Feature Story by I70sports.com’s Jake Stewart—-
The Vandal Wrestling team will travel to Springfield this weekend to compete in the premier 1A team tournament at Abe’s Rumble on Friday and Saturday. This year’s Rumble features the best of the best in the 1A class, including all of the top 10 teams on the latest IllinoisMatmen team rankings. The Vandals come into the tournament ranked #9 after their 12-1 start to the season. The other top 10 teams featured include #1 Marian Central Catholic, #2 Coal City, #3 Lena-Winslow, #4 Oakwood/Salt Fork, #5 Olympia, #6 Porta, #7 Canton, #8 LeRoy, and #10 Tolono Unity. The rest of the 60 team field includes 12 of the remaining 15 teams in the top 25 and another 12 teams ranked as Honorable Mentions.
The Vandals, looking to improve on their 7th place finish last season, will start wrestling their pool matches at 9am on Friday. They will wrestle #12 Mt. Zion, HM Illini Bluffs, Taylor Ridge/Rockridge, and Westville before finishing their first day with 1 more match Friday evening. Wrestling will also start at 9am Saturday. We will have broadcasts through the weekend on 107.1 FM WKRV, streaming live at VandaliaRadio.com, and on the Vandalia Radio app
This will be the 7th year the Vandals have wrestled at Abe’s Rumble. Overall the Vandals are 44-10 in the tournament, finishing 3rd three times (2018, 2019, 2021), 5th once (2017), and 7th twice (2016, 2022).
Individually, several Vandals come into the tournament with impressive winning streaks. Dillon Hinton (ranked #2 at 138lbs), Kaden Tidwell (ranked #10 at 190lbs), and Dominic Swyers (Honorable Mention at 215lbs) have all won 11 straight matches while Max Philpot (HM at 106lbs) and Sophie Bowers (#1 at 120lbs in girls rankings, HM at 120lbs in boys rankings) have both won 3 straight matches
Season Stats so far for the Vandals
106
Max Philpot 15-1, 11 pins, HM
113
Eli Mabry 12-3, 8 pins, HM
120
Brody Matthews 11-4, 5 pins, HM
Sophie Bowers 8-5, 4 pins, HM, #1 Girls 120
126
Deon Moore 11-6, 9 pins, HM
132
Parker Ray 6-3, 3 pins
Cole Yarbrough 2-0, 1 pin
138
Dillon Hinton 15-1, 9 pins, #2
144
Keagan Turner 8-7, 5 pins
150
Artan Mustafa 13-5, 12 pins
Dade Kleinik 6-3, 6 pins
157
Ross Miller 7-9, 6 pins
165
Noah Langston 9-8, 8 pins
190
Kaden Tidwell 14-3, 11 pins, #10
Zander Tate 3-3
215
Dominic Swyers 13-3, 6 pins, HM
Jeffrey Smith 4-3, 2 pins
Gabe Torres 1-1
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