ILLINIWrestlingBlog

We'll see. Aman Aman is the real deal, though, and I don't see any other American beating him right now. Maybe, David Taylor. Zane is best when he goes back to ground and works out a plan with his team. Plus, he's now got a Croatia/Zagreb Open ranking series tournament Gold Medalist to work with in the room. He's really smart, and he'll come up with the best way to reach his goals.

Matthew Finesilver lost a hard-fought third-place match, but he can hold his head high knowing that he wears the perfect RAF mustache. You can see him waltzing into the Officer's Club after shooting down a Junkers 88 over the English Channel, can't you?

Here's how we get back at the Pan Am Games for giving us an Australian wrestling commentator and the UWW for providing an Englishman: We send over somebody from Tennessee to announce the 2024 Cricket World Cup. Another thing, how do Penn State fans feel about Jason Nolf (not my favorite wrestler) being number two in the United States at 74 kg behind Kyle Dake, who also wrestles for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, but never wrestled for PSU?

Bekhbayar Erdenebat, there on behalf of the ILLINOIS Regional Training Center and Mongolia, wins the Gold handily. Hopefully, he and Zane can continue training together.

Aman Aman with a first period tech in the Finals. Zane made it to the second period, so there. Seriously, the world is going to have to scout his step over from the seatbelt position. You're not supposed to do that! But he scored with it all tournament. Also, his forward pressure. Might have to time that.

He's Tom Cruise without the crazy eyes.

Don't forget Bekhbayar Erdenebat of IRTC/Mongolia wrestling for the Championship at 61 kg, and also every person from a Stan with zany facial hair.

Zane got pushed around. Out-muscled. All the challenges helped the Turkyie guy's gas tank, but need to work on defending the underhook and (from the previous match) handling the seatbelt position. Thought Zane had a shot at a couple of four pointers during the match, but it wasn't to be.

Doug Zapf is the most American-looking person in the world.

The IRTC with one in the finals, and one in repechage. I'm going to predict that Zane wins Bronze. Tevanyan at 65 kg is a brutal force. He's beaten world medalist Rivera 9-1. Ouch. We get McKenna versus Rivera. Amine's mother gets credit for every child born in the state of Michigan.

Bekhbayar Erdenebat, repping the IRTC and Mongolia, has Rzazade of Azerbaijan. Up 1-0 at the break on a shot clock. Rzazade was Euro Gold last year and beat Zane at the World Championships. Wow! Erdenebat threw the Azeri to his back and stuck him! Great for the ILLINOIS Regional Training Center, but that pushes Michael McGee out the tournament.

Short arms. Couldn't stop those four gut wrenches.

Aman wins his semi at 57 kg over Georgia with a first-period tech. Zane has a great chance at Bronze, as he's been pulled back in, and he can beat these guys. This is why Aman was my dark horse pick for last year's World Championships.

She gets credit for all of them. She's a fine administrator.

Sebastian Rivera over little Finesilver at 65 kg 3-0 at the break. Rivera beats the shot clock in the second with a takedown and goes up 5-0. Rivera up 7-1 now with little time left. Nolf up 7-0 at the break. And that's the final score.

McKenna is jacked and doesn't look dehydrated, but his Armenian opponent, Tevanyan, has the 4-0 lead at the break. Tevanyan looks even bigger, and he's the 5-2 winner. Speaking of Mrs. Finesilver and her wide shot pattern, this is how I'd rank the wrestling mothers on that score: 1. Mrs. Mattin. It's like she gave birth to 7 identical twins but all were born in different years. She had the tightest shot pattern. 2. Mrs. Amine. I think the major differences in her brood is based on weight training. Still, not as tight a shot pattern as Mrs. Mattin. 3. Mrs. Braunagel. She has a tighter shot pattern than it seems, as young Joey is wrestling 197 for the ILLINI, but he's pretty close to the size of Zac, and Danny is right there if he wasn't cutting weight all the time. They had an older brother who was smaller, and that's why she's here in the rankings. 4. Mrs. Finesilver. She was all over the place. The Finesilver children could be Russian nesting dolls.

Quincy Monday lost a super chippy match against Azerbaijan in the quarters, 4-5. Azerbaijan, along with Iran, are having a great tournament.

Zane Richards got trashed by the Aman Aman of India, the U23 champion from last year 11-0. It wasn't a lot of turns, it was a lot of takedowns. I expect Zane to be pulled back in, as Aman is the quality in the lower half of the bracket, but that was a match he's going to want to review with Coach Medlin. He was in a seat belt whizzer position about 5 times, and most of the time, Aman used his length to step over and score.

Representing the IRTC and Mongolia, Bekhbayer Erdenbat gets the 11-4 win over Joey Silva of Puerto Rico. That pushes him into the semifinals at 61 kg. He's been working with Zane at the training center.

Nolf (not my favorite wrestler) gets the 12-2 tech over Bulgaria and is into the quarters.

Nolf (not my favorite wrestler) down 0-2 to the Bulgarian Ramazanov. He evens it up 2-2 at the break. How did Mrs. Finesilver manage to make sure all her kids were at different weight classes? Lots of foresight and management, I suspect. Finesilver (65 kg) is into the quarters, your winner by a 5-4 score over Switzerland. The wrestler from Switzerland has become an instant national hero for being the first Swiss to get to an 1/8 final in an international wrestling tournament.

McKenna is your 11-0 winner. He's jacked. Tech falls an Azerbaijani. Goes into the quarters. Another Finesilver out there. The 65 kg one.

Iran's having a really good tournament. Sebastian Rivera at 65 kg wrestling for Puerto Rico has a strong Bulgarian who he has to beat to get to the quarters. Bulgaria leads 1-0 at the break. I always thought that Sebastian should be the name of a butler or a diplomat and not a wrestler. Looks like I was wrong. Rivera goes up 3-1 with a takedown and shot clock. Rivera wins 3-1 and into the quarters. McKenna up 1-0 against an Azeri to start his match. He's now up 3-0 at the break.

Max Dean having issues with Bulgaria, down 0-4 at break. Make that 0-6 with 2:40 to go. Now 3-8 with 1:22 left. That's how it ends.

Quincy Monday with the tech in the first few seconds of the 2nd period over India. He's in the quarters. Looked real good.