Reef Pacot finishes in second at Class 1A state tournament, picks up fourth state medal
By Fred Kroner
Senior Reef Pacot capped his four-year high school wrestling career with his fourth successive state medal on Saturday (Feb. 18).
The Oakwood/Salt Fork 145-pounder was the Class 1A state runner-up at 145 pounds, dropping a 3-1 overtime decision to unbeaten Paul Ishikawa, a senior from Illini Bluffs.
The two grapplers spent the six minutes of regulation seeking a takedown, instead settling for one escape apiece.
The title-match loss – which came on a takedown with 20 seconds remaining – didn’t detract from the legacy Pacot will leave behind.
“He’s a high-character kid who has had a super-awesome career,” Comets 12th-year coach Mike Glosser said. “He wrestled a great match and it’s hard to be upset.
“He came up on the short end, but that’s why you wrestle; for moments like that. He was right where he wanted to be.”
The Oakwood/Salt Fork program has had a wrestler in a state championship match the last five years. The others, prior to Pacot, were Joe Lashuay (2022 and 2021), Gage Reed (2020) and Mason Ajster (2019). Reed and Lashuay (2021) were state champions.
Pacot is the first wrestler from Catlin to participate in a state championship wrestling match.
Glosser’s assistant, Vince Chambliss, accompanied Pacot in the Grand March.
“Vince got Reef started in the Storm Youth Program,” Glosser said. “This was fitting. They started together and they finished together.”
Chambliss is in his 14th year with the Storm Youth Program, which had 89 participants from throughout Vermilion County this season.
“I got back into wrestling when Reef was 5,” Chambliss said.
He knew Pacot, he said, “since Day 1.”
Pacot’s father, T.J., and Chambliss are first cousins.
“Reef asked me to walk with him (in the finals),” Chambliss said. “He said without me, he wouldn’t be doing this. This was a super-special event for me.”
Chambliss is not surprised by Pacot’s success.
“Out of the gate, he was a tough dude,” Chambliss said. “He was always an athletic and talented kid and was like a sponge.”
Pacot is a classic example of a point Chambliss emphasizes with all of his squad members.
“I tell them youth wrestling doesn’t dictate what you’ll do in high school,” Chambliss said. “Reef was a five-time youth state-qualifier, but a one-time placer (as a seventh-grader).
“He has improved unbelievably and matured a ton after his eighth-grade year. It’s a great story and Reef is the perfect picture of it.”
He took the sport to a new level while in high school.
Pacot re-wrote the Oakwood/Salt Fork record books. Among his most prominent marks are a career record for wins, 158-19. The previous program career win record was 145, held by Ren Dazey.
Pacot was 47-3 as a senior, the Comets’ best one-season win total.
“He has good movement, good fakes and is tough to score on,” Glosser said. “He’s a special wrestler.
“The cool thing is that he has fun. He doesn’t look like he feels any pressure and he’s one of the toughest competitors I’ve coached.”
Pacot started his state run with a 10-4 victory, followed by a 16-1 technical fall in the quarterfinals and a 6-2 triumph in the semifinals.
Besides his runner-up finish as a senior, Pacot was fifth as a junior, fourth as a sophomore and sixth as a freshman. He is the program’s first four-time placer.
Chambliss, who joined the high school coaching staff last year, said his role with the youth program is to introduce the basics.
“I tell Glosser his job is to polish them,” Chambliss said, “and he has done a phenomenal job with this young man and all of the rest.”
Pacot was one of five squad members who competed at state for Oakwood/Salt Fork. Four of the five won at least one match and two fell just one victory away from earning a state medal.
At 113 pounds, freshman Tyler Huchel was 2-2. At 126, sophomore Pedro Rangel was also 2-2. Each would have been in the medal round with one additional win.
“Huchel is a scrapper and had a great tourney,” Glosser said.
In Huchel’s state debut, he recorded a 42-second pin.
In the match that eliminated him from the medal round, Huchel carried a 1-0 lead into the final 20 seconds before yielding a takedown and lost, 2-1.
The program’s other state-qualifiers were sophomore Carter Chambliss (132 pounds) and junior Bryson Capansky (152 pounds). Capansky finished the year with a 41-10 overall record, including an 8-7 victory at state.
“They are all special kids and I look for them to keep moving up,” Glosser said. “All of them have been together since they were 5, 6 or 7 years old.”
The season is not finished for the Comets.
The Oakwood/Salt Fork program will return to action in the IHSA Class 1A Team Dual meet on Tuesday (Feb. 21) at Vandalia against Anna-Jonesboro. The Comets are 20-10 in dual meets and will be facing Anna-Jonesboro for the first time this season.
For the third time in the past nine years, the Comets have reached the 20-win mark for season dual-meet victories.
That Tuesday winner will advance to the state quarterfinals, which will be held on Saturday (Feb. 25) at Grossinger Motors Arena, in Bloomington. Neither Oakwood nor Salt Fork has had a team advance to state in wrestling.
