Overview

The illini men’s gymnastics team faces off against Oklahoma today at that time. https://fightingillini.com/sports/mens-gymnastics/schedule

Looks like the sooner/cheaters chickened out. Its off the Espn+ schedule unless of course B1G+ picked it up.

Well sure but is the dual in Norman, Champaign or a neutral site? I think it's a pretty cool triple header weekend. Mary on Friday, Cheeters on Saturday and Queens on Sunday.

RESULTS: Weight Matchup Score 125: Caelan Riley (ILL) dec. Abram Cline (MARY), 10-5 ILL 3 I MARY 0 133: #4 Lucas Byrd (ILL) dec. #11 Braxton Brown (MARY), 7-3 ILL 6 I MARY 0 141: #12 Danny Pucino (ILL) dec. Dario Lemus (MARY), 8-5 ILL 9 I MARY 0 149: #12 Kannon Webster (ILL) over #32 Kal Miller (MARY), fall (4:39) ILL 15 I MARY 0 157: #6 Ethen Miller (MARY) major dec. #22 Jason Kraisser (ILL), 15-6 ILL 15 I MARY 4 165: #13 Braeden Scoles (ILL) tech. fall Alex Uryniak (MARY), 20-3 (3:15) ILL 20 I MARY 4 174: #21 Danny Braunagel (ILL) tech. fall Branson John (MARY), 22-7 (5:24) ILL 25 I MARY 4 184: #13 Jaxon Smith (MARY) dec. #10 Edmond Ruth (ILL), 4-3 ILL 25 I MARY 7 197: #18 Zac Braunagel (ILL) tech. fall Chase Mielnik (MARY), 20-4 (3:55) ILL 30 I MARY 7 285: #10 Luke Luffman (ILL) dec. #12 Seth Nevills (MARY), 4-2 ILL 33 I MARY 7 That was a whuppin'. Maryland started out 3-0 in the Big Ten, but that came to a screeching halt. Braxton Brown, Seth Nevills, Jaxon Smith and Ethen Miller are quality wrestlers. They just happened to wrestle at weights were the ILLINI have a better stud, or the ILLINI were good enough to keep the matches close. Close-ish in the Miller/Kraisser matchup considering Miller is ranked #6 and is undefeated now at 16-0. Luffman and Byrd are stacking top ten and top fifteen victories. I think Kal Miller is a darn good wrestler, but we got OG Webster tonight. Glad to see Caelan Riley get his first B1G dual win. He also accounted for multiple takedowns. That should help the confidence quite a bit. Big match with Rutgers on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how they respond to their PSU beatdown. GO ILLINI!!!* *GO ILLINI intended in the most fair and impartial journalistic manner.

It is on the ESPN+ schedule, but it is a mistake. Oklahoma wrestles Northern Iowa on Saturday.

If you can't killed em just roll em over ... no need to fear em.

I once did a graphic about how the ILLINI shouldn't fear the turtle, they should kill the turtle! Can't find it now. Cheers and GO ILLINI!!!

Yeah but what about turtle strategy? I hear once they roll over ...

