ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Brackets seem to show an injury to Schultz in the semis. But he just pinned his opponent in the Bronze match. WTF? He looked very fit. Cuba won a Gold at 87kg, while the USA did not place. El Cubanos could challenge for the team trophy. We needed more Brawlnagel there. They wrestle two more Greco weights tomorrow.

The USA with a Gold or two in Greco so far, at least a couple of Silvers, Cohlton Schultz had to injury forfeit (if I'm reading the brackets correctly), and I just watched Kamal Bey destroy his Bronze medal opponent. The Americans appear to be on their way to a team championship, but it is a lot closer. The match that everybody wanted to see at 77kg, the Cuban versus Kamal Bey, didn't materialize. They both lost, and not to each other. There's a Colombian and a Brazilian in the finals at that weight. I guess that's why they wrestle the matches.

Is Cuba boycotting parts of the Pan Am Championships? Are they out of money? Is there something offensive to the communist sensibilities about 57kg, 61kg, 79kg and 92kg? They have some Greco athletes wrestling today, but they don't have freestylers at the non-Olympic weights and at 57kg. USA wrecking things in Greco.

It is my understanding that if RBY makes it to the finals of this tournament, he will be on the opposite side of the bracket from Zane Richards at the Pan Am Olympic Games qualifying tournament. I hope he's on the opposite side of the bracket here from Spencer Lee, or he's gonna get beat by Spencer and Zane in consecutive weekends. That is, if he can make weight two weeks in a row. As for picks, I'm going with yours mspart, except I'd add Suriano as a lock and Mason Parris as a near lock. In fact, at all the non-Olympic weights, I think the USA rep has to be a huge favorite. That's because of (1) America's incredible depth compared to other nations in our hemisphere, and (2) those other nations have their major contenders at Olympic weights. There'll probably be a couple tough Cubanos, though, at the non-Olympic 70 kg and 79 kg weights, unless Cuba can't afford to send them, or has no interest. Cheers!

Here's a video showing the ILLINI winners over the weekend. They were on the road against Purdue and Northwestern. Double winners included Edmond Ruth, Tony Madrigal and Danny Pucino: Music credit to the Climax Blues Band and their chunky hit, Couldn't Get It Right, video credit to BTN+. Name and LIkeness to the ILLINI, Northwestern and Purdue coaches and wrestlers. By the way, it seems "The Feud" is on. Did you hear that, Northwestern Wildcats? IT'S ON!

Super exciting win for the ILLINI over Northwestern. The stupid Wildcats had just beaten stupid Indiana earlier today. The criteria win goes to the ILLINI because of another Danny Pucino pin. Majors from the veterans Edmond Ruth and Tony Madrigal offset the Northwestern bonus points. Justin Cardani (ILLINI) 8-4 over Massey Odiotti Tony Madrigal (ILLINI) 8-0 major over Dedrick Navarro Danny Pucino (ILLINI) pinfall 2:25 over Kolby McClain Sam Cartella (NW) major over Will Baysingar Trevor Chumbley (NW) tech fall over Logan Swaw Chris Moore (ILLINI) 5-4 over Maxx Mayfield Edmond Ruth (ILLINI) major over Joseph Martin Troy Fisher (NW) SV 4-1 over Dylan Connell Evan Bates (NW) tech fall over Isiah Pettigrew Jack Jessen (NW) 13-7 over Peter Marinopoulos And before anybody says anything, Marinopoulos took off as soon as the ref's hand went up. Jessen should of been paying closer attention. GO ILLINI!!!

A couple of developments prior to Sunday's dual between the ILLINI and Northwestern: 1. The "Feud" is on! 2. Northwestern lost to Binghamton 15-21 yesterday. 3. @Southend is correct, the Wildcats face the Hoosiers at Noon (Central) on Sunday, then immediately after that, the ILLINI at 2:00 pm (Central).

Stick your special privilege into a vacuum cleaner one time--just for a few seconds--and you're the guy who ****** an Electrolux for the rest of your life. If you pee your pants in second grade one time, then you’re "Mr. BloggyPeePants" for as long as you live in that town. Walk around nude in a museum for ten minutes, and it wouldn't matter if you discovered fusion. So. Give me a number. How many times do you have to do stand up to be a stand-up comedian? Ten times, three times, one time? Does it matter if you’re not paid? What if the club manager gives you free drinks? That’s a form of payment. Right?

Do you have any info about Hayden Copass? He hasn't wrestled this season, has already used his redshirt, but is still listed on the Purdue roster, and isn't listed as injured on Wrestlestat.com. Besides Ramos, the other big performance for Purdue came from Stoney Buell. He majored a tough kid. He has 5 B1G dual wins this season. Pretty impressive. Also, what's up with Marcos Polanco? I thought he would eventually challenge for AA after his National Qualifier Freshman year at Minnesota. That season, he beat Parker Filius and only lost to Dylan Duncan and Chad Red by three. Chronic injury? To cap the night, all of the ILLINI recruits made it to the IHSA State Finals, which will be wrestled tomorrow.

