Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Oswego’s Dillon Griffin, state alternate last year, chasing bid for Champaign at sectionals this weekend

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Oswego’s Dillon Griffin, state alternate last year, chasing bid for Champaign at sectionals this weekend · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Oswego's Dylan Griffin state alternate last year, chasing bid for
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  Champagne at Sectionals this weekend. Written by Joshua WELJD. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  you by Everlett. Dylan Griffin has had a front row
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  seat to the experience that is the state wrestling tournament.
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  He also has experience with near misses. The Oswego senior
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  was a state alternate last year. His older brothers Joey
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  and Aiden, likewise came a match short of State. Griffin
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  has twice been warm up partners to teammates at State.
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  Last year, to Braden Swanson, it would be the coolest
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  thing ever to be on those six Orange matts. Looking
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  into that abyss, Griffin said, it's almost never ending. Griffin
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  will go for a trip to Champagne as a competitor
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  when he participates at the Class three eight Edwardsville Sectionalday
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  and Saturday. He's one of three Oswego Sectional qualifiers along
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  with Aiden Ortez and Nolan O'Grady. Griffin, who wrestles at
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  one hundred and forty four pounds, and Ortez, who wrestles
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  at one hundred and thirty eight are coming off regional championships.
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  I'm feeling as confident as one should be going into sectionals.
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  Griffin said, I can't be too confident or not confident enough.
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  I am happy where I am seated in the bracket,
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  excited to get out there. Nick Kay Griffin, twenty five,
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  had a late start to his season as he played
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  for Oswego's Class eight A state finalist football team. It
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  set him back conditioning wise, and it took him a
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  while to get rolling. Oswego coach Andrew Cook said the
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  last few weeks of January, Griffin found his stride. He
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  wrestled at a high level the last three weeks of January.
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  He is a kid that is never out of a match,
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  always wrestling in a match to score points. Cook said.
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  He is a kid that has been around wrestling for
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  a long time. His brothers have wrestled. He has a
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  younger brother. He's seen a lot of different situations. He
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  is ready for the weekend. Griffin's season has not been
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  a linear path here. He went one to two at
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  the Hinsdale Central Tournament, what he deemed a poor performance
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  that motivated him and went on a good spurt. A
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  second low point came after the Aliini Classic, in which
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  Griffin lost both matches. Something had to change. It was
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  hard to look in the mirror, Griffin said. Mentally it
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  just flipped. Doing that poorly made it hard for me
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  to look at myself in the mirror, and then physically
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  I had to go harder in the room. Thankful for Ortiz.
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  He definitely pushes me. Indeed, Griffin and Ortiz have been
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  going at it as training partners back to middle school,
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  like two pit bulls fighting in there, Griffin said, wrestling
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  the kid that wrestles his style that is so quick
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  it prepares for you for almost anything. If I could
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  be another wrestler, it would probably be him. Or Ties
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  thirty two six, also a sectional qualifier last year, emerged
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  from what Cook deemed maybe the toughest bracket of Regionals
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  at one thirty eight as champion. My season I think
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  has been good, or Tie said, I took six losses
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  and learned from every single one of them. The difference
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  from this year to last year is I'm taking it
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  more seriously and learning to get better through every one
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  of the matches. I'm just more focused. Oswego's wrestlers will
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  be joined in Edwardsville by twelve Yorkville wrestlers, seven of
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  them regional champions in Class one A. Yorkville Christian will
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  have fourteen wrestlers, twelve of them regional champions, competing at
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  the Coal City Sectional, and Sandwich will have five wrestlers,
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  two of them regional champions at the Byron Sectional. Oswego
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  East and Plano each have one sectional qualifier. Anytime you
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  get in a sectional meet, every round is tough. You
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  have to approach it one match at a time, one
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  period of time. We have to have that mindset going in,
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  Cook said, the guys are excited where we are. We
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  have not wrestled any of the guys in their first
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  match or two minus Nolan. We get to see some
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  new guys get out and compete with Alden crowt Alford Griffin,
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  who lost in the blood round at one hundred and
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  fifty last year at sectionals, said he'd probably be feeling
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  differently if he was at one hundred and fifty again
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  this year, but he's now walking in with the exact
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  same mentality. Just focusing on the goal one match at
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  a time, get to the state floor, Griffin said, just
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  focus on one match at a time. Don't focus on
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  winning or losing, just wrestling your best match.