InterMat's All-Quarter Century Team: Illinois

We started our All-Quarter Century feature by looking at a prominent Big Ten program, and today, we’re circling back to the B1G to look at another. Illinois. 

Illinois is a program that has seen a lot of star power come through Champaign in the last 25 years. Our first team contains six different NCAA champions - including one we saw in action just a few months ago. In the early part of the time observed, Illinois captured a Big Ten title and had a couple other near misses. With some momentum from 2025 and talented recruiting classes on the horizon, they could get back in the B1G title hunt sooner rather than later. 

While a lot of the first team was relatively easy to figure out there were overall some tough decisions and omissions. First and foremost, at 157/165. 157 has been a great weight for the Illini with three national finalists wrestling there since 2001. Throw in the fact that Isaiah Martinez wrestled at 157 and 165 there were some difficult choices to make. Martinez has to be on the first team. The decision came between Mike Poeta (157) and Matt Lackey (165). Martinez would go one weight and someone excellent would be bumped to the second team. 

Another decision came at 133 lbs. Big Ten champion and All-American Mark Jayne wasn’t on one of the top three teams. You could probably make an argument that he might be worthy of a second-team selection, as Zane Richards and BJ Futrell all had very strong careers, but a case could be made for Jayne. 

Wrestlers considered for the three teams had to compete from 2001 to 2025. For the wrestlers early in this timeframe, their entire collegiate body of work was considered. Only collegiate results were taken into consideration. Even if a wrestler was successful at multiple weights, they were only selected for one weight - typically, it was based on the strongest possible first team.

After the three All-Century teams, there are some fun facts about Cornell’s results over the past 25 years.

Here are the programs we’ve already covered

Cornell

Lehigh

Minnesota

Missouri

NC State

First Team

125 lbs - Jesse Delgado: Gilroy, California  - 3x AA (1,1,7), 2x NCAA champion, 2x Big Ten champion

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