Berta, a Junior, competed in the IHSA State Finals for Wrestling at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on February 18th-20th where he finished in second place for Class 2A at 145 lbs.

Egan Berta has always been into high contact sports. When he was younger, Berta played football for the Lemont Hornets; his coaches seemed to notice that he was into high intensity sports so they urged Berta to join a wrestling team. The rest, as they say, is history.

To reach the state title match at the State Farm Center, Berta defeated three other wrestlers, including undefeated Demarius Smith from Rantoul High School.

In the final match, Berta lost to Hunter Grau from Geneseo High by a technical fall with a final score of 23-8.

At the beginning of the season, Berta’s main goal was to reach the finals. Like most great athletes he wasn’t satisfied, “My goal at the start of the year was to make it to the finals which I did but once I was there I wanted more and wanted to win state.” said Berta. Luckily Berta’s only a junior and will have one more crack at the title next year.

Berta’s had so much help over his wrestling career that he found it hard to thank any one person saying, “I can’t really credit one person. I credit my coaches and practice partners for always pushing me and getting me better and then my parents for supporting me and always being at my competitions.”

With a support group like that there’s no reason to believe that Berta can’t achieve his goals for the future which include not only wrestling for the school but also qualifying for the Fargo National Wrestling Championships, the biggest wrestling championship in the U.S.

Berta’s main focus, however, is finishing the job he started this year saying,”My goal is definitely to be an undefeated state champ next year.”