ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Also, if my understanding is correct, the five free competitions rule only applies to true freshmen, and not, in example, for somebody like Iowa's Drake Ayala or Nebraska's Kyle Burwikk. Is my understanding correct, though?

Any time during the year?

I seem to remember that the rule is slightly different for redshirt freshmen who might use one of their five freebie varsity matches once conference dual season starts. What is the rule again? Conference season kicks in big time shortly. What will be the impact from true redshirt freshmen, if any? Why won't Bono sign Burwikk's release?

As a fan of one team, and as a hater of all other teams and their wrestlers, I have to say that I loved the Midlands, the MSU Open, and the Tiger Style Invite. Here's why: Action. In those tournaments, there always seems to be one your favorite team's wrestlers on the mat. On day two of Midlands, there were back-to-back-to-back-to-back ILLINI matches. Once, there were three ILLINI starting at about the same time. Izzy and you saved Christmas last year, no doubt, but you did it with a medium-sized tournament that provided an excellent fan experience. I think (and hope) that is the future.

Byrd always rumbles. He went into the match rumbling but got hit with a cradle. Not sure exactly, but it was something like 9-1 and 11-2 during the match. Lucas then went to work with lots of takedowns, stacking them like pancakes at Merry Ann's Diner in Champaign, ILLINOIS. He took the guy's soul, but the scoring table took the win.

About that Lucas Byrd comeback win, I'm still pissed. Here's what happened: At the start of the third period, Byrd gets a caution on the start. The table says, :03 is off the clock, but they don't take the time to change the clock. I'm actually cool with that because Byrd was wearing the hell outta that Penn wrestler. What I'm not cool with is that the table and the refs forgot about that :03 at the end of the match. That :03 equals the final takedown that was disallowed because "time" ran out. On top of that, I don't want to sound like Jombo, but stalling barely made an appearance in that match. It should've had a starring role, above the title. So instead of an "L," in my mind it was a miraculous comeback. And anybody who disagrees goes to the top of my enemies list.You see, even Jombo agrees with me:

I forgot to mention Trey Sizemore (and probably others). Sizemore has been a revelation. He's still in it for a podium finish, and he's wrestled real well. Another thing I noticed was that Danny Braunagel was called for potentially dangerous during his first takedown attempt on Peyton Hall. (It was a good call). But Danny learned. During his second takedown attempt, he passed the leg quickly and got to the waist lickity-split. That shows smarts and natural instincts. Finally, @MPhillips, what can be done about this lack of NUDGERS? It's not like it takes much skill to NUDGE. There are no special schools that teach NUDGING. And still there are no NUDGERS! HARRUMPH!

Four ILLINI in the semifinals to include Lucas Byrd, Danny Braunagel, Edmond Ruth and Zac Braunagel. These guys were all the higher seeded wrestler in the quarters except that little Brawny got a big upset against Peyton Hall. By the way, I haven't seen trick knees like Peyton Hall since Tyler Nixt. What an incredible defensive resource. PREDICTION: I think in the next couple of years there will emerge a new kind of wrestler: The stud who only has a loss on his record to Lucas Byrd and Edmond Ruth. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! Ermak Kardonov is a Russian wrestler who is really good at freestyle. He's at the ILLINI RTC now. Watching him deal with bottom and top wrestling at the Midlands was both tense and hilarious. Go Ermak! KAREN-TYPE WHINES: If you are going to stream a tournament, you need to also have a dashboard or brackets that a body can click on to take you directly to the match you want to see. Having one company stream while another company carries the live brackets and dashboard sucks. I almost swatted BTN Headquarters because of this. A second peeve is the lack of nudgers. Apparently none of these companies can find or afford to hire someone to nudge the camera when the action moves to the side of the mat. ALL I'M ASKING FOR IS A NUDGE. ARE NUDGERS SO HARD TO FIND? IT WOULD TAKE THREE SECONDS TO TRAIN A NUDGER IN THE ART OF NUDGING! ONLY FOR HARDCORE ILLINI FANS: I was really impressed with Dylan Connell and Danny Pucino. Connell got beat 1-8 by Pitt's Reece Heller in the dual, then turned that into an SV loss at Midlands. He's still in the mix for a placement. Same with Pucino. These guys are wrestling their first full years at ILLINOIS, and will be forces for good in the future. Really disappointed that nobody at 125 or 157 from the team could show up and pick up their teammates.

Midlands had one of the biggest matches of the year. Saul Ervin, of the famous Ervin wrestling family, versus a guy whose last name is the perfect viral Tik Tok video. Can't get better than that. Maybe the perfect in-season wrestling tournament is the friends we meet along the way?

Luke Luffman had surgery. In other words, a duck conspiracy so vast it involves the ILLINI Athletic Department and a team of medical professionals. I'm disappointed that Maximo isn't there, and I don't know why. It surely isn't to duck competition, though, as he needs some wins to pad his NCAA resume before facing Spencer Lee and Eric Barnett in duals next week. As for Edmond Ruth as the #1 seed, I've explained that sufficiently. Blame Nolf or Cenzo or McFadden or Iowa or Nebraska for not showing up, the slackers! Finally, I agree that Cannon should be the #4 seed over Heilmann even though Cannon is 4-3 this year while Heilmann is 11-1. Cannon has a proven track record in big tournaments. I would keep Glory at number three ahead of Cannon, at least until Cannon shows that he is past whatever injury he suffered at Cliff Keen.

1. I want to be as cowardly as Mike Poeta. 2. Your second point contradicts point three. 3. Edmond Ruth is 21-1 in his last 22 college matches and has won three of the last four tournaments that he's entered. He is basically the returning champion. 2x PA State Champ, 3x Finalist. I'm good with his seed and what that means on the grander, cosmic scale.

Great weight!

Ermak Kardonov is at the ILLINI RTC and is in the Midlands bracket at 184. Still no Sadulaev at Midlands. Quack.

Yes. It is a reference to that immortal phrase. Cheers!

According to Christian Pyles, who is dreamy, 133 at the Midlands got electro-magma-supercharged with the addition of unattached wrestler Kyle Burwick of Nebraska. If you are an organizer, all of the entries should be placed on the bracket by random draw, after proper seeding, except that Burwick-Lamont must be a first-round match. Other big names at 133 include two-time All Americans Lucas Byrd, Michael McGee, and Chris Cannon, along with Round of 12er Micky Phillipi. One of those fellows is 8-1 against the other three. Can you guess who? Heavyweight and 125 are shaping up to be great brackets. Yay for the wee folk and the fatties. I've checked Twitter and haven't heard of any teams missing flights because of weather or Southwest Airlines. This is the one benefit you can point to for having few wrestling teams in the South. When it comes to snow, Southerners act like a volcano has erupted. Back to Burwick: Should he confront the Badger staff with a blank NPO? My belief is that Wisky should sign. My definition of participation might be different from yours. What the Badger staff did was, after not telling Burwick about the portal deadline, then going behind his back to recruit an AA over him, expect to handcuff Burwick and Lamont in the practice room together for a year with people Kyle couldn't trust, lay a saw on the floor between them and say, "Participate!" But that might be taking the analogy too far, maybe.

It looks like the second link goes to the same story as the first link. Is there no way to edit these posts? Can I speak to a manager? No, now! Wake him up if you have to! Anyway, here's the corrected link: 165-285

Midlands caught us all with our guard down. It's just two days away. You can get an idea what's about to go down at these two links: 125-157 165-285 Here's a fun sample: A DAY IN HISTORY Mariah Carey topped the charts with Don't Forget About Us. At the box office, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was number one in 3,853 theaters nationwide. Top video games were Age of Empires III, Call of Duty 2 and World of Warcraft. It was December 30, 2005. On that same day, the #2-ranked ILLINI won their third consecutive Midlands title with placewinners Alex Tirapelle (1st), Pete Friedl (1st), Mike Poeta (2nd), Tyrone Byrd (2nd), Donny Reynolds (6th), and Troy Tirapelle (7th). Kyle Ott didn't even make the trip. By the time the ILLINI held up that Midlands team trophy in 2005, The Matrix was already 6 years, 8 months and 29 days old:

I've gone from creeped out to frightened.

The second post in the stupid things THAT ARE WRESTLING RELATED involves that trip to wrestlestat.com. I wanted to see who the Final Bosses are. IMAR was the very definition of a Final Boss. If you beat him, you won everything. If he beat you, you would have to start all over again. Brooks and Starocci have only three and two losses each, respectively, so will they end up as Final Bosses? Spencer Lee has five losses, but there were extenuating circumstances. Most importantly, in the NCAA tournament, he has been a final boss. In looking at Starocci's upcoming matches, he has a bit of cakewalk: Fish, fish, fish, fish, Ethan Smith, Donnell Washington, fish, fish, fish. Should we be on "Final Boss Watch" for his matches with Smith and Washington?

It seems that a lot of threads veer off course around here, so a thread dealing with stupid things THAT ARE WRESTLING RELATED might be appropriate. All of you folks are already at the very top of my enemies list, so I thought that before getting on my last nerve, we should try this. It could be fun, or it could be stupid. We'll see. I'll start. I was on Andre's Wrestlestat.com site a short time ago, looking up Spencer Lee's, IMAR's, Aaron Brooks' and Carter Starocci's number of losses when I got to thinking thinking: If Wrestlestat continues its service for the next ten years, should Andre be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame? I think, First Ballot. Then, I saw the google advertisement below. I still think Andre would be first ballot, but, my dude, I'm a little creeped out.

Yes. Black and white but not in the way you contend. Let me explain with a short drama. SCENE: The camera pans across the Wisconsin Athletic Director's office. It finally rests on the only two people in the entire world who made certain Burwick could not participate as a varsity Wisconsin wrestler this year: Wrestling Coach Chris Bono and Athletic Director Chris McIntosh. That's because Bono recruited a seventh-year Senior AA to replace Burwick, and McIntosh signed off on that recruitment. McIntosh speaks: MCINTOSH: You can't read, can you? BONO: I'm not a strong reader. FIN To be clear I hate Nebraska just as much as Wisconsin. The entire populations in both states are on my enemies list.

This seems bizarre to me. I think it was one of the best fact-based responses in the history of Twitter. But the questions! Why would Bono leave himself so open? Why would he tweet one paragraph and not the other (more relevant) paragraphs? Does he need somebody in the legal department to read these for him? Did Snyder create a Deep-Fake verified Bono account to set up Bono? Can Bono read English? Now, I hate Nebraska and Wisconsin equally--they are both just awful--but I also think Burwick is a really good wrestler, and he would be an immediate upgrade for the cornhuskers, and unless Bono recruits a P4P top twenty kid at 133, Burwick is gonna beat Wisconsin every year. Just so it's clear: I loathe both Wisconsin and Nebraska. My suggestions for resolving the dispute in order of likelihood: Duel, dual, wrestle-off between Burroughs and Howe, ball grab (circa the Metcalf era of freestyle), Trade Burwick for Boo, a bushel of corn, and a walk-on to be named later, get pissed off about being showed up online and not sign anything ever, sign the dang thing.

Your wrestlers? That explains a lot. What is unexplainable is one person, I believe it was @nhs67, mentioned the great matches wrestled by Zane in teching a World Bronze and then beating the Iranian World Team member. That is sad.

I wrote that so you could see what you've written. My dudes, Zane Richards is a quiet hard-working fellow who has put in upwards of 10,000 hours to be able to beat Iran in the Finals of the World Cup. He's traveled to intensive weeks-long camps in Russia and Azerbaijan to understand freestyle in his bones. He has invested his life as a young man and now young adult in the sport. Zane didn't punch anybody. He didn't flip the bird or pull down his pants. He was also under a lot of pressure, probably more than anybody else on the team, I would guess. For example: 1. For at least a week, maybe longer, he knew that he'd be the first American to wrestle in the 2022 World Cup. 2. He knew that his first match would be against the World Bronze medalist from Mongolia. 3. If the USA made it to the World Cup Finals, he would likely wrestle the Iranian Senior World Team member. 4. Iran beat America in the last two World Cup Finals where the teams met. 5. If not for a beautiful arm post on the mat to avoid exposure and then an instantaneous chain-wrestled crotch lift for his own exposure, that Iranian heavyweight could've been celebrating an individual and team victory. So, letting off a little steam having accomplished the monumental tasks set out before him doesn't seem so out of the ordinary, right? In conclusion, please let me welcome a whole new crew of panty-waist jackovasaurs to my enemies list.

OMG! He stuck out his naked tongue!