{"id":7466,"date":"2025-03-28T23:21:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T23:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7466"},"modified":"2025-03-28T23:21:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T23:21:48","slug":"wrestling-notebook-princeton-taking-record-5-wrestlers-to-state-shaw-local-news-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7466","title":{"rendered":"Wrestling notebook: Princeton taking record 5 wrestlers to state – Shaw Local News Network"},"content":{"rendered":"


Princeton\u2019s Cade Odell (left) and Wheaton St. Francis\u2019 Jaylen Torres wrestle at 285 pounds at the 1A Oregon Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. <\/span>(Earleen Hinton)
Last year, Princeton<\/a> qualified a then school-record four wrestlers for the IHSA state individual wrestling tournament, bringing home three state medals.
The Tigers have one-upped that record this year, sending five wrestlers to Champaign with an eye on setting a new record for state medalists.
Making a return trip to state will be junior Augustus Swanson (120 pounds) and senior Ace Christiansen (144), who each placed third at Saturday\u2019s Class 1A Oregon Sectional, and junior Casey Etheridge (165) and senior Cade Odell (285), who finished fourth.
They will be joined by freshman Kane Dauber, who placed third at 132.
\u201cIt\u2019s big for the program to get five down there,\u201d Princeton coach Steve Amy said. \u201cThese guys have been working hard for a very long time to get to this point. It\u2019s really a testament to our guys’ dedication and determination to continue to compete in tough situations.
\u201cIt\u2019s a school record but hopefully we\u2019re not done breaking those. Hopefully we can bring home five medals this weekend.\u201d
Princeton\u2019s Ace Christiansen (top) and Richmond Burton\u2019s Emmett Belson wrestle at 144 pounds at the 1A Oregon Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. <\/span>(Earleen Hinton)
The Tigers are excited to go back.
\u201cIt is a great feeling to be able to return the same amount of guys as last year and even adding a great talent like Kane,\u201d said Etheridge, who seeks his first IHSA state medal. \u201cWe are happy to be able to compete next weekend but our goals and ambitions don\u2019t end with just being there. We have high aspirations for next weekend and we are ready to compete with the best in the state.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s great having five of us make it out of our sectional which is always one of the toughest ones in the state and is really cool,\u201d said Christiansen, who placed third at state a year ago.
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely something special that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Swanson, who placed fifth at 113 pounds last year. \u201cIt is a huge honor being apart of this team with five of us making it. There was definitely people who doubted me since i went up to 120, but I proved to them and myself that I can do it.\u201d
Odell, a fourth-place state medalist last year, had the most tedious ride of the Tigers. He fell to Jaylen Torres of St. Francis 7-1 in the semifinals at 285 and trailed by one point with 30 seconds in his semifinal wrestleback before scoring with an escape and takedown for a 9-6 win over Colin Kraus of Richmond-Burton.
Odell dropped a 4-3 decision to Byron\u2019s Jared Claunch, finishing fourth.
\u201cIt\u2019s happiness, fatigue,\u201d Odell said after the sectional. \u201cI was elated. I was here my sophomore year and I lost in sudden death to a Lena-Winslow heavyweight at the time. So it\u2019s nice to come back and do it here and actually make it out this time.
\u201cEarlier this year I dealt with a pretty bad injury and I wasn\u2019t even sure I was going to be able to wrestle at regionals. Just coming back here and just being able to wrestle my butt off, it\u2019s just all glory to God, really. It\u2019s just kind of the bow on my career, you know.\u201d
Swanson lost to Richmond-Burton\u2019s Adam Glauser in the semifinals but bounced back to win by fall in 3:45 in his semifinal wrestleback against Byron\u2019s Jackson Norris and by 13-5 major decision over Oregon\u2019s Isaiah Perez to take third place.
Dauber lost 20-15 Riverdale\u2019s Dean Wainwright in the semifinals but earned his state berth with a 12-6 decision in a semifinal wrestleback over Newman\u2019s Landon Blanton and a pin at 4:45 over Oregon\u2019s Nelson Benesh in the third-place match.
Christiansen lost by 15-3 major decision to Richmond-Burton\u2019s Emmett Nelson in his semifinal. He won a 7-1 decision over Rockridge\u2019s Tomas Sowards in his semifinal wrestleback and won by medical forfeit in the third-place match.
Etheridge dropped a 5-4 decision to Wheaton Academy\u2019s Tyler Jones in the semifinals then won by 16-4 major decision over Marquette\u2019s Reily Leifheit in his semifinal wrestleback to earn a return trip to state. He lost a 7-2 decision Newman\u2019s Daniel Kelly in the third-place match.
Sterling Newman\u2019s Danny Kelly and Princeton\u2019s Casey Etheridge wrestle at 165 pounds at the 1A Oregon Regional on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. <\/span>(Earleen Hinton)
Princeton freshman Jacob Paull (113) saw his season end in wrestlebacks.
Prior to last year, Princeton\u2019s best medal take at state had been two medalists which it did six times – 1990, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2019.
All of the Tigers will be wrestling in opening round Class 1A matchup starting at noon Thursday at the State Farm Center in Champaign.
Swanson (28-8) will face Coal City senior Culan Lindemuth (33-11) at 120; Dauber (46-3) drew Brenden Rayl (34-1), a senior from Belleville Althoff at 132; Christiansen will square off with Logan Riggs (35-12), a junior from Roxana at 144 and Etheridge (44-4) will face Adam Haddad (36-2), a senior sectional champion from Northridge at 165 while Odell (31-3) will wrestle David McCarthy (28-2), a senior sectional champ and returning state medalist (fifth) from Chicago De La Salle.
Lindemuth, Rayl and Riggs were all sectional runners-up.
\u201cWe have some matchups. At this point in the season, everyone is good so we just have to stick to doing what we\u2019re good at,\u201d Amy said.
Princeton\u2019s Augustus Swanson (right) wrestles Byron\u2019s Jackson Morris in a semi-final wrestleback match at 120 pounds at the 1A Oregon Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. <\/span>(Earleen Hinton)
Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network
Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network<\/p>\n

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Princeton\u2019s Cade Odell (left) and Wheaton St. Francis\u2019 Jaylen Torres wrestle at 285 pounds at the 1A Oregon Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Earleen Hinton)Last year, Princeton qualified a then school-record four wrestlers for the IHSA state individual wrestling tournament, bringing home three state medals.The Tigers have one-upped that record this year, sending five wrestlers to Champaign with an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t