WHAT: The ILLINI dual Maryland WHEN: Friday, January 24 at 6:00 pm Central WHERE: College Park, Maryland TV/STREAMING: BTN+ (subscription service) STREAK: The ILLINI are 8-0 in the series WHY WE HATE MARYLAND I'm having a rage seizure thinking about this state. The name sounds like a cheesy amusement park or Putt-Putt course. Maryland was actually named after a lady who wasn't even technically a queen because she was the wrong religion and was never coronated and then fled England as soon as her husband's head was chopped off. Moreover, there's this phrase, "a bunch of Mary's." It refers to a group of men who won't fight or who don't fight well. Perfect. Finally, the state had THE IDEAL OPPORTUNITY to change its name. In 1776, there was a freaking revolution! You can bet that it was discussed at high-level meetings, and a bunch of Mary's probably chimed in with, "Well, it's already on all the stationery." THE RUTGERS MATCH Maryland will only have one match this weekend. The ILLINI will have two. After traveling to College Park for that dual, they'll need to hit Piscataway, New Jersey for a dual with Rutgers on Sunday at Noon Central. ILLINOIS is 3-2 all time against the Scarlet Knights. In a tweet discussing the top tier of the conference, Shane Sparks gave them bulletin board material by putting the Orange and Blue above the team from Jersey. On the other hand, Wrestlestat.com is going with a 16-15 win for the bad guys. There will be great matches up and down the lineup, but wins from the Brawlnagels and Luuuuke Luffman will be key to victory. SCOUTING MARYLAND The ILLINI are #13 according to Wrestle.com and have a 7-2 dual record with wins over SIUE (41-3), Binghamton (30-10), Arizona State (37-6), Missouri (23-14), North Carolina (24-14), Indiana (34-3) and Northwestern (33-7). The losses were to Ohio State (9-24) and Iowa (6-28). Maryland is 8-5, and for the first time, starts the B1G season 3-0. They have a team ranking of #28 on Wrestlestat.com. The Terps have wins over Kent State (29-10), Bucknell (26-11), American (38-0), Morgan State (43-3), Michigan (19-18), Michigan State (27-11) and Wisconsin (24-13). Losses were to Pitt (12-25), Rider (17-18), SDSU (7-27), Binghamton (10-28) and Columbia (18-19). We're not sure which dual box score would be the most relevant to our discussion, maybe the loss to common opponent Binghamton, but we know which one is the funniest, so we'll show the win over Michigan: 125: Christian Tanefeu major dec. (12-4) Tyler Garvin (Michigan 4, Maryland 0) 133: No. 14/15 Braxton Brown fall (5:45) Nolan Wertanen (Maryland 6, Michigan 4) 141: No. 12/9 Sergio Lemley dec. (6-3) Dario Lemus (Michigan 7, Maryland 6) 149: No. 29/32 Kal Miller dec. (4-3) No. 28 Derek Gilcher dec. (Maryland 9, Michigan 7) 157: No. 6/8 Ethen Miller dec. (4-2) No. 16/19 Chase Saldate (Maryland 12, Michigan 7) 165: No. 26 Beau Mantanona dec. (6-4) Alex Uryniak (Maryland 12, Michigan 10) 174: No. 32 Branson John dec. (5-4) No. 25 Joseph Walker (Maryland 15, Michigan 10) 184: No. 13/11 Jaxon Smith dec. (4-1) No. 19 Jaden Bullock (Maryland 18, Michigan 10) 197: No. 3/2 Jacob Cardenas tech fall (15-0, 4:54) Chase Mielnik (Maryland 18, Michigan 15) 285: No. 10/12 Josh Heindselman dec. (4-2) No. 13/14 Seth Nevills (Maryland 18, Michigan 18) ***the Terps earned a point on criteria for the pin at 133, making the final score 19-18 in favor of Maryland A DAY IN HISTORY It's January 30, 2015. At the movies, you can choose between American Sniper, Project Almanac and Paddington. You're thinking that Paddington would be so awesome if you were like four. Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift are playing on the radio. Not your cup of tea. But the day will turn out to be nearly perfect as you head to Huff Hall to catch the ILLINI wrestling team put a Chicago back alley beatdown on Maryland. You get to see Jesse Delgado and IMAR on the same team along with Zane Richards, Jackson Morse, Steven Rodrigues and Zac Brunson, all of whom were, or would become, All Americans, although seeing Delgado in that shoulder brace kinda makes you sad. How did that ILLINI team not win the NCAA tournament? The Maryland wrestling team must be thinking the same thing as they get beat 3-32. IMAR and Morse get tech falls, while Zane rolls up a major. It is a good day. Here's a link to the recap; the box score and video highlights are below: #4 Illinois 32, Maryland 3 157: #2 Isaiah Martinez (ILL) over Lou Mascola (MARY) (TF 20-4, 4:32) 165: #8 Jackson Morse (ILL) over Tyler Manion (MARY) (TF 18-2, 4:15) 174: #8 Zac Brunson (ILL) over Josh Snook (MARY) (Dec 4-1) 184: #18 Nikko Reyes (ILL) over Tony Gardner (MARY) (Dec 6-2) 197: Jeff Koepke (ILL) over Rob Fitzgerald (MARY) (Dec 4-3) 285: Brooks Black (ILL) over #13 Spencer Myers (MARY) (TB1 2-1) 125: #1 Jesse Delgado (ILL) over Josh Polacek (MARY) (Dec 3-2) 133: #2 Zane Richards (ILL) over #16 Geoffrey Alexander (MARY) (MD 14-4) 141: #13 Steven Rodrigues (ILL) over Shyhiem Brown (MARY) (Dec 3-2) 149: Ben Dorsay (MARY) over Kyle Langenderfer (ILL) (Dec 3-1) THE INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS 125. #173 CAELAN RILEY vs. #165 Tyler Garvin. This is Caelan's time. Wrestlestat.com is predicting an 11-5 win for the kid from Lockport. That's not just a win, but a blowout! Garvin is a true Freshman with a 4-13 recored and a current nine-match losing streak. He has beaten the #74 wrestler from American, though, so Caelan will need to be sharp. THE REST AT THIS LINK.

