QJHS’s Hill wins state wrestling title as Comets finish in top 10 in Class AA team standings

QUINCY — The Quincy Junior High School wrestling team’s trip last weekend to the Illinois Elementary School Association state tournament proved incredibly fruitful.

The Comets crowned one state champion, one state runner-up and finished eighth out of 72 teams overall in Class AA at the Northern Illinois University Convocation Center in DeKalb, Ill.

At 126 pounds, QJHS seventh grader Brylin Hill won four matches to claim the state title. He scored a 16-0 technical fall in the opening round, a 9-1 major decision in the quarterfinals and a 6-1 victory in the semifinals. In the title match, Hill beat Mahomet-Seymour eighth grader Talon Decker 8-4.

Hill finished the season with a 33-1 record.

At 119 pounds, QJHS eighth grader Cooper Kamm finished as the state runner-up. He won his opening match with an 18-second pin, scored a 19-0 technical fall in the quarterfinals and had a 2-minute, 13-second pin in the semifinals. Kamm lost 6-2 to Homer Glen’s Christian Czerwinski.

Kamm finished the season with a 37-2 record.

At 85 pounds, QJHS seventh grader Clayton McClelland took fourth. He won his first two matches by pinfall, suffered an 8-2 loss in the semifinals, rebounded with an 8-6 victory in the consolation semifinals and was pinned in the second period in the third-place match.

McClelland finished his season with a 27-5 record.