J. Sterling Morton School District 201

Saturday was a good day for the program.

Morton wrestling coach Steve Eckert was more than satisfied after his squad produced two champions and three additional sectional qualifiers during the Class 3A Lyons Township regional last weekend.

Eckert's mantra always has been to go six minutes and see what happens. Those five qualifiers get to put that philosophy to work at this weekend's De La Salle sectional.

"At the end of the day, I thought we wrestled well," Eckert said. "We're running practice the same way we did last week. We'll go through different phases each day. I think we're in a good mode. We've got to work hard and keep our conditioning."

Senior 119-pounder Manny Macedo (28-3) is Morton's only returning state qualifier from a season ago and will have an opportunity to get back to Champaign after he won at LT through default in a championship match against Troy Valdez (30-4) of York last Saturday.

"I didn't want to underestimate anyone," Macedo said. "It really boosted my confidence. I've got to work my butt off and get prepared for this weekend. I think I have a good chance to do well. If I wrestle hard, everything should take care of itself."

The Mustangs other individual champion was Chepe Mariscal (30-4) at 135. The junior defeated Terry Ward (29-9) of Hinsdale Central 15-12.

Jose Torres (27-11) came in second place at 112 with a 10-4 loss to Bob Gavrick (34-10) of Lyons Township while David Chittick (28-8) also finished runner-up at 145 with an 11-5 loss to Travis Cammon of Proviso East. Michael Cook won the third-place match at 125 with a 10-0 major decision over Kevin Trujillo (19-14) of Reavis.

Just missing sectional berths were fourth-place finishers Marcos Mesa (22-12), who lost 14-2 to Rodrick Smith (32-6) of Proviso East at 103, and Fernando Heredia (20-12), who lost to Joe Shue (27-10) of Argo through default.