Belleville West extends streak in ‘Battle of Belleville’

The Belleville West Maroons’ domination of the “Battle of Belleville” continued on Wednesday at Belleville East High School.

Two-time Class 3A State Tournament medal winner Nick Foster outlasted Althoff sophomore Danny Braunagel in a hard-fought 152-pound match and West never looked back as it rolled to yet another Belleville city wrestling title.

“I’m not sure how many we’ve run in a row. I’m thinking it’s at least eight or nine. I know there was one year that Althoff beat us, but I can’t remember losing the city title since then,’’ West first-year head coach Joe Rujawitz said. “Overall, I’m pleased at how we wrestled tonight. But we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us as well.’’

West (6-3) defeated Althoff 59-18, then trounced Belleville East 54-22 In all, eight Maroons wrestlers won outright individual city titles by finishing the night 2-0 against their hometown rivals,

Belleville East, getting championships from freshman Trey Fernandes (106 pounds) and DeWayne Hill (220) finished second in the annual Belleville high school wrestling showcase. The Lancers edged Althoff 36-35.

But neither the Lancers or Crusaders could match the Maroons on this night.

Also winning both of their matches for West were Logan Johnson (113), Garrett Bass (126), Justin Koderhandt (132), Daveon Long (145), Tristen Caswell (160), James Stammer (170) and DeMarlo Nesbitt (195).

Rujawitz, a member of a few city champions while wrestling for West over a decade ago, said he was pleased — with some of his wrestlers.

“A few of our top guys looked good and a few need to start picking it up a little harder,’’ Rujawitz said. “We got after it pretty well on the mat, but a few of our kids need to get a little better in the neutral position. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the (practice) room.”

While Rujawitz and the Maroons had both matches in control from the outset, Belleville East coach Maurice Brown spent much of his day looking for favorable match-ups for his young team.

While both the Crusaders and Maroons have several wrestlers who could contend for state medals later this season in Champaign, East has a lot of wrestlers with very little experience.

|”You look at the Althoff roster and they’ve got the three Braunagel brothers who have years of matches under their belts as do the Kristoff’s and you look at (Nick) Foster and guys like Garrett Bass at West and those guys have wrestled for years,’’ East coach Maurice Brown said. “We have kids who have wrestled some but we’ve also got a lot of freshmen and sophomores who have little experience.

“Still, I was pleased at how we competed tonight.”

Althoff has two of the top Class 1A wrestlers in the state in 113-pound state runnerup Chase Bittle and three-time state medal winner Jared Braungael to lead the way. Bittle, wrestling at 120 pounds, and Braunagel, ranked No. 1 in the state at 138 pounds, both easily went 2-0 on Wednesday, as did Zach Braunagel at 182 pounds.

What the Crusaders couldn’t overcome was the weight classes where they forfeit.

“When you are forfeiting three and four weight classes, that’s a lot to overcome,’’ Harper said. “I thought the wrestlers who did compete did a good job.’’

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Belleville West extends streak in ‘Battle of Belleville’."