Exciting match with Purdue. The Boilers won all the tossups, then got an upset with Vanadia over Pettigrew. It came down to heavyweight, and Peter Marinopoulos won it for the ILLINI. 19-18 is your final score. Danny Pucino's pin more than offset Matt Ramos' tech fall. Edmond Ruth's major offset Stoney Buell's major. I've seen two Flying Squirrels by heavyweights this year. Both by the ILLINI. Luuuke Luffman scored with his at the Midlands, while Peter Marinopoulos came close in this match. What a time to be alive! GO ILLINI!!!

Originally, the Northwestern dual was scheduled for January 20--almost a month ago--in Champaign. In his Coaches Corner video, Mike Poeta explained that after Northwestern's total team duck--the postponement of the dual--he could've just told the Big Ten that his schedule for his athletes wouldn't allow a raincheck, and the ILLINI would've gotten the automatic dub. Instead, he agreed to go to Northwestern for the dual. He could've also allowed the dual to occur in Champaign a week later, but that doesn't give either team much time to heal up and prepare for the conference tournament. One week is not enough for that. If Northwestern can't wrestle two matches in one day, don't tell them about the tournaments still on their schedule! Next year, the dual will be in Champaign, and it will rotate each year after that just as in the past.

57 -- Zane Richards. He will have the easiest route to the crown, and although difficult, the cut isn't debilitating to him. I think Fix, Arujau and Spencer will have much tougher cuts. They will also have more of a challenge in their first round matches and will feel the effects in the first of the best of three matches on day two. Moreover, Zane had brilliant gameplans for Suriano and Gilman, and he'll have brilliant gameplans for the others. This whole bracket will be fire. 65 -- Nick Lee. He's been so impressive. Retherford could give him a go, though, but again the cut. Absolutely can't count out Yianni and McKenna. Fun weight once you get to the semis. Before that, meh. 74 -- I have no idea where Dake and Burroughs are in their training. My heart says Burroughs, but Dake has won lately. I'm going with Burroughs because he knows this is the absolute last go-round. That, in the end, would work out best for USA wrestling fans because Dake would be incentivized to wrestle another cycle. And the old trope, "You're not getting any younger," doesn't apply to him. 86 -- This weight has a unanimous favorite in Taylor, but for college wrestling fans, it is a potpourri of entertaining wrestlers. Every match should be, at a minimum, keenly interesting. 97 -- I think the Snyder versus Trumble winner is the rep, and that will be Captain America. Trumble will have to wait for at least another year. The Wolfpack kid has the height that's plagued Snyder recently, and he has a lot of muscle as well. But as young as he is, Snyder has a massive experience advantage. And he wrestles in every dang tournament, so you know where he's at, and he's consistent. You gotta believe he's working on hitting angles on his shots in the room right now. 125 - I don't think Steveson risks tarnishing his Gold. There are actual threats domestically, and even bigger threats internationally. Parris is the man currently, but it could be exciting against Kerk. Hendrickson is thrown shade for his All Star loss against Kerk, but I saw him give up his knee in the U23 final to win the Gold. That was an absolutely brutal injury. I was shocked that he even wrestled in that All Star match. He's my dark horse. As for ILLINOIS boys, I think Cassioppi finishes higher on the ladder at 125 than at 97, but like Sumo wrestlers who retire, he has shed a lot of pounds.

The ILLINI versus Purdue dual is tonight at 6 pm (Central) on BTN+, while Northwestern is Sunday at 2 pm (Central), and it is on BTN+ as well. Yes, Purdue has won 2 of the last 4. That is not the recent historical norm, as the ILLINI were 15-1 against the Boilers during the 16 years before that. Against Northwestern, the ILLINI are only 2 of the last 5 (giving Northwestern the dual in which Maximo Renteria obviously pinned DeAugustino but was not called). Yet, according to FightingILLINI.com, the good guys are 17-4 in the last 21 duals overall against the Nerds. I am concerned that my comic strips have become bulletin board material for opposing teams. Do they really get riled up about cheesy Calvin and Hobbes rip-offs? Do JOMBO™ and Professor Carl (PC™) strips turn ordinary average human wrestlers into Super Gables?

As much as I hate Purdue and Northwestern, I do appreciate the fact that they are to the ILLINI like the people who sleep with open windows are to vampires. Even with the ILLINI's starting 133 pounder out for the season, the heavyweight out for the rest of the season, the 165 and 197 pounders on Olympic redshirts, the 157er out for multiple weeks with an injury, the backup 197er having knee surgery, and the other 133er pulling his hamstring twice during the season, they got this. Purdue does have a conference win, but it was against Northwestern. For a full preview of the Fighting ILLINI versus Boilermakers dual, check out this link. A Northwestern preview will be added to the link tomorrow. Ramos and Blaze are the main threats in the Purdue roster. There should be four pretty close matches. Of those, the match that interests me the most is the ILLINI's third-string (still a true Freshman) 197 pounder taking on the Purdue heavyweight who is 3-18 on the season. I think the youngling wins. As for Northwestern, they have Trevor Chumbley. This dual was supposed to be wrestled earlier in the season in Champaign, but Northwestern pulled the rare "full team duck" because of unspecified medical reasons. The dual this Sunday will be in Evanston. Coach Poeta explains why in his Coaches Corner. Here's a short trailer from his Coaches Corner about the ongoing "feud" between the two teams: While looking for the tweets that Coach Poeta described in the video above, I stumbled across the tweet below that I hadn't seen before. Apparently Colonel Storniolo didn't appreciate a comic strip that I had published before an ILLINI/NW dual back in 2022.

In my opinion Zach Glazier is the biggest surprise of the entire season. He goes 9-7 against D1 during his first four years as a Hawkeye, yet he now looks like a Finalist. The best wrestler he beat in those first four years was #51 Wyatt Voelker of Northern Iowa. The upper weights haven't been the problem what with Cassioppi, Kemerer, Warnerov, Brands, and Assad (even hampered by injuries). Before y'all think I've gone soft on the Hawks, let me just say that I still plan to do a video of Tom Brands' strange faces during interviews set to the "Theme from the Benny Hill Show."

They are rhetorical challenge bricks. You never get an answer, only the satisfaction from asking the question.

Yes. His arm is still in a sling.

You are correct. Very sad. He has had surgery, and his arm is in a sling. We're hoping he comes back stronger than ever. Cheers!

I have no idea. THEY HAVE A WHOLE VILLAGE OF BRAUNAGELS!

This was fun! The ILLINI have an Italian, a Greek, and Madrigal is Hispanic/Latino. Dylan Connell can't be more Irish unless you added the "O' " Also, Chris Moore and Joe Roberts are as English as you can get. In other words, Chicago area. Joey Braunagel has started this season, and that's a German name. I asked Danny and Zac about their last name, and Danny said that there was a "whole village of Braunagels" in Germany. Think about that. A whole village of Braunagels.

I'm not a rules maven and have been called out as wrong, rightfully, in the past, but it seems to me that the issue is control and loss of control. In this case, I believe that Morvari lost control when Cardani gained control with the tight front headlock. I could be wrong, but I think I see what the ref did there. On another note, the refs were very fair in my opinion. I say that based upon the fact that I was upset with them a couple of times during the match! LOL! One of those instances, and I think it was during Pucino-Vombaur, the refs decided to review a call even though the stupid Gophers had used and lost their only challenge. I think it was the Pucino match because I wanted the wrestlers to keep wrestling, and I believe that Pucino has the best gas tank in the NCAA. It turned out all right (see image below) but I was angry that the refs were being fair.

The way the dual started, I was very excited. Three wins in a row for the good guys. Of course, Patrick McKee didn't wrestle, but neither did Lucas Byrd, both Brawlnagels, Luke Luffman, Kannon Webster and Braeden Scoles. (Blockhus is on a mission and very hot right now, so Scoles really wouldn't have helped here. Someday.). Excuses, you say? Yes. I've got lots of them. But the fact of the matter is this: The ILLINI will be 5x more powerful next season, assuming everybody stays healthy and comes back. Having interviewed the Braunagel twins recently and having watched Lucas Byrd on the sidelines at duals, along with his coaching of the younglings at open tournaments, they are craving their return to the ILLINOIS lineup. I thought the dual was going to have a number of competitive matches because although Minnesota has a very nice dual record, their competition, on average, hasn't been that stellar. Winning four matches was the upper limit of my predictions for this dual, and the ILLINI met that. Of course, the stupid Gophers have a lot of impressive young talent as well. Should be fun the next couple of years!

Good point. However. How do you say somebody is in control when their opponent has a tight front headlock on them? You can see in the image below that Cardani had cinched up a real tight front headlock before the ref called time:

ILLINI lose at 165, but Edmond Ruth wins 7-1 over Andrew Sparks. 13 Minnesota; 12 ILLINI. Connell versus Salazar up.

10-9 Minnesota at the break. Coach Poeta was smart and started the dual at 125, McKee was a no show. Cardani beats Morvari. Then, at 133, Tony Madrigal picks off another ranked wrestler in as many weeks. At 141, Vance Vombauer goes down to Danny Pucino. The ILLINI could've used Kannon Webster at 149, as stupid Minnesota gets the major. At 157, Michael Blockhus with the pin off a headlock throw from the knees. The ILLINI need wins at 165 and 174 and to pick off another weight--most likely 184, then 197.