THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

:11 Feldman runs to side of mat. :09 Feldman both feet in bounds on edge of mat :06 Carroll high crotch attempt sets up upper body hold :04 Carrol over/under with his arms hits perfect supplay (Feldman has one foot in cylinder) :03 Ref calls it out of bounds :02 Mystery second goes off the clock. (Flo timekeepers, see below) :02 Restart :01 Carroll in with a double, secures both legs. :00 Time runs out I thought that after Steiber/Oliver we had all agreed that head inside on a double with the offensive man controlling both legs and the defensive man on his butt is two points? Did high schools not get that memo? Also, if we are going to reward offensive wrestling, then any scoring move that occurs with any part of either wrestler in the cylinder should count no matter where the action ends up. In this case, the throw took the wrestlers off the mat, but the action started while one of the wrestlers was "on" the mat. Gotta score that two at least.  As for Flo timekeepers, the Me

  HARD -- Trying to turn or throw Greco wrestling legend Aleksandr Karelin. With a record of 887 wins and two losses, it was hard to score any kind of points against him. Picking up the Russian Bear proved all but impossible.  HARDER -- Throwing Ogre off the Trojan Horse. If you're a nerd, and you want to throw Ogre off the Trojan Horse so you can win Greek Games and become official Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity members, well, good luck. You can't because you're nerds. NERDS! By the way, if you haven't seen the movie , you're not living your best life. Are you some kind of nerd? NERDS! HARDEST -- Finding any kind of celebration, tailgate, Frontier Days, Pumpkin Festival, city carnival or anything like it that doesn't have a stupid KiDZoNE. You know what I'm talking about: Facepainting, clowns, bouncy houses. When I was a tiny human, KiDZoNEs were called, "You Better Sit up Straight and Shut up, Mister!"

  WIN Magazine has the ILLINI ranked #19 with three ranked wrestlers (Carr, Byrd and Duncan) and two in the top eight (Byrd and Duncan). As usual, I think folks are underselling the ILLINI. This particular ranking is based on how many tournament placement points the teams would receive if the ranked individuals placed where they are ranked. The individual rankings only go out to the top 20.  Sleeping on Cardani .   The WIN Magazine rankers have good reason to leave Justin Cardani off their rankings at this point. He had a bit of a sophomore slump. Even with that, though, he has already beaten two All-Americans in Brandon Courtney and Eric Barnett. His overall record against those in the WIN top twenty is 7-11. But here's the deal: A number of those ranked wrestlers are maxed out in terms of potential. Cardani is still young and has room to grow physically. If he gets confident in his offense and that cross-wrist tilt, watch out brother.  Lucas Byrd and Dylan Duncan.   A similar s

I have received some information from sources, but there will be some speculation herein. Beware!  Like any season, there are questions to be answered. Because the ILLINI were so young up and down the lineup last year, perhaps there are fewer questions this year? . . 125.  Justin Cardani  has been the man at this weight for two years. I don't see that changing this year. The interesting wild card is incoming freshman Maximo Renteria. The kid from California is a multi-year State Champion, and the ILLINI have had success with a multi-year State Champion from Cali. I would expect a redshirt year for Renteria, just the way it was for Byrd, IMAR and Delgado. Weight shouldn't be an issue for Cardani, unless he's bitten by a radioactive spider or is doused with Gamma Rays from a lab experiment gone horribly right. The kid from Champaign had a bit of a sophomore slump, but even then, he was the guy who created the greatest outcry when he didn't receive a wild card selection. A

What would you do to be able to wrestle? Would you lose weight? Spit in a towel before weigh-ins? Run in the morning before practice and train vigorously during practice? Would you have a doctor implant silicone in your head? To be recognized by the official Sumo wrestling organization in Japan, a new novice wrestler has to meet certain criteria. You have to be male, of course, and back in 1994,  you had to weigh at least 147.71 pounds and be a minimum of five feet eight inches tall.  That should've kept sixteen-year-old  Takeji Harada out of the sport. But his doctor and he had other plans. To meet the minimum height requirement,  Takeji had his doctor implant six inches of silicone on the top of his head. He went from 5-2 to 5-8 and became a Sumo wrestler.  I didn't 100% believe this story until I found that it had been reported in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times . I'm not going to make fun of this, as I know the commitment one must make to wrestling, but I

I stole the video from youtube and the idea from the internet. The part played by Coach Mike Poeta was played by a cat. Here, then, is Confidence: .

When I posted about the just-announced ILLINI schedule, I knew that there would be teