ILLINI and ILLINI RTC Have Won 200+ Matches Over the Summer

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

Has any other school/rtc combination done better? 

From the US Open (age group levels up to Senior) to the World Team Trials to Final X, National Duals, Pan Ams, Budapest and Fargo, the ILLINI and the ILLINI RTC have been killing it this Summer. I have personally counted well over 200 wins. Having incredibly gifted recruits like Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles, Chris Moore and others wrestle at National Duals and some of them at Fargo helps to bolster the total. 

Sure. 

But there's also Zane Richards, Kamal Bey, Zac Braunagel and IRTC-Emeritus Joe Rau winning beaucoup matches at the highest Senior level. Then, there are two other Braunagels, Edmond Ruth, Luke Luffman and others winning tons of age-level matches at the US Open and WTTs.

I should go back and do a winning percentage because it must be crazy— not IMAR 116-3 level crazy—but still absolute legend.

At the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond, we wanted to document this by posting a video of all the winning hands raised. Soon, we realized that there were too many wins for one Twitter or Instagram video, so there is a volume one and a volume two. This is volume two:

 

 

Some highlights over the Summer:

Kamal Bey, US Open and Final X Champion; Pan Am Champ, Silver at Budapest Ranking Series 

Zane Richards, US Open and Final X Champion; Bronze at Budapest Ranking Series

Joe Rau, US Open and Final X Champion, Pan Am Champ

Zac Braunagel, US Open Bronze, WTT and Final X Champion

Ermak Kardanov, IRTC athlete, Euro Bronze

Kannon Webster, Pan Am Champion, Clean sheet at National Duals, Fargo double Champ

Braeden Scoles, Clean sheet at National Duals, Fargo Freestyle Champion

Anthony Ruzic, Clean sheet at National Duals, Bronze at U20 US Open, 5th at WTTs, 7th at Fargo

Wyatt Medlin, Fargo Champion

Joey Braunagel, Silver at U20 Freestyle and Greco WTTs

Danny Braunagel, Third at U23 WTTs, 7th at US Open Freestyle

Edmond Ruth, Third (tie) at U23 WTTs

Luke Luffman, U23 Nationals Silver, 4th at US Open

Tanner Farmer, 3rd at US Open

 

... and many more. So. Is there anybody to challenge this juggernaut? 

 

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

1 hour ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Has any other school/rtc combination done better? 

From the US Open (age group levels up to Senior) to the World Team Trials to Final X, National Duals, Pan Ams, Budapest and Fargo, the ILLINI and the ILLINI RTC have been killing it this Summer. I have personally counted well over 200 wins. Having incredibly gifted recruits like Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles, Chris Moore and others wrestle at National Duals and some of them at Fargo helps to bolster the total. 

Sure. 

But there's also Zane Richards, Kamal Bey, Zac Braunagel and IRTC-Emeritus Joe Rau winning beaucoup matches at the highest Senior level. Then, there are two other Braunagels, Edmond Ruth, Luke Luffman and others winning tons of age-level matches at the US Open and WTTs.

I should go back and do a winning percentage because it must be crazy— not IMAR 116-3 level crazy—but still absolute legend.

At the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond, we wanted to document this by posting a video of all the winning hands raised. Soon, we realized that there were too many wins for one Twitter or Instagram video, so there is a volume one and a volume two. This is volume two:

 

 

Some highlights over the Summer:

Kamal Bey, US Open and Final X Champion; Pan Am Champ, Silver at Budapest Ranking Series 

Zane Richards, US Open and Final X Champion; Bronze at Budapest Ranking Series

Joe Rau, US Open and Final X Champion, Pan Am Champ

Zac Braunagel, US Open Bronze, WTT and Final X Champion

Ermak Kardanov, IRTC athlete, Euro Bronze

Kannon Webster, Pan Am Champion, Clean sheet at National Duals, Fargo double Champ

Braeden Scoles, Clean sheet at National Duals, Fargo Freestyle Champion

Anthony Ruzic, Clean sheet at National Duals, Bronze at U20 US Open, 5th at WTTs, 7th at Fargo

Wyatt Medlin, Fargo Champion

Joey Braunagel, Silver at U20 Freestyle and Greco WTTs

Danny Braunagel, Third at U23 WTTs, 7th at US Open Freestyle

Edmond Ruth, Third (tie) at U23 WTTs

Luke Luffman, U23 Nationals Silver, 4th at US Open

Tanner Farmer, 3rd at US Open

 

... and many more. So. Is there anybody to challenge this juggernaut? 

 

 

I-L-L

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

1 minute ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

I-L-L

I-N-I

I know you are running some type of Pavlovian-type test, but I still couldn't resist even knowing it was a trap....

This is an open thread to brag about your favorite teams, RTCs or wrestlers. Good Summer? Let's hear it!

[Wrestleknownothing]

25 minutes ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

I-N-I

I know you are running some type of Pavlovian-type test, but I still couldn't resist even knowing it was a trap....

This is an open thread to brag about your favorite teams, RTCs or wrestlers. Good Summer? Let's hear it!

I wouldn't dream of doing that to you. My son is an Illinois grad. I too will respond to an I-L-L.

Weirdly, I am a Penn State wrestling fan, but if someone says We are to me it never feels natural to respond.

[ionel]

16 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait ... rhey raised his hand ... where did you find this? 

[bnwtwg]

@Husker_Du care to comment about Illinois talent?

 

[Husker_Du]

i'm not sure how the tweet you cited and this year's ILLRTC summer success correlate. 

however, yes, people in the state of illinois do overvalue/overestimate how good their HSers are.

(also, if you're saying Ludwig should land more blue chippers at Norther, please tell me who he should have landed. i think the Illini are actually more guilty of that than Northern, who is a mid major. There were six Top 50 recruits from Illinois in 2023 and Illinois only got one of them. Last year, Illinois had zero in the Top 50.

Let's now look at AA's. The state of Illinois produced 8 AA's in 2023 and 2022 and 7 in 2021. This is how many wore block I's.

2023 - 0

2022 - 0

2021 - 1 (Dylan Duncan)

 

 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

4 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

i'm not sure how the tweet you cited and this year's ILLRTC summer success correlate. 

however, yes, people in the state of illinois do overvalue/overestimate how good their HSers are.

(also, if you're saying Ludwig should land more blue chippers at Norther, please tell me who he should have landed. i think the Illini are actually more guilty of that than Northern, who is a mid major. There were six Top 50 recruits from Illinois in 2023 and Illinois only got one of them. Last year, Illinois had zero in the Top 50.

Let's now look at AA's. The state of Illinois produced 8 AA's in 2023 and 2022 and 7 in 2021. This is how many wore block I's.

2023 - 0

2022 - 0

2021 - 1 (Dylan Duncan)

 

 

 

Things are changing, my friend.

Last year was very unlucky for the ILLINI at the NCAA tournament. I even did some some Science to prove how unlucky they were. Edmond Ruth, Lucas Byrd and Zac Braunagel all lost close Blood Round matches. Besides that, two of them (Byrd and Brawlnagel) were in the quarters and lost one-point matches.

That means there were five matches that could've gone the other way, resulting in up to three All Americans.

Yes, only one of them (Thicc Zac) went to high school in ILLINOIS, but Kannon Webster and Chris Moore and others are on the way in a Top Ten class. In any event, I promised some Science, so here you go:

 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

And the changes are coming from the ground up. 

The ILLINI Coaching staff had said they want to turn the state into the next Dagestan, the epicenter of wrestling in the world, and that seems to be the course they've set.

For the longest time, ILLINOIS had been behind Pennsylvania and maybe even Iowa as far as technical instruction at an early age. But the place is exploding now. In fact, it was just announced last night that ILLINI Legend Jesse Delgado is moving back to Champaign to become Head Coach of Relentless Training Center South. I'm thinking that those Fargo and National Duals results are going to start turning into NCAA Championships. Cheers!

 

[ionel]

1 hour ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

In any event, I promised some Science, so here you go:

 

This looks about right.  

[bnwtwg]

10 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

i'm not sure how the tweet you cited and this year's ILLRTC summer success correlate. 

however, yes, people in the state of illinois do overvalue/overestimate how good their HSers are.

(also, if you're saying Ludwig should land more blue chippers at Norther, please tell me who he should have landed. i think the Illini are actually more guilty of that than Northern, who is a mid major. There were six Top 50 recruits from Illinois in 2023 and Illinois only got one of them. Last year, Illinois had zero in the Top 50.

Let's now look at AA's. The state of Illinois produced 8 AA's in 2023 and 2022 and 7 in 2021. This is how many wore block I's.

2023 - 0

2022 - 0

2021 - 1 (Dylan Duncan)

 

 

Ahh I completely misread the first part of your tweet. I interpreted it to say "people from the state of Illinois overestimate their prowess."I was like "uhhh Ramos, Cassioppi, McGee, etc" but you are absolutely correct. I wholly agree that U Illinois has missed big time - they finally got rid of Hef but left the cupboard extremely bare. NIU has always been home to the placers and 1x champs that weren't blue chips but certainly too good not to be college athletes, used to compete with EIU back when they had a team for those same kids and it feels like SIU is trying to make suburbs inroads to do the same. I don't think NIU gets much in the way of scholarship support which makes it hard to convince a kid to move to Dekalb so it's back to the vicious circle of NCAA D1 wrestling.

All this to say Poeta is doing yeoman's work with the roster, the staff, and the new facility.

[Husker_Du]

6 hours ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

 

 

Last year was very unlucky for the ILLINI at the NCAA tournament. I even did some some Science to prove how unlucky they were. Edmond Ruth, Lucas Byrd and Zac Braunagel all lost close Blood Round matches. Besides that, two of them (Byrd and Brawlnagel) were in the quarters and lost one-point matches.

Ruth and Byrd are not from the state of Illinois.

[Husker_Du]

1 hour ago, bnwtwg said:

Ahh I completely misread the first part of your tweet. I interpreted it to say "people from the state of Illinois overestimate their prowess."I was like "uhhh Ramos, Cassioppi, McGee, etc" but you are absolutely correct. I wholly agree that U Illinois has missed big time - they finally got rid of Hef but left the cupboard extremely bare. NIU has always been home to the placers and 1x champs that weren't blue chips but certainly too good not to be college athletes, used to compete with EIU back when they had a team for those same kids and it feels like SIU is trying to make suburbs inroads to do the same. I don't think NIU gets much in the way of scholarship support which makes it hard to convince a kid to move to Dekalb so it's back to the vicious circle of NCAA D1 wrestling.

All this to say Poeta is doing yeoman's work with the roster, the staff, and the new facility.

i agree that Poeta & Co. are doing well. and i'm optimistic about them. seems like a good culture, too.

what my tweet meant was that i didn't think the dig at Ludwig was accurate or reasonable. 

[Gantry]

1 hour ago, bnwtwg said:

 I don't think NIU gets much in the way of scholarship support which makes it hard to convince a kid to move to Dekalb so it's back to the vicious circle of NCAA D1 wrestling.

Are you saying NIU doesn't have a full 9.9 scholarships?  I thought that they did, but admittedly have no idea why I think that. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

Transfers have hurt NIU bad, which is a pity. Their upper weights had been pretty strong for some years now, and not just Olejnik and Feldkamp. I have a soft spot in my Orange heart for Dekalb because I lived there for a couple years as a kid, even snuck into the football stadium to play on their track. The guy to keep an eye on, though, is Daryl Thomas at Southern ILLINOIS. He did some things at Old Dominion. 

On another note, with the potential breakup of the PAC10, will California kids want to wrestle in some new-fangled Mountain West conference or in front of nationally-televised audiences on the Big Ten Network? I'm sure IMAR and Jesse Delgado can talk to them about it. 

[alex1fly]

Didn't count matches but Okie State RTC has done well in the freestyle offseason. Thompson won U20s, Fix won U23 and gold @ Poland, Plott won U23 and bronze @ Poland. Carroll won U20s and will wrestle later this month. Jacarra won a gold at some tournament. Couple of cats are going to represent team Mexico and Puerto Rico this month. Great to see these results in what's pretty much the first year of the revamped Okie State RTC.

[Idaho]

6 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

Ruth and Byrd are not from the state of Illinois.

[ionel]

On 8/6/2023 at 4:17 AM, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

... and many more. So. Is there anybody to challenge this juggernaut? 

 

... and don't forget coach Ed Ruth.  Poeta found a loophole in the NCAA, sent Ruth to Croatia and brought in AOC (no not for coffee service), gives em an extra coach.  Ed will be recruiting talent in Croatia and training em up on Mountain Risnjak for two years before ship'n back to Champaign-Urbana.  We are calling it Illini Base Camp R.  

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

10 hours ago, Idaho said:

I actually acknowledged that in the post, and issued a pre-rebuttal involving all the new and talented ILLINOIS kids coming into the program. 

Moreover, I root for all ILLINOIS kids, but my favorites are ILLINI, and Ruth and Byrd are very much ILLINI. Cheers! 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

8 hours ago, ionel said:

... and don't forget coach Ed Ruth.  Poeta found a loophole in the NCAA, sent Ruth to Croatia and brought in AOC (no not for coffee service), gives em an extra coach.  Ed will be recruiting talent in Croatia and training em up on Mountain Risnjak for two years before ship'n back to Champaign-Urbana.  We are calling it Illini Base Camp R.  

You just know that Coaches Poeta and Medlin are thinking about this. Ermak Kardanov is already wrestling for the IRTC, and he's a Euro Bronze former Russian now wrestling for Slovakia and currently living in "RTC House" in Champaign. Cheers!

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

12 hours ago, alex1fly said:

Didn't count matches but Okie State RTC has done well in the freestyle offseason. Thompson won U20s, Fix won U23 and gold @ Poland, Plott won U23 and bronze @ Poland. Carroll won U20s and will wrestle later this month. Jacarra won a gold at some tournament. Couple of cats are going to represent team Mexico and Puerto Rico this month. Great to see these results in what's pretty much the first year of the revamped Okie State RTC.

Thanks! This is what I was looking for, although Thompson and Carroll kinda break my heart. But I guess with Luffman having two more years and Ruth having at least two more years, we'll get by. Cheers! 

[Tom formerly Tofurky]

On 8/7/2023 at 12:30 AM, Husker_Du said:

however, yes, people in the state of illinois do overvalue/overestimate how good their HSers are.

This

[bnwtwg]

On 8/7/2023 at 12:30 AM, Husker_Du said:

however, yes, people in the state of illinois do overvalue/overestimate how good their HSers are.

 

I hear your argument. My counterpoint:

 

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Has Illinois supplanted Iowa as the best midwestern wrestling state?

[Idaho]

3 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

 

I hear your argument. My counterpoint:

 

My counterpoint to your counterpoint: Is HS wrestling value as a state measured by how well they do at Fargo or how well that translates to the next level?   Illinois has won Fargo Jrs as a team in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 (08-17 in Greco - 10 straight) They won Cadets in 09, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. I haven't seen 2018-2022.  It's easy to look at these results and see that they have been the best HS state as far as Fargo goes. However, another measurement would be how that has translated to the college level. Looking at the HS results, you would think that the NCAA would be full of champs and AA from the state of Illinois.