Sherburne-Earlville junior wrestler Greg DuVall knew right away that he needed to make some changes. A two-time sectional wrestling champion in eighth and ninth grade, DuVall dipped to a fifth-place finish in the Section III, Division II tournament a year ago.

“The very next day (after the tournament), I got in the weight room,” DuVall said. “I realized I was too small for my weight class. I lifted three days a week over the summer and wrestled the other two days. I’ve continued that until today because I couldn’t let what happened last year happen again. I don’t think I’ve taken a day off since last season.”

The product of DuVall’s hard work is a bigger, stronger, and perhaps even better version of the grappler who is perhaps the Marauders’ best hope at bringing home a sectional championship.

Sporting a perfect 29-0 record this season, DuVall enters tonight’s first round of the tournament as the number three seed at 135 pounds. The various criteria for seeding wrestlers includes past year’s sectional tournament results, and based on that alone, S-E head coach Bim Palmer agrees his pupil is in the right spot. “If you go by that stuff (criteria), he should be the third seed,” Palmer said. “We know how good he is. He does fly under the radar, and the third seed doesn’t bother him. It doesn’t give (Greg) any sense that he won’t be in the finals. I believe in him, and he’ll go to the end.”