You are providing a masterclass in the use of adjectives. Bravo!

Tom is wearing a stupid yellow shirt.

It appears they are using their stupid yellow & black mat!

Add your favorite duals here. Heck, you could include this year's ILLINI win over Arizona State. That was a thing of beauty! I will add duals to the thread as well. You could also include most memorable duals. I have a couple of those in my brain that didn't end up with an ILLINI win but were full of excitement in one way or another. To jog your memory, you can go to FightingILLINI.com and find the opponent on the schedule for this year or all the way back to 1998-1999 and look up their history against the Orange and Blue. As an example, this is the history for duals against Missouri. There are both memorable and favorite duals in that history!

A DAY IN HISTORY It is February 12, 2012. You check to see what's playing at the theaters, and it's all trash. The top four movies are Safe House, The Vow, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and perhaps the most disappointing film ever released, Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. You put the newspaper down in disgust. There's nothing happening on Snapchat, so you turn on the radio just in time to hear Casey Kasem's American's Top Forty as it runs through the top three in ascending order: Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson and Adele with Set Fire to the Rain. You put a hammer through the radio. It was made for cheap in Korea like your car and The Simpsons. And you try to remember when America made things, and then you remember that America makes great wrestlers, and you'll get to see some of them today as the #6 ILLINI are in the NWCA National Duals Regional Finals. They face #5 Cornell in cold and ugly Ithaca, New York. The dual starts out with that new Freshman sensation Jesse Delgado facing off against All American Frank Perelli of Cornell. Delgado is coming off an upset of #1 Matt McDonough in Iowa City, so you have your fingers crossed. You keep them crossed because this is a Flo stream. And there's the 8-3 win for the Cali Kid! He might turn out to be pretty good some day. At 133, All American BJ Futrell absolutely mauls an Arujau with a tech fall. Things are shaping up. You almost forget that Adele has the #1 song in America and that Jar Jar Binks exists. The team from ILLINOIS needed to win three of the four matches to start off the meet. They do. They needed that because the Big Red (named after chewing gum?) have #1 Kyle Dake, #5 Steve Bosak and #1 Cam Simaz later in their lineup. Jackson Morse actually takes Dake down in that match and the excitement is through the roof! He ends up losing 4-6, but there is no bonus. There is a window of opportunity here. All Americans Conrad Polz and Jordan Blanton win their matches for ILLINOIS at 165 and 174. But now we've hit the real tough stretch of the dual, as #5 Bosak and #1 Cam Simaz are warming up. But Head Coach Jim Heffernan pulls a fast one. He moves up his Sophomore 197-pounder to heavyweight to take on the Cornell Senior. It pays off! Mario Gonzalez wins, and the ILLINI take the dual! #6 Illinois 19, #5 Cornell 16 125 No. 6 Jesse Delgado (ILL) dec. No. 6 Frank Perrelli (COR), 8-3 133 No. 5 BJ Futrell (ILL) tech fall Naryman Arujau (COR), 18-3, 6:08 141 Mike Nevinger (COR) maj. dec. Daryl Thomas (ILL), 9-0 149 No. 17 Eric Terrazas (ILL) dec. Chris Villalonga (COR), 3-1 157 No. 1 Kyle Dake (COR) dec. Jackson Morse (ILL), 6-4 165 No. 9 Conrad Polz (ILL) dec. Marshall Peppelman (COR), 8-3 174 No. 12 Jordan Blanton (ILL) dec. William George (COR), 7-6 184 No. 5 Steve Bosak (COR) dec. Tony Dallago (ILL), 4-0 197 No. 1 Cam Simaz (COR) pinned Martin Smith (ILL), 3:31* HWT No. 14 Mario Gonzalez (ILL) dec. Maciej Jochym (COR), 8-2 -------------------------- This is my second-favorite ILLINI dual of all time. Part of the reason for it is that the win catapulted the Orange and Blue into the National Duals Final Four. Also, it was just a freaking great match. The NWCA National Duals brought excitement to the sport. I would love to see them happen again, and I would suggest that February is the best time. The way to bring back the National Duals is to have teams like ILLINOIS, Missouri, Cornell, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, NC State, Penn, Pitt, Northern Iowa and other highly-ranked teams all show up. Then, the champion gets to parade around for the rest of the year as NATIONAL CHAMPIONS. See how long Professor Carl and the Brandos keep their teams from becoming NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.

Great reading as always!

ILLINOIS VERSUS IOWA WHAT: ILLINI Wrestling Dual Against Stupid Iowa WHEN: Friday, January 17 at 6:00 pm Central WHERE: Stupid Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Stupid Iowa City TV/STREAMING: BTN A DAY IN HISTORY It is January 28, 2005. This is possibly the worst weekend in movie history as the top two at the box office are Hide and Seek and Are We There Yet? It's not much better on the radio with two top ten songs by Destiny's Child, Mario holding down the #1 spot and Nelly featuring Tim McGraw in the top ten. You've just thrown your boombox off the top of Starved Rock State Park into the ILLINOIS River. Your little Sister wants you to play the new Bratz video game that features the Bratz dolls traveling to London where they form a Spice-Girls-like band. You play for five minutes. And now you've just thrown the video game and your sister's Game Boy Advance over the cliff at Starved Rock State Park. You're finally on the road to Huff Hall. Surely, your day can't get any worse. Right? Gulp, the ILLINI have to face the #9 Iowa Hawkeyes in a home dual! Luckily, ILLINOIS is ranked #2 in the nation. It's a medieval thrashing. The Hawkeyes manage to win only two matches, and it is the kind of battle that poets will write about and scholars discuss for centuries. Here is a link to the official recap at FightingILLINI.com, and here's the box score: University of Illinois vs. University of Iowa Friday, January 28, 2005 Attendance: 3,573 (school record) 149: #16 Anton Dietzen dec. #5 Ty Eustice (Iowa), 3-2 3-0 157: #2 Alex Tirapelle dec. #7 Joe Johnston (Iowa), 7-5 6-0 165: #4 Mark Perry (Iowa) maj. dec. Cal Ferry (ILL), 12-2 6-4 174: #5 Pete Friedl (ILL) dec. Luke Lofthouse (Iowa), 12-5 9-4 184: #3 Brian Glynn (ILL) dec. #5 Paul Bradley (Iowa), 2-1 12-4 197: #13 Tyrone Byrd (ILL) dec. Adam Fellers (Iowa), 3-0 15-4 Hwt: #7 Matt Fields (Iowa) dec. #14 Mike Behnke (ILL), 6-3 15-7 125: #2 Kyle Ott (ILL) maj. dec. Charlie Falck (Iowa), 14-6 19-7 133: #4 Mark Jayne (ILL) dec. #14 Mario Galanakis (Iowa), 7-5 22-7 141: Cassio Pero (ILL) dec. #11 Alex Tsirtsis (Iowa), 4-3 25-7 THE TEAMS Legendary ILLINOIS basketball coach Lou Henson had a theory that every season his teams would have one magical game, one grotesquerie and the rest would be somewhere around the median. The ILLINI wrestling team has rid itself of its grotesquerie against Ohio State, but it can still have it's magical match. The Orange and Blue have a fantastic 7-1 record heading into the road dual against Iowa. That record includes wins over SIUE (41-3), Binghamton (30-10), Arizona State (37-6), Missouri (23-14), North Carolina (24-14), Indiana (34-3) and Northwestern (33-7). The loss was to Ohio State (9-24). Iowa has a 7-0 dual record with wins over Oregon State (30-7), Standford (32-9), Bellarmine (49-0), Iowa State (21-15), Princeton (39-3), Army (23-16) and Wisconsin (45-0). THE INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS The Wrestlestat.com algorithm is predicting a 22-11 win for the bad guys, but they've got Byrd losing and Kannon winning. Hmmm. They also have the Hawkeyes winning four (4) one-point matches! I guess we'll see about that. 125. A little over a year ago, #173 CAELAN RILEY wrestled #47 Joey Cruz at the Lindenwood Open. It was a 16-2 major decision for the Hawkeye. Wrestlestat.com is going with a regular decision (4-10) here. We'd take that. 133. We should all be able to agree that an 11-0 record is much, much better than a 10-1 record, right? Right? Wrestlestat.com, are you with us? Of course not. They have their #2 wrestler, Drake Ayala, beating their undefeated #3 LUCAS BYRD. You can bet that Byrd is the Wyrd will be sky high for this one in Carver-Hawkeye. The last time he showed up for a business trip in Iowa City it resulted in a devastating pinfall. 141. At least Wrestlestat.com has #19 DANNY PUCINO beating #60 Jace Rhodes by four points. Rhodes has a 5-2 record this season but a 13-11 career mark. He wrestled 133 last year, and, in fact, you could see #98 Ryder Block with his 2-2 record or #54 (at 133) Cullan Schriever. Schriever started out the season wrestling two duals at 141, then Block took over for four duals, and, finally, Rhodes wrestled in the last one. At the last dual in Carver-Hawkeye, it was the Irish Italian Cyborg Leprechaun and his inexhaustible gas tank that left with the major decision. 149. Wrestlestat.com has a one-point loss for #2 Kyle Parco against the ILLINI's #12 KANNON WEBSTER. The 4x AA Hawkeye has an 11-0 mark this year and 114 wins in his career. He has 20 losses, and we sure hope that it is Kannon who adds number 21. But Webster has been through a rough patch. Has that been due to cold and flu season, or is it a case of moderate to severe food shortage? He is very tall and big for a 149er. Still, even at 60%, he was a load for an AA like Dylan D'Emilio to beat. 157. For some reason, Wrestlestat.com has #122 Isaiah Fenton getting the start in the dual even though he's 1-2 on the season, 3-8 in his career, and hasn't been featured in an Iowa dual. The algorithm has #33 JASON "CARDIAC" KRAISSER putting a tech on him. We think that Brando will probably bump up #28 Caleb Rathjen, one of the Voinovich brothers or #114 Miguel Estrada here. Given all of the one-point matches projected for this dual, as well as the likelihood of a Byrd win, we don't think Brando will want to hand over the five or six team points. 165. This is going to be a very interesting match, as #2 Michael Caliendo will face off against a young gun with a similar style. Will the torch get passed or will cagey veteran experience and old-man strength prevail? The young gun here is #20 BRAEDEN SCOLES, and the answer to the above question is very much in doubt if you go by Wrestlestat.com. They're predicting another one-point win for stupid Iowa. Caliendo will have another year of eligibility, so this could be a very entertaining start to a new rivalry. 174. It is beneath us to mention a person's looks or physical appearance unless, of course, we think it is attractive. You see, #4 Patrick Kennedy obviously has a large brain because of the size of his head. That's quite something! Very admirable. In fact, we think that his cabeza would tower over a standard microwave oven even if you flipped it over onto its end. As for his opponent, #29 DANNY BRAUNAGEL has had a hit or miss season. Some very sunny days, but some gloomy ones as well. Kennedy and that big juicy brain of his is steaming right along at 7-0 on the season, and he seems to have won the spot for the Hawks. But will nepotism play a role? (Nelson Brands). Or, perhaps a desire to quiet the Jersey Mafia? (Angelo Ferrari). Both the Brawlnagel and Kennedy are tough and will be in excellent condition. The Iowa kid does have a major decision over little Brawny in the past, although that sounds like it must've been when the ILLINI was injured. Wrestlestat is predicting a 12-5 win for the Hawk. This could be a one-takedown match either way. 184. This is another match that the algorithm is predicting a one-point victory for the bad guys. #7 Gabe Arnold has a 9-0 season and 17-1 career record. He will face All American and #14 EDMOND RUTH. If the dual is close at this point, does Brando want to use his redshirt Freshman to bull forward against the experienced AA who is waiting for him with double underhooks? Or, will Brando go with his son, who's had some success (and a loss) against Ruth? Perhaps he'll want a Ferrari to shoot from distance? The last time he was in Carver-Hawkeye arena Edmond Ruth was seen leaving with his hand raised. 197. If you are looking to see the range of body types at this weight, this is the match you want to watch. The big feller for Iowa is #1 Stephen Buchanan. His opponent from the ILLINI'll be #16 ZAC BRAUNAGEL, and Zac has had success against the man-mountains before. He beat Michael Beard in the NCAA tournament, beat Braxton Amos to win a Midlands crown, and he beat Yonger Bastida in the dual. Even in losses to folks like Jacob Cardenas and Nino Bonaccorsi, they have been sudden victory or within a point or two. Perhaps that's why this is predicted to be another one of those one-point matches favoring stupid Iowa. Finally, we can't forget that the last time in that arena Zac rode out of Iowa City as the gunslinger who had just shot down Jacob Warnerov. 285. Again, we have to ask, which is the better ranking #14 or #18? Not only does Wrestlestat.com give #18 Ben Kueter a predicted win ... but by major decision! #14 LUUUUKE LUFFMAN will not have it! For the first time in his life, he will be wrestling in an ILLINOIS - Iowa dual without having to face Tony Cassioppi. He's sure to take advantage of that. This season, Luffman has faced three top ten wrestlers and lost twice. So far, Kueter has only faced one top ten wrestler and lost to him. That top ten wrestler was Yonger Bastida, and even the ILLINOIS 197 pounder can beat him! CONCLUSION The ILLINI will be underdogs in this match. We think it will take something similar to what UNI did to Nebraska in their recent dual meet. There, the Panther train won all the close matches. And in this dual, at least if you have any faith in Wrestlestat.com, there will be a ton of one-point matches. So, can we expect a magical outcome? Sure, we're counting on it! Much more at this link.

Ha! Thanks. I am still hoping for more entries, but as a former wrestler, I know that getting your hand raised in a forfeit still counts as a win.

You have created, entered and won your own caption contest. Congratulations! Also a great picture. I saw that going on during the broadcast intermission. Looks like a tough sport. Cheers!

After giving up a season-high eight points to his opponent at Sunday's dual meet, Lucas Byrd has decided to retire from collegiate competition in order to pursue a career as a mat-side reporter for the newly formed inflatable sumo ball league. I'm hoping that he changes his mind before it is time for the conference championships.

It was @MPhillips and his evil spell.

I'm going to the backpages here to whine and complain. Based upon watching Kannon Webster in high school, college and during the Summer, I know two things about that young lion's wrestling: (1) He is constant motion, and (2) he's an expert at chain wrestling. There was none of that last night. Ergo, I think there's a cold or flu reason for that result. Since he is great friends and probably practice partners with Braeden Scoles, that could explain his match as well. However, Scoles, like Big Brawny, needs to defend his legs better in the first period. They both have given up pretty inexplicable first-period takedowns on multiple occasions. They have been able to always come back and win, but that didn't happen against the Evil Empire yesterday.

Missed it by this ' ' much.