Kenwood’s Love Among Boys Wrestling City Champions

By Mike Clark

Kameron Love’s path to a Public League wrestling title was unconventional, to say the least.

The Kenwood senior’s main sport has long been football. As a middle linebacker, he had 26 tackles, six tackles for loss and five sacks for the Broncos last season, and he’s heading to Division II McKendree.

Love didn’t even start wrestling till last season, when he competed up a weight at 215. Giving away that many pounds, “things didn’t go so well,” he said.

But he committed to the sport over the offseason, working with the Englewood Livewire Wrestling Club at Ogden Park.

“It got me better, just going there every day, doing freestyle, (Greco-Roman), just working my butt off.”

He was set up for a big senior season on the mat. But late in the football season, Love suffered an ankle fracture. Though he was able to practice, he wasn’t cleared for competition till the last week of December.

Sitting out was frustrating.

“I really wanted to compete in all the tough tournaments like Ironman,” he said. “… But I couldn’t because of my ankle.”

But Love is back healthy, and on Jan. 25 he won the Public League 190-pound title at Young, beating defending champ Sami Marrero of Horizon Southwest 7-3.

Love (14-0) was one of two unbeaten champs along with Goode sophomore Jayden Veal (34-0), who beat Ag. Science’s Maurice Bush 11-7 in the 144 final.

“I honestly thought I was gonna take a few losses (this season),” Veal said. “But realizing the work that I’ve been putting in and the change in my mentality, I knew coming into this tournament (that) I was gonna dominate. …

“I’ve just got high standards for myself as a sophomore. I’ve been wrestling like this is my senior year and I’ve just got everything to lose, everything on the line. So that was the difference maker this year.”

Taft senior Bernardo Roque (30-2) reached his fourth Public League final and won his third title with a technical fall against Little Village’s Benito Chavez at 120.

“I told myself, ‘All you can do is all you can do,’ and (I’m) giving it all I’ve got,” Roque said. “So leaving no regrets out there.”

Winning multiple city titles wasn’t necessarily on his radar when he got to high school.

“I didn’t really think that much zoomed out when I came into freshman year,” he said. “But after … I got runner-up freshman year … that opened my eyes right there. … And I made sure every day when it came to this day of the year — made sure I was ready to perform.”

Hancock junior Malakai Davis (27-1) repeated as 175 champ by pinning Mather’s Willen Johnston at 44 seconds in the final.

Davis has bigger goals ahead.

“It’s another stepping stone,” he said of winning the Public League. “This is just what I need to do in order to get to state, so it’s going to be done.”

After missing a trip to state last season, Davis went back to work.

“I think I’m getting much better at my defense,” he said. “That was why I didn’t get to state — too much offense, not enough defense. … I really worked on that.”

Lane, which won its fifth straight Public League dual-team title the previous weekend, had a meet-high three champs. Senior Jose Curiel (32-9) won at 113, senior Joaquin Salameda (27-16) took first at 132 and senior Fenton Pratt (31-13) won at 150.

“This means so much,” Pratt said. “Wrestling’s been with me since freshman year. … It’s like a second home on the mat. It’s almost like going to therapy.

“This for me has been the biggest tournament of the year. I’ve been looking forward to it so much.”

Three teams had two champs: Taft with Roque and freshman Dreyton Pedregosa (15-7) at 106; Goode, with Veal and junior Thomas Davis (23-9) at 215; and Kenwood, with Love and senior Dameon Norman (14-2) at 285.

Also winning titles were Ag. Science sophomore Jeremy Powell (29-3) at 126, Horizon Southwest junior Alonte Lorek (24-5) at 138, Senn senior Lennon Ojeda (16-1) at 157 and Lake View senior Andre Kurbatov (25-4) at 165.

Ojeda fulfilled a longtime quest.

“This is my first-ever wrestling goal since freshman year,” he said. “This was the goal, this is the dream.”

Photos by Alex Beryozkin, Northside sophomore