Big Ten Weekly Recap (1/30/2025)

Illinois has an up-and-down weekend - The Fighting Illini were looking to bounce back after losing to Iowa last weekend and started out with a bang. They took out Maryland to the tune of a 33-7 win. Lucas Byrd returns after the loss last weekend to Drake Ayala with a nice 7-3 win over Braxton Brown. Kannon Webster gets a pin over Kal Miller. Luke Luffman gets a ranked win over Nevills at heavyweight. 

Maryland’s top two guys put it together at 157 with Ethan Miller putting on a 15-6 major decision win over Jason Kraisser, and Jaxon Smith got a 4-3 win over Edmond Ruth as well. Overall, it was a dominant Illinois performance, and they moved on with hopes of closing out a strong weekend against Rutgers. 

The Scarlet Knights, however, had other ideas. This dual was literally back-and-forth, with each team splitting matches from 125 through 184. Eventually, Illinois gets the sudden victory win from Edmond Ruth winning in sudden victory, followed by a big win from Zac Braunagel over Poznanski, to head into the heavyweight match to decide the final. Yaraslau Slavikouski, who was in this position against Ohio State recently, was able to get it done this time. He picks up the sudden victory win against Luffman to seal the dual for Rutgers in the end. 

Illinois continues their season as they host Purdue this Saturday for Military Appreciation Day, Maryland hosts Iowa on Sunday to wrestle the Hawkeyes, and Rutgers season continues with the Golden Gophers this Sunday.

Iowa upends the Buckeyes at home - The Hawkeyes win the battle of the ‘eyes’ as they took out the Buckeyes at home over the weekend. The dual started with a nice win for Joey Cruz at 125 getting an upset over Brendan McCrone 6-5 to start things off. Going into the dual word got out that we weren’t going to see Bouzakis or Ayala, so at 133 we had Ben Davino, stud true freshman for Ohio State, getting a tech fall over Keyan Hernandez of Iowa. Following that up with another tech fall for Jesse Mendez at 141, the dual was 2-1 for the bouts, but 10-3 on the scoreboard. 

Iowa plugged away as they took regular decisions at 149 and 157 with the return of Jacori Teemer. Caliendo broke it open a bit with a major of Paddy Gallagher at 165, before Kharchla got the upset over Patrick Kennedy at 174. At this point, it’s 13-12 Buckeyes, but that was the last Ohio State win of the dual. Gabe Arnold pulled off a solid OT win against the always-dangerous Ryder Rogotzke at 184 before Stephen Buchanan put the dual away with a tech at 197. We did still get to see a "Battle of the Titans" with Ben Kueter and Nick Feldman giving the crowd a show at 285, with Kueter getting the 5-4 win. This weekend Ohio State travels to Ann Arbor to take on the Wolverines, and Iowa travels to Penn State in the most anticipated dual of the season this Friday night!

Wolverines are up and down on the weekend at home - Michigan had a double dose of wrestling action this weekend with varied results. They started against their first red team with the Cornhuskers of Nebraska coming to Ann Arbor. Similarly to last season, the dual started quickly for Nebraska and slowly for Michigan, as Nebraska took the first 8 matches of the dual. Jacob Cardenas and Josh Heindselman finished with wins for Michigan, but it was a tough beginning to the weekend for them. They battled back on Sunday afternoon with their second battle against a red team taking down Indiana 22-13. The theme for Michigan this season has been slow starts with the lower weights and hoping to battle back with the upper weights, which proved the same against the Hoosiers. There were some nice wins however with Beau Mantanona beating Tyler Lillard 8-5 at 165, and Josh Heindselman picked up his second win over Jacob Bullock on the season, this time 2-1. The Wolverines will once again face a red team this coming weekend as they take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor on Big Ten Network!