Knights’ senior reflects on productive summer season.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
Winning a state championship tends to get one noticed.
IC Catholic Prep senior Joey Bianchini, who won a Class A state wrestling title last season, is drawing interest at the college level. Bianchini said he’s looking into Purdue University, The University of Buffalo, St. Cloud State in Minnesota and Campbell University in North Carolina.
“I will take all my visits in September and we’ll go from there,” he said. “Those are the four I’m really looking into.”
Coming off the Class A title, Bianchini achieved even more success by competing in the Greco-Roman and freestyle national competitions in Fargo this summer as part of Team Illinois.
“Fargo always is a great experience,” he said. “You learn new lessons there all the time. I didn’t wrestle my best and made some mistakes here and there and that cost me matches. I’m going to learn from it and get back to work.”
Bianchini made it to the round of 32 in both disciplines at nationals.
“In Greco, I started out well and made it to the round of 32,” he said. “I lost to a kid who ended up in the finals. I didn’t come back as strong as I wanted to. I went 2-2 in freestyle and won my first two matches.”
This was Bianchini’s second appearance at the prestigious Fargo event.
“I definitely knew what to expect this time,” he said. “I was in the Junior division last year and was in Cadet this year, so that was a little different. It’s a tough tournament. There is no one not prepared to go to war when you go to Fargo. All the practices are tough and all the matches are tough. This was a learning lesson on the mat, for sure. I will get back to the board and prepare for this coming year.”
Bianchini also represented Team Illinois in the dual-team junior Greco-Roman national championships that Illinois won, defeating Minnesota in the finals.
“It was a team experience,” he said. “It was neat to help Illinois win another national title. That tournament was more about the team.”
Bianchini wrestled at 126 pounds for Greco and 132 for freestyle. He won the Class A high-school title at 113 pounds last season.
“I grew a couple of inches and I’ve bulked up a bit,” he said.
BIanchini said as of now, he’s planning on competing his senior year at either 132 or 138 pounds.
“For sure, it will be a lot different,” he said of the weight-class increase. “It’s a different style compared to how the smaller kids wrestle.”
In the recent summertime, Bianchini has been resting up. “Lately I’ve been off the mat a little bit clearing my mind, but I’ve still been in the weight room,” he said.
Bianchini noted he will soon begin workouts once again with the Izzy Style wrestling club.
“Practice will start up again this week,” he said. “Izzy Style is great. The coaches are great and the competition is great. It gets you better every day.”
When asked about his obvious goal for the 2017-2018 high-school season—winning another state title—Bianchini responded with the expected answer.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
Bianchini went 38-1 for IC Catholic Prep as a junior.
