourney."