Whether he’s competing on the mat or creating content to entertain his legion of online followers, Lemont’s Cory Zator has gone all in on wrestling.
After quitting football, Zator threw himself entirely into wrestling for his senior year. While he piles up championships and climbs the rankings, he’s also growing a large audience on social media, where he documents his wrestling journey and posts fitness videos.
He has 65,000 followers on Instagram and 47,000 on TikTok.
“I realized wrestling is what I truly love doing,” Zator said. “It’s what I want to do in college and what I want to pursue for my career with social media.
“I didn’t just fall in love with the sport, but I fell in love with the lifestyle. That’s why I love what I’m doing right here, right now.”
Zator is achieving plenty of success along the way. He rolled to the 126-pound championship Saturday at the South Suburban Conference Tournament at Shepard in Palos Heights.
Zator, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A at 126 by Illinois Matmen, faced off in the finals with Oak Forest junior Jacob Sebek, who is ranked No. 1 at 120.
Zator (26-4) dominated, winning by a 14-2 major decision.
“I faced him in our dual and I pinned him,” Zator said. “This time, I knew I could do more than pin him. I wanted to put on a show. I wanted to tech him.
“The last few weeks, I’ve been getting so much better and I’ve gained that confidence where I think I’m dangerous. I’m the best guy out here and I’m going to show it.”
Zator was a starting defensive back for Lemont in football as a junior but made the decision to step away from that sport before his senior year.
“I’d be playing or practicing for football and in my head I’m thinking, ‘I need to be getting better at wrestling,’” Zator said. “I knew this was where my passion was.”
Lemont coach Egan Berta has seen how far that fervor has taken Zator.
“Once he fully devoted himself to wrestling and focused on his offseason training, the jump has been huge,” Berta said. “He’s wrestling with a lot more confidence and being a lot more aggressive. We really think he can take that top spot on the podium this year at state.”
As for his online work, content creation has long been a hobby for Zator. Merging that interest with his love for wrestling was a natural progression.
“I’ve been doing social media since I was young, doing niche accounts about different things,” Zator said. “But my niche became me. I started recording myself. I’ve been documenting my life and building a personal brand.
“Now, my niche is wrestling and fitness videos. It’s what I love to do.”
Zator hopes to take his followers along on a journey to state success. That’s also something he wants to do for his older brothers, Kyle and Jake, who both wrestled at Lemont.
“They were never able to get their name on the wall at school for being a state placer, so they’ve been putting that on to me,” Zator said. “But in a good way, not a lot of pressure or anything.”
Lemont senior Judah Heeg, a defending state champion who won the 190-pound conference title Saturday, believes Zator will reach that goal to place at state — and more.
“Cory’s constantly working harder and harder every single day and you can see it’s showing up on the mat,” Heeg said. “His leg attacks are coming very easy for him. I definitely see him being a state champion.”
Of course, that would be a dream come true for Zator.
“This being my last year of high school wrestling, I really want to enjoy it,” Zator said. “But I also want to get that state title. I truly have high hopes.”
