ILLINIWrestlingBlog

I have read every book and short story and every article written by Charles Dickens. It was popular to publish anonymous editorials and opinion articles during his day, so I might have missed one or two of those. I like to go back and re-read all of his books. He is my #1 hero. Since it's the season, I'm going to drop a short video I did about A Christmas Carol here: A smidgen of a transcript: I. What Was Dickens Trying to Do? In the first ten sentences of a very short book about Christmas, Charles Dickens used the words "undertaker," "mourners," "burial," "coffin," "deadest" and "unhallowed." But it doesn't end there. In those same ten sentences, which were short sentences for Dickens--one consisted of a single word--he also managed to squeeze in the word "dead" four times! In the eleventh sentence, there's another "dead"! Who gets away with that in a story about Christmas? It's like a children's story about ducks and ponies and vampires.

Jeez. That last bit posted like a long Poem. I hope it's more interesting than that. Sorry! Cheers!

WHO: ILLINI v. Missouri Dual WHAT: Home Opener and a Big Party! WHEN: Thursday, November 21 @ 7 pm (Central) WHERE: Lot 31, Stadium Club (near Memorial Stadium) TV/STREAMING: BTN+ (subscription service; $12.99/month) LIVE STATS: Link to Stats (Free; Trackwrestling) TICKETS: Link to Tickets A DAY IN HISTORY It was just an awful day. February 10, 2000, a Thursday. We had all come to grips with the fact that the entire world could be shut down because of one coding error. Sure, Y2K didn't happen, but it left us emotionally scarred and wary. Even worse, Jim Varney the gifted thespian known for such movies as Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Saves Christmas and Ernest Goes to Camp died on this day at the age of 50. Still worse, the number one Billboard hit in America was I knew I Loved You by Savage Garden. On top of that four-course dinner of awfulness, the top grossing film at the Box Office was the awful Scream 3. But the day was salvaged, somehow, in of all places, Edwardsville, ILLINOIS. In that town with a year-2000 population of 21,787 near the border with Missouri, the ILLINI destroyed a Missouri Tiger wrestling team by the score of 33-6. The Orange & Blue had a roster chock full of seven ranked wrestlers, including #1 Adam Tirapelle and #1 Dr. John Lockhart. Scoreboard: No. 5 Illinois 33, vs. Missouri 6 February 10, 2000 Edwardsville, Illinois 125 No. 6 Ryan Escobar (ILL) pinned Justin Spates (UM), 3:52 133 Jesse West (UM) defeated Kelly Madden (ILL), 9-5 141 Mike Castillo (ILL) defeated J.P. Reese (UM), 11-10 149 No. 1 Adam Tirapelle (ILL) defeated Jesse Jordan (UM), 7-2 157 Ryan Berger (ILL) versus David Neff (UM), 17-4 165 No. 12 Matt Lackey (ILL) tech fall Clint Freeman (UM), 6:23 174 No. 10 John Kopinsky defeated No. 18 Ben King (ILL), 6-2 184 No. 9 Nate Patrick (ILL) pinned Ry Stone (UM), 5:48 197 No. 7 Pat Quirk (ILL) defeated Dante Stone (UM), 11-5 Hwt No. 1 John Lockhart (ILL) defeated Chad Hertzog (UM), 12-5 PRE-DUAL ENTERTAINMENT We saw a comment on social media which indicated that the pre-dual entertainment will include a buffet, a stand-up comedian and something else. What that something else is, we cannot recall. It wasn't a cock fight or a strip show. We would've remembered that. That time Ben Askren ruined our family camping trip. TEAM MATCHUP According to Wrestlestat.com, the ILLINI are the #9-ranked team in the country when it comes to duals. Missouri is at #11, so this should be a real ugly fracas. As usual, much will depend on who is able to wrestle for both teams. Noah Surtin and Rocky Elam missed the Tigers' first two duals. Ramazan Attasauov missed the ILLINI's last. Despite the lower dual ranking, the missing wrestlers from their duals, and it being a home meet for the good guys, Wrestlestat.com is giving the 19-13 edge to Missouri. As we like to say, They'll have to prove that on the mat. INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS 125. #27 RAMAZAN ATTASAUOV v. #13 NOAH SURTIN. Neither of these wrestlers participated in their team's last dual. Who shows up is anybody's guess. Missouri fans are high on Surtin. He's a 4x National Qualifier with a R12 to his name. He's got a nasty head pinch to look out for. The Tiger is tall for the weight and has more muscle for that length than you'd expect. Could be he's been out of the lineup to give him time to acclimate to 125. That's been Ramazan's issue as well. (We think). Wrestlestat.com is calling for an 8-6 win for Surtin. However, we may see #131 Caelan Riley for the ILLINI and #112 Gage Walker for Mizzou. With no additional information on who will wrestle, we'll go with the 8-6 Tiger win as predicted by Wrestlestat.com. 133. #5 LUCAS BYRD v. #32 KADE MOORE. The question here is whether Lucas will be ready to wrestle again after a November 16 All Star match in Pennsylvania. He looked great in that match, becoming that rare thing: A two-time NWCA All-Star Classic winner! We think he probably wrestles, but if not, the ILLINI will send out #109 Kole Brower or #120 Brian Beers. The other question is whether Kade Moore will be available for this match. He forfeited his last match at the Tiger Style Invite to teammate #77 Jake Crapps. Wrestlestat.com calls for 9-3 win for Byrd over Kade Moore. We think a less-than-100% Moore or a Jake Crapps equals bonus points for the ILLINI, and we think that Byrd can name the amount of bonus points he wants. As the cool kids say, "Byrd is the Wyrd." Remainder of the Preview at this link.

Excellent choice! I wouldn't touch that Grinch fellow with "a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole!"

BEST CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY MOVIES These are my rankings. Are these the best rankings? Is Aaron Brooks too short for 197? Of course. One caveat: I don't consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie. Nor is Home Alone. If you disagree, all I can say is, with all due respect, and in the spirit of the holiday season, bite me. 1. THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966). I just checked the Wikipedia article on the movie and learned some things. First of all, it did not debut on a movie screen. All that work for a TV special. Second, it's running time is only 25 minutes. There's so much perfect packed into 25 minutes, I would've sworn it was at least 75 minutes long. Boris Karloff's voice acting, the characters and the songs. Those songs! 2. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). After my opening paragraph, you might say this is a hypocritical pick. You would be right. Your reviewer is the worst kind of hypocrite. I will hypocrite right in your face and then dance around in wanton celebration of my hypocrisy. This writer at Forbes, the one who first called Die Hard a Christmas movie, wrote an article explaining why this 1946 Frank Capra holiday classic wasn't a Christmas movie. Talk about a hypocrite! That Forbes writer/hypocritical dick argues that only "47% of the movie [is] set during Christmas Eve." But that's why the message works! George Bailey/Jimmy Stewart was given the greatest gift. In fact, the movie was based on a short story entitled "The Greatest Gift." It could only happen during the holiday season. On the other hand, the message from Die Hard is that dropping Germans from a skyscraper is good fun. I'm down with that, sure, because that's entertaining, but that ain't Christmas, not even in Somalia. 3. ELF (2003). "If you're really Santa, what song did I sing for you on your last birthday?" "'Happy birthday,' of course." The snowball fight is classic. Perfect cast. Will Ferrell is a genius. "Smiling's my favorite." Santa is real. THE WORST CHRISTMAS MOVIE 1. THE POLAR EXPRESS 2004. All I'm going to do is tell y'all about "The Uncanny Valley." I think that explains exactly how and why this movie creeps me out. So, here goes: Robotics professor Masahiro Mori's "original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers' emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it becomes almost human, at which point the response quickly becomes strong revulsion."

Your second best post ever. Your 2BPE.

And here, a 2x NWCA All-Star Classic winner for the ILLINI makes his first appearance:

I have created a list. I found the following wrestlers to be 2x NWCA All-Star Classic winners: Cael Sanderson, Jake Varner, Chris Pendleton, Greg Jones, Steve Mocco and Lucas Byrd.

Lucas Byrd is now a two-time NWCA All-Star Classic Champion. That's very rare. Zac Braunagel and his opponent got a standing ovation from the crowd for their 19:17-long war. There were questions related to that first "takedown" that the refs said was out of bounds. But in the end, we were entertained!

Johnny "Goose" Mologousis is 4-0 on his MMA journey and has already won a belt. He will face another undefeated prospect on the card. Matt "no ring name yet" Wroblewski is 0-0 and making his MMA debut. Their fights will be FREE ON YOUTUBE! Sunday, November 17 at the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prelims start at 3:00 pm Central. If you have UFC Fight Pass, you can watch the fights on it. If not, and you're not driving to Milwaukee even to put a couple $$$ on the pass line, then there's free streaming from the Anthony Pettis YouTube channel. Give Pettis a sub, why not? The card is called APFC 14 Milwaukee. (Anthony Pettis Fight Club) Mologousis and Wroblewski and former ILLINI wrestler Jake Reicin (who set up the interview) were cool enough to talk about the upcoming fights in this short video: Did you see that TKO from Mologousis? That was :32 into the fight. The first punch/takedown combination was even better! Wow! Also, WroboCop's story about his first-scheduled opponent who backed out because he thought he could learn wrestling in two weeks. Then his second opponent scratched. More on our website here.

Questions, questions, questions, questions, questions: 1. Who's going? 2. Will Rocky Elam be in the lineup? 3. Will Noah Surtin be in the lineup? 4. What do you think about the rest of the Tiger lineup (save Keegan, we all love him). 5. Why do I hate Mizzou so damn much?

Interesting. With Iowa and Iowa State reaching 9 AAs on 9 occasions, you have to think the record'll be equaled one day. I realize that each year is a new statistical set, but those numbers (9AAs 9x) surprise me. What does that 2001 Gopher team do for a celebration every year? "It has often been reported that the surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins would, every season, either gather to drink champagne when the final undefeated team earned its first loss of the year, or send a case of champagne to the team who beat this final undefeated team."

Sorry, not sorry, for the gratuitous Purdue poke. I'm sure Matt Ramos will take it out on our 125er in the dual.

I am looking forward to the ILLINI versus Little Rock mini-dual, and I'm looking forward to hating the OP for the rest of his natural life. From our preview of the mini-dual: WHY WE HATE ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK Under the subheading of "Student Life" in the University of Arkansas Little Rock Wikipedia article you find this: "The student life at UA Little Rock is typical of public universities in the United States." WTF? That there is Rob-Lowe-at-a-Game-Supporting-His-Favorite-Sports-Governing-Organization anodyne cringe. It is 100% pure Little Brother Speak. "Look at us, we're a real university, too! Our human students do human things, eat human food and lead reasonably normal human lives." And isn't "Little Rock" the name of Fred Flintstone's hometown? Finally, who names anything after something that's small? Why not Big Rock? It's all perspective, anyway. This is more of the same Little Brother Speak. THE HISTORY The ILLINI have a rich tradition at the NWCA All Star Classic. There was no Classic for four straight years due to Covid, but when it ratcheted back up in 2022, there was Lucas Byrd beating Michael McGee. Zane Richards, Jesse Delgado, Jordan Blanton, B.J. Futrell, Zac Brunson, Adam Tirapelle, Mark Jayne, Jimmy Kennedy, Jon Llewellyn, Steve Marianetti, Eric Siebert, Matt Lackey, John Lockhart, Alex Tirapelle, Pete Friedl, Mike Poeta and others have represented ILLINOIS. The ILLINI have had years in which two wrestlers have won at the same time. The O&B has had three wrestlers on the mat for at least one Classic. On the other hand, Purdue had their first ever winner in 2023. True story: Slippery Rock and Kentucky each have more wins at the All Star Classic than the Boilermakers. From its inception in the 1960s to 2009, ILLINI wrestlers made 13 appearances and came away with a 10-3 record. There have been multiple U of I wrestlers who have made more than one appearance in this prestigious exhibition. Lucas Byrd joins that august group.

WHAT: NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC WHO: ZAC BRAUNAGEL vs. STEPHEN LITTLE WHO²: LUCAS BYRD vs. NASIR BAILEY WHEN: Saturday, November 16 at 6:00 PM (Central) WHERE: Rec Hall, University Park, Campus of Penn State University TV/STREAMING: FloWrestling TICKETS: $25 to $40 BACKGROUND Zac Braunagel will take on Little Rock's Stephen Little at the prestigious NWCA All-Star Classic in a late kick-off to the wrestling season. According to FloWrestling, the Trojan from UA Little Rock is ranked #6, while the Brawlnagel comes in at #9. Wrestlestat.com has Brawny at #8 and Little at #7. Both are returning All Americans with Little winning 7th last season, while Zac got his AA during the Covid year. Of course, the ILLINI has been a Greco Senior World Team Member. In a late addition to the Classic lineup, Lucas Byrd will wrestle Nasir Bailey at 133. On Wrestlestat.com, Byrd is rated #5, while Bailey is #3. FloWrestling has Baily at #2 and Byrd at #6. Both of these wrestlers are All Americans, Lucas x2, and the O&B Legend also has All Star Classic experience. WHY WE HATE ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK Under the subheading of "Student Life" in the University of Arkansas Little Rock article in Wikipedia you find this: "The student life at UA Little Rock is typical of public universities in the United States." WTF? That there is Rob-Lowe-at-a-game-supporting-his-favorite-sport-governing-organization cringe. It is 100% pure Little Brother Speak. "Look at us, we're a real university, too! Our human students do human things, eat human food and lead reasonably normal human lives." THE HISTORY The ILLINI have a rich tradition at the NWCA All Star Classic. There was no Classic for four straight years due to Covid, but when it ratcheted back up in 2022, there was Lucas Byrd beating Michael McGee. Zane Richards, Jesse Delgado, Jordan Blanton, B.J. Futrell, Zac Brunson, Adam Tirapelle, Mark Jayne, Jimmy Kennedy, Jon Llewellyn, Steve Marianetti, Eric Siebert, Matt Lackey, John Lockhart, Alex Tirapelle, Pete Friedl, Mike Poeta and others have represented ILLINOIS. The ILLINI have had years in which two wrestlers have won at the same time. The O&B has had three wrestlers on the mat for at least one Classic. On the other hand, Purdue had their first ever winner in 2023. True story: Slippery Rock and Kentucky each have more wins at the All Star Classic than the Boilermakers. From its inception in the 1960s to 2009, ILLINI wrestlers made 13 appearances and came away with a 10-3 record. There have been multiple U of I wrestlers who have made more than one appearance in this prestigious exhibition. Lucas Byrd joins that august group. THE MATCHUP According to Wrestlestat.com, the tough guy in the O&B singlet is 7-5 against common opponents, while Little has a 5-5 record against the same wrestlers. Yet, the algorithm supposedly calls for a two-point Trojan win. That will have to be proven on the mat. Little was the #161 wrestler coming out of high school as a three-time state champ in Kentucky. He also won two Preseason National Championships and earned AA honors at Ironman. He wrestled in the two of three finals of the 2023 U20 World Team Trials in Freestyle, losing two to one to Jack Darrah at 92kg. He earned an AA at 197 last season with a 7th-place finish. The Little Rock wrestler favors the collar tie, and he likes to keep some distance with the head tap. He will consistently look for an ankle pick and a strong slide-by. He also has go-behinds, knee picks and singles in his arsenal. With longish arms and frame for the weight, of course he'll want to go for the ankle picks. He'll keep the distance with the head taps, and his collar ties are usually not that tight. Zac might want to bring it in close for the short offense, but he'll need to be mindful of the slide by. As y'all know, Zac Braunagel is coming off his Olympic red shirt season in which he wrestled at the Olympic Trials, winning a couple of matches. He was also the Final X winner and World Team Member in the prior year. He has basically earned a doctorate in hand fighting. That's bad news for his opponents, as he already wrestled with a willingness to throw a bucket of guts on the mat. Little is listed as 6-3 on the school's roster, but he looks pretty slim for the weight. This will be a fun match, and the ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond Plus pick is ... Zac Braunagel by decision in three. THE MATCHUP² ILLINI Legend Lucas Byrd is a late addition to the All Star Classic. Iowa State's Evan Frost has pulled out. That sets up what could be an NCAA Championship prequel between the 2x All American and the 1x AA from Little Rock. Wrestlestat.com is calling this a 6-5 match in Bailey's favor. However, their record against common opponents suggests something different. Byrd is the Wyrd is 9-1 against common foes, while Bailey is 5-1. The Little Rock wrestler lost to Dominick Serrano by the score of 3-5, while Lucas majored the same guy. The one guy that the ILLINI lost to that Bailey hasn't lost to is Dylan Ragusin. But keep in mind, Byrd beat Ragusin three other times. Moreover, almost unanimously, Lucas Byrd did better against the other common opponents than Nasir Bailey did. One common opponent not mentioned by Wrestlestat.com for good reason is Daton Fix. The ILLINI lost to the Cowboy in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament two years ago by a 3-2 controversial decision. Bailey lost to Fix by 10-0 tech fall in this year's Senior World Team Trials. What Bailey is very good at are double-leg takedowns and turns. He also has long arms for ankle picks. It will be interesting to see if he even tries to ride Lucas, as that usually means two points for the ILLINI. We are reminded of the last time Byrd wrestled in the All Star Classic, beating Michael McGee 3-2. It sure seems to us that this match might be affected by weight. Bailey is pretty tall and big for 133. Although Lucas has built a warrior's body, we think he'll have less of a challenge to make weight and wrestle early in the card. Here's a short video showing the winning takedown for Byrd in his first NWCA All Star Classic: Nasir Bailey had a storied career in high school with state championships, Fargo and Ironman titles. He's also the nephew of ILLINI Legend B.J. Futrell. So, expect a dogfight in this one, and since ILLINOIS has the meanest dog in the fight, the IWB&F&B+ pick is ... Byrd by two. WHY WE HATE ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK² We digress. But isn't "Little Rock" the name of Fred Flintstone's hometown? And who names anything after something that's small? This is more of the same Little Brother Speak. NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC MATCH LIST Men's Matches 125: #2 Jore Volk, Wyoming vs #5 Tanner Jordan, South Dakota State 133: #2 Nasir Bailey, Little Rock vs #6 Lucas Byrd, Illinois 141: #2 Jesse Mendez, Ohio State vs #3 Beau Bartlett, Penn State 149: #2 Shayne Van Ness, Penn State vs #3 Ty Watters, West Virginia 157: #4 Tyler Kasak, Penn State vs #5 Peyten Kellar, Ohio 165: #8 Hunter Garvin, Stanford vs #4 Peyton Hall, West Virginia 174: #2 Levi Haines, Penn State vs #3 Cade DeVos, SDSU 184: #1 Carter Starocci, Penn State vs #2 Parker Keckeisen, Northern Iowa 197: #6 Stephen Little, Little Rock vs #9 Zac Braunagel, Illinois 197: #1 (D2) Derek Blubaugh, Indianapolis vs #1 (D3) Massoma Endene, Wartburg 285: #3 Nick Feldman, Ohio State vs #8 Taye Ghadiali, Campbell Women's Matches 110: 1 Emma Baertlein, Southern Oregon vs #4 Kendra Ryan, North Central 124: #1 Amani Jones, North Central vs #2 Maya Davis, Grand View 145: #1 Jamilah McBryde, Life vs #2 Aine Drury, King 160: #1 Cheyenne Bowman, King vs #1 Latifah McBryde, Life 131: #1 Victoria Baez Dillion, King vs #1 Carolina Moreno, Southern Oregon

Here's a gift to you from the IWB&F&B+ archives:

I'm so happy to see this. I mean, I really hate the Buckeyes, but this will be something that I read for years to come. Cheers!

Wow! I didn't know this resource existed until :20 ago. Wonderful stuff. Didn't much care for the score of that dual, but I hope we can have dueling previews this season and every season after that. I'm excited to see the ILLINI and the Buckeyes this season. Last year, it was a-whoopin', but it will be entertaining this time. It should be on BTN, but it's actually better for me that it will be on BTN+, he said selfishly. There'll be great battles up and down the lineups, but I'm especially interested in who OSU sends out at 133 and 184. Is Welsh going to redshirt or not? Has the new Freshman phenom outwrestled the old Freshman phenom? As soon as you know, please let us know. And like my kids used to say to me, "I said 'please.'"

And I'm excited to see the ILLINI and the Buckeyes this season. Last year, it was a-whoopin', but it will be entertaining this time. It should be on BTN, but it's actually better for me that it will be on BTN+, he said selfishly. There'll be great battles up and down the lineups, but I'm especially interested in who OSU sends out at 133 and 184. Is Welsh going to redshirt or not? Has the new Freshman phenom outwrestled the old Freshman phenom? As soon as you know, please let us know. And like my kids used to say to me, "I said 'please.'"

I know! It was crazy and very close if Luuuke had decided to press the issue. Please note that I cropped the screengrab in that photo because the score box was getting in the way, but both feet were off the ground. The ILLINI ended up with 5 hammers, but one was for Caelan Riley in Pool D. I think he's at a minimum a Pool C wrestler, more likely, Pool B. Smart move by the coach to give him some confidence. I don't know how long Ramazan Attasauov will be out of the lineup, although he did make the trip. Lucas Byrd, Danny Pucino, Kannon Webster and Braeden Scoles went undefeated and won Pool A hammers, and they are all still undefeated on the season. That's gonna be a Murderer's Row. Zac Braunagel had a one-point loss in the finals to Michael Beard. That score was reversed when they met two years ago in the NCAA tournament. All in all, superb weekend for ILLINOIS. I only watched about 15 matches before I had to take an Old Man's Nap. One of the biggest sports days of the year for the ILLINI wrestling team, and I couldn't make it. Well, I'll get to see the rest of the matches now. NOTE: ILLINI Wrestling fans have some MMA coming up. Johnny Mologousis and Matt Wroblewski are going to be on the same fight card in about one week. More info on that incoming. This'll be a debut for Wroblewski, while Mologousis has already been wrecking guys and winning belts. Cheers!

The ILLINI ended up with 5 hammers, but one was for Caelan Riley in Pool D. I think he's at a minimum a Pool C wrestler, more likely, Pool B. Smart move by the coach to give him some confidence. I don't know how long Ramazan Attasauov will be out of the lineup, although he did make the trip. Lucas Byrd, Danny Pucino, Kannon Webster and Braeden Scoles went undefeated and won Pool A hammers, and they are all still undefeated on the season. That's gonna be a Murderer's Row. Zac Braunagel had a one-point loss in the finals to Michael Beard. That score was reversed when they met two years ago in the NCAA tournament. All in all, superb weekend for ILLINOIS. Here's a meme chart for Coach Poeta after the ASU dual:

For a complete recap, including more about the Poeta interview afterwards, check out this link. I swear I won't get lazy and just put in a link in the future, but I gotta catch some ZZZZs before the Journeymen Collegiate Classic starts.

Has anybody ever had both of the traveling mountain's feet in the air at the same time?

I am undisturbed.