Rich Township's Nasir Bailey, Mount Carmel's Sergio Lemley both capture fourth straight state wrestling championships

Bailey, the top-ranked wrestler nationally at 138 pounds, finishes 43-1

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The IHSA state wrestling tournament has been around since 1937 and there have been fewer than 20 four-time individual champs.

That short list added another couple of names Saturday night at State Farm Center, but the journeys of Mount Carmel's Sergio Lemley and Rich Township's Nasir Bailey have been unlike any other in state history.

Both won titles as freshmen in 2020, just before COVID shut down prep sports and most everything else. With the 2021 IHSA tournaments canceled because of the pandemic, Lemley and Bailey moved out of state to keep their title streaks alive – Lemley to Chesterton, Ind., and Bailey to Arlington, Texas. They came back to Illinois to go 3-for-3 in championship quests last year and completed their four-peats over the weekend at State Farm Center.

Bailey, who celebrated with a somersault on the mat, and Lemley reflected on their unconventional careers, including some memorable beginnings.

Bailey, who is ranked No. 1 nationally at 138 pounds by SBLive, already made history as a freshman at T.F. North when he was part of the first trio of brothers to win state wrestling titles in the same season. He's going to be reunited with one of those brothers, Bilal, next season when they're college teammates at Little Rock. And middle brother Sincere also won a Texas state title in the pandemic year before moving on to college at North Carolina.

As he moves from one level of wrestling to the next, Bailey (43-1) was in both a celebratory and reflective mood.

"It's my last official IHSA match ever," he said after winning 5-2 over St. Charles East's Tyler Guerra (46-6) in the 3A 138 final. "So it's just all surreal. I just wanted to fully take it in and enjoy myself, my last hurrah."

Before Saturday's final, Bailey was reflecting on starting his title run with his siblings.

"I was just thinking about that freshman year and the mentoring that my brothers went through with me," he said.

After a successful run in kids wrestling, Bailey had his eye on four IHSA titles from the get-go.

"I mean, I lost one state tournament my whole life, at 10 years old," he said. "That still haunts me to this day. ... Losing was never an option for me."

Lemley didn't initially see himself as a four-time IHSA champ when he arrived at Mount Carmel. But someone else did.

"It's kind of funny," Lemley said after edging Prospect's Will Bysingar 3-2 in the Class 3A 132-pound final. "The first day of practice my freshman year, coach (Alex Tsirtsis) must have (seen something) I didn't. I was expecting just to go in there and have fun.

"But he looked at me dead straight in the eye and said, 'You can win state this year.' And at the time I wasn't nationally ranked, I didn't win any big tournaments."

But Lemley, a Michigan recruit, got that first title against a nationally-ranked opponent and from then on, he bought into Tsirtsis' confidence.

"I was just like, 'Yeah, this can actually happen,'" Lemley said. "High-quality coach believes in me, then I can definitely believe in myself. So after that, it's one after the other."

Title No. 4 didn't come easily. Lemley (35-1), ranked No. 2 at 132 nationally, needed an ultimate tiebreaker to earn a 2-1 win over national fourth-ranked Vincent Robinson (33-3) of Homewood-Flossmoor in the semifinals. Then he faced Bysingar (50-2), who also is nationally ranked at No. 18.

"How I look at it is, you've got to give something to take something," Lemley said. "I gave it all I have and now I'm taking some hardware."

Joliet Catholic junior Dillan Johnson won the Class 2A title at 285 pounds / Photo by Nate Latsch, SBLive Sports

Looking out for No. 1

Two more nationally top-ranked wrestlers joined Bailey in winning titles.

The 3A 126 final matched a pair of nationally-ranked defending champs. No. 1 Ben Davino (50-0), a St. Charles East junior, prevailed 6-1 in sudden victory over No. 18 Jameson Garcia (40-5), a Marmion senior.

Davino had a tough self-evaluation afterward.

"I didn't wrestle to my potential so it's just kind of disappointing," he said.

In Class 2A, Joliet Catholic junior Dillan Johnson (43-0) won his second title with an 8-2 decision over Aurora Christian's Braden Hunter (12-1) in the 285 title bout.

Johnson also is getting significant recruiting interest as a football defensive lineman with Power Five offers from Missouri and Iowa State. 

Balancing football and wrestling is "a difficult task," Johnson said. "But my dad helps me out with the training a lot."

Bremen freshman Morgan Turner made history at the 2023 Illinois state wrestling championships / Nate Latsch photo

Making history

Illinois debuted a girls wrestling state series last year and the sport is soaring in popularity. Until then, girls had competed in the boys state series and in 2018, Richards' Mia Palumbo became the first female to win a match at boys state (she went 2-2 that year).

Bremen freshman Morgan Turner didn't compete in the girls state series this year, however. And on Saturday she became the first girl to place in the boys state finals, finishing third at 106 in Class 2A.

"I won at IKWF (Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation) boys state ... so I'm not going to be able to stop till I take first (in high school)," she said.

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Rich Township's Nasir Bailey does a flip after winning the Illinois Class 3A championship at 138 pounds / Nate Latsch photo

Photos: Illinois boys individual wrestling state finals

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SBLive Sports National High School Wrestling Rankings (2/16/2023)