CHAMPAIGN, IL –Cahokia sophomore Jason Dowell credits his coaches for picking him up when he feels down.
On Saturday, he returned the favor.
Immediately after securing a pin in his 285-pound match to earn a third-place medal, Dowell raced to his corner and lifted his coaches airborne with massive bear hugs.
“I put in so much work, and they are always right there pushing me,” said Dowell, who is only in his second year as a wrestler.
Dowell joined senior Nick DeLoach Jr., who placed fifth at 170, as Cahokia wrestlers who earned spots on the podium at the Illinois state wrestling championships Saturday at State Farm Arena on the campus of the University of Illinois.
Dowell (42-10) won four matches by first-period pin, including the third-place tilt against Reed-Custer senior Gunnar Berg with eight seconds remaining. His only blemish was a 2-0 loss to Elmhurst-IC Catholic senior Isaiah Gonzalez in the semifinal round.
“I told (Dowell) last season that if you commit to this, you have the talent to go far in this sport, and he put the work,” Cahokia coach Emanuel Brooks said.
Cahokia brought two wrestlers to the state tournament. Both stood on the medal stand and both rode home with a weighted memory draped around their neck.
DeLoach (42-10), who is committed to play cornerback at Mizzou, never wavered in his intention to wrestle during his senior season.
“My dad (Nick Sr.) and Coach (Brooks) wrestled on the Cahokia high school team together, and I’ve been around wrestling all my life. I couldn’t just stop it if I had the chance to keep wrestling. I had to finish it out strong,” DeLoach said.
Already an all-state defensive back in football and a state champion in track, DeLoach is also the No. 1 student in his class academically.
“He’s an overachiever,” Brooks said.
DeLoach won his first match 6-4 in sudden victory and made it to the semifinals with a second-period pin of Reed-Custer junior Rex Pfeifer before dropping a major decision to top-seeded Joseph Norton of Canton.
In the fifth-place match, he earned a hard-fought, 4-3 decision over Riverdale senior Alex Watson by surviving the bottom position and not allowing himself to be turned in the final period.
“It means a lot (for Cahokia),” Brooks said. “We come from a lower income community and we’re battling a lot of things. We’re teaching them to be men overall, not just sports, not just behavior, it’s about academics and being the best men they can be.”
DeLoach, who will run in his first track meet next week, hopes that the success on the mat will serve as a catalyst for the future of Cahokia wrestling.
“Hopefully, it encourages people to keep watching us and encourages people to come out for wrestling, so the program can be even stronger next year,” DeLoach said.
Dowell added, “We work with what we have, and all we do is grind.”