CHAMPAIGN — The first match of the IHSA Class 1A state tournament went down pretty easily for Unity's Buddy Daly.
Daly went up 5-0 in the opening period and nearly won by fall on multiple occasions in rolling to a 16-1 tech fall victory over Rockridge's Kadmiel Smith. The victory moves Daly into the quarterfinals at 140 pounds where he will wrestle top-ranked and undefeated Guy Kirby (37-0) of GCMS.
The match will be held during tonight's 6 p.m. quarterfinal round. Daly said he'll need to bring his best to beat Kirby.
"I'm going to try as hard as I can and do everything," Daly said. "I'm going to go all out."
The Unity junior didn't need to do much more than be aggressive in beating Smith to improve to 33-7. Daly was up 5-0 within the first minute of the match, and nearly tapped out Smith twice before the end of the opening round. Up 14-0 in the third round, Daly gave up his only point on an intentional escape to finish off the tech fall with another takedown.
"I think I did everything I could to win it," Daly said. "I could have used some more stamina, but I wrestled well."
Daly had a five-hour window from the completion of his first match to Friday's quarterfinals. He planned to use that time for preparation.
"I just have to work on all the moves I can do what I need to be ready," he said.
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