ILLINIWrestlingBlog

The Big Ten was always a wrestling conference. Even when it expanded, it expanded to include schools that had D1 wrestling. At least from 1896 to 2022, or about 126 years. This quote from another website about conference expansion is illustrative (and not a little funny, and I mean the "Michigan is voted out" bit): 1896: Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Purdue, Univ. of Chicago, and Northwestern form the “Western Conference” 1899: Iowa and Indiana join, the conference is referred to as the “Big Nine” 1907: Michigan is voted out of the conference 1912: Ohio State joins the conference 1916: Michigan rejoins, the conference is first referred to as the “Big Ten” 1946: Univ. of Chicago de-emphasizes varsity athletics and leaves the conference; the conference is once again referred to as the “Big Nine” 1949: Michigan State joins, the conference is once again referred to as the “Big Ten” 1993: Penn State begins conference play after being invited to join in 1990 2011: Nebraska joins the conference 2014: Maryland and Rutgers join the conference 2022: UCLA and USC announce they will join the conference effective in 2024 2023: Oregon and Washington announce they will join the conference effective in 202 Here's where the rubber meets the road: Will the conference promote wrestling in the future? Penn State, then Nebraska, were wrestling schools. I personally thought that Maryland and Rutgers were weird choices to join the Big Ten, but I did love the fact that they were wrestling schools. It seemed that a requirement to join the conference was a wrestling program. But UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington? Not wrestling schools. Will they add programs? Or, will Northwestern now have an excuse to drop theirs? I don't know. I just wanted a chance to publish this picture of the Wildcat's football coach:

My bucket list includes insulting every one of the other 77 Division One wrestling schools. Today's topic: Missouri.

I started watching Lee-Yanni in the second period. Yianni looked gassed. Concussion makes more sense. That sucks. Lee's my favorite NLWC guy behind Jimmy Kennedy, so I'm glad he won, but hate any and all injuries. Now we get to see Amit Elor versus Nick Lee for the spot, right?

Standing ovation for Michiford Western. They got the job done.

Brian Swaw and I got to talk with Jesse Delgado about his NCAA Championships, the match he had with Matt McDonough at Carver Hawkeye arena when he was a redshirt Freshman, his move from California to ILLINOIS, his high school series versus IMAR, and so on. I could talk to that man for a week nonstop. Has there ever been a week-long wrestling podcast? In any event, one of the statements below is false per the interview. Can you guess which one? A. The high school series between Jesse Delgado and IMAR stands at one win apiece. B. Jesse once ate a 72 ounce steak in an hour to win $500.00. C. In his matches with Nashon Garrett, Delgado scored 8-9 takedowns to none for Nashon. D. Jesse is the current head coach of the Relentless Training Center (South) in Champaign. As for the dual, this could be a tight one. Brian Swaw thinks it could be 5-5 in match wins, maybe 6-4 for the ILLINI depending upon who wrestles. Because of injuries and redshirts, Sparty has a distinct advantage in the upper weights, while we have the home team winning a majority of the lower weights. MSU has had a pretty easy schedule so far, but they've made the most of it with a lot of bonus points, especially pins. The dual is Friday at 7:00 pm (Central), and it will be streamed on BTN+. Here's a link to the full written preview.

Your Jombo™ slander can't hurt me. But to answer your question, yes. The Jombos™ traveled real well even on probation. Here's the latest:

Can anybody top the ILLINI's 2005 win with the score of 25-7? The question is whether PSU has wrestled a dual this season with its full, expected, post-season lineup. 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

Your logic is impeccable. I hope you're right because I actually don't dislike Nick Lee.

Thanks for that, WKN. There is still ambiguity. That article discusses the Pan Am Championships, and there is this: Then, scroll down and there is a different section or different article that discusses entries for the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier, and that rule is not mentioned! In the schedule of events for the Olympic Qualifier, there is no mention of what time zone. I assume local time, but does Mexico do what many in the US do by referring to Eastern time as some kind of standard? By the way, local time in Acapulco is the same as Central Time in the United States.

Do you have a link for this, WKN? I didn't see anything on the official schedule, just the "Deadline for Final Entries" that I mentioned above. Cheers!

The Cuban entered at 57kg, Osmany Diversent, is the guy who lost in the semifinals to the Colombian at the Pan Am Games. Zane then beat the Colombian in the Finals by tech fall. This gives Zane some folks to actually target. There's the caveat, though, that Yianni is listed as the American entrant at 65 kg, and that is still an unsettled question, right? So, it seems that this may be similar to the "probable lineups" that the coaches put out before college duals. Yet, the official rules provide that the "Deadline for Final Entries" is January 25. Hmmm. Maybe that's just a deadline to enter your country?

With Stallrocci as the new heel, with the PSU staff trying to instigate against Maryland--Dude, you beat them by 400 points just lay off--and with the PSU fans on this board defending all of those shenanigans and more, I'm starting to see a bad case of Iowaitis. They have a fever, and the only prescription is more Professor Carl!

Wow.

[SPOILERS] The January Sumo tournament is over. I've never seen a better one. It came down to the high-ranking wrestlers, a play off, and that play off included the Yokozuna Terunofuji. Below is the match that he had to win against the second-highest ranked wrestler Kirishima (who also happens to be my favorite because he looks like Sumo Elvis) to get to the play off: The actual match starts at 5:07 of the video and it ends at 5:12. The total length of the match was five seconds. Unbelievable dominance by the Yokozuna. And believe me, Kirishima is a fantastic wrestler. After this match, the Yokozuna had to come back for the play off, and he beat another talented wrestler named Kotonowaka for the Emperor's Cup. I will just link that match here, as it is unlisted on YouTube so as not to spoil the surprise that there was a play off. In any event, Hakkeyoi to you and may your feet land outside the ring after your opponent's for the rest of your life!

There's only one thing worse than ruining the punchline of a joke, and that's ruining the punchline of a bad joke.

ILLINI made it a great match last year, but that didn't happen this season. Ouch. Great by Kannon Webster and Dylan Connell. I had to listen to Ironside on the radio, and I can't wait until the next ILLINI win in the season because I'm going to play that broadcast at my third wedding. DUAL RECAP The dual started at 133, and the teams were both a Frankenstein patchwork of wrestlers (apparently) because of injuries and illnesses. The ILLINI missed an opportunity at 133, as that was the second worst weight for the Hawkeyes during their dual season. Rather than a win, the ILLINI gave up a major decision. Not something you expect from the sixth-year Senior TONY MADRIGAL against the Hawkeye backup. It hurts even more because Real Woods didn't make the trip, so the Hawkeye bumped up their starter at 133 at 141. Madrigal should've made them pay for that. At 141, it was a bumped-up 6th-year grad student and three-time NCAA qualifier (R12, R16) Brody Teske versus true Freshman WILL BAYSINGAR. Teske gets the only takedown and rides out the second period to grab a 5-0 victory. No word on what happened to DANNY PUCINO. KANNON WEBSTER is now officially in the starting lineup for good. He got the start. Caleb Rathjen started for Iowa. It went into SV with the score 1-1. There, Kannon got the takedown and another ranked win against a tough wrestler. Coming off what must have been a brutal hand injury JOE ROBERTS gave up a tech fall to AA Jared Franek. CHRIS MOORE took on Michael Caliendo, the returning AA and transfer from NDSU. He gave up the tech fall in the second period. 5-1 was the Patrick Kennedy decision over EDMOND RUTH. The ILLINI need a win at 184, and they send out DYLAN CONNELL against Aiden Riggins. This is where Iowa loses most of its dual points. Dylan comes through with a takedown in SV for the win. Undefeated Zach Glazier faced off with JOEY BRAUNAGEL at 197. The Hawkeye got the second-period tech fall. At heavyweight, the ILLINI are without LUUUKE LUFFMAN so PETER MARINOPOULOS got the start. Bradley Hill gets the pin with :17 to go in the match. On the bright side, the pin came from a cradle after Peter took a shot in the third period. At 125, JUSTIN CARDANI faced #5 Drake Ayala. Justin lost this match 4-7 two years ago, but this was a 18-3 tech fall. Final Score: ILLINI-6; Iowa-36

Brian Swaw and I have started a podcast. For this episode, we interviewed the original Iowa Slayer Steve Marianetti. As a respected and impartial journalist, this was a dream come true for me! Everybody remembers Marianetti getting the upset in the 1995 NCAA Finals over the legend Lincoln McIlravey, but a couple years later, Coach Steve beat Iowa NCAA National Champ Daryl Weber in the finals of the US Open. We figured that the ILLINI need some big-time inspiration before this tough, tough dual. We also preview the dual: Credits: Coach Steve Marianetti, the Rolling Stones, themat.com, the University of ILLINOIS Athletic Department and Elmhurst University.

I think y'all are misinterpreting what WKN wrote, or maybe I am. 1. For the 2023 Pan Am Games, there was a qualification process that involved how your country finished in a few Pan Am tournaments that preceded it. Gilman won the 2022 Pan Am Championships, so he qualified the USA for the 2023 Pan Am Games. There, Zane Richards won. 2. For the 2024 Pan Am Championships, there are no qualifiers. 3. For the 2024 Pan Am Olympic qualifier, there are no qualifiers, but if your country already has won a slot allotted at your weight in the 2023 World Championships, your country can't go. I know that #1 above is right because I saw it play out, and I've linked to the Wikipedia entry. As for #'s 2 & 3, I'm pretty sure that's right, but please let me know if I'm wrong. Cheers!

The ******* ******* name is ******* JOMBO™ not ******* Jumbo or the ******* "vinegar and ham" guy, @CHROMEBIRD. When I have finished laughing, I'm gonna ******* sue both of you!

Last year, this dual came down to heavyweight. But because of injuries, gambling, transfers, graduations, regular redshirts, Olympic redshirts and whatnot, Iowa will be a huge favorite this season. There's a swell preview of the match over to The ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond Plus. The most important bits: WHAT: ILLINI versus Iowa dual WHEN: Friday, January 26 at 8:00 pm (Central) WHERE: Historic Huff Hall, Champaign, ILLINOIS TV/STREAMING: BTN (on the network); BTN+ (next day replay streaming) TICKETS: Free SPECIAL: Orange Out (wear Orange) SPECIAL X 2: Foam Fingers to 1st 200 Fans SPECIAL X 3: Free Kids Clinic (Jesse Delgado, Lucas Byrd) Oh, and we can't forget about our old friend JOMBO™:

You get on screen in a movie or tv show for 10 minutes, and you're an actor. Moreover, you will always be an actor, as your name is put in the IMDB. Did you know that Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her 15 minutes of screen time in L.A. Confidential? It's true. In 1991, Anthony Hopkins spent a total of 16 minutes on screen in his role as Hannibal Lecter in the movie Silence of the Lambs. He didn't tell a single joke. Yet, he came away with a Best Actor Academy Award. So, you know.

Mike Poeta. Gets to his second finals in 2009 only to run into the next World Champion. The semifinals at 157 were nuts.

I have to admit that when I saw the title of the thread, I was a little scared. But @ionel and you had me laughing. Here's a JOMBO™ that I don't think has been posted on this board yet.

What's the deal with the Ferarris?

As a stand-up comedian, my rule for impressions is this: They have to be spot on. Unmistakable. The one exception to that rule is if you are simultaneously telling a killer joke. Then, you can get by with just a good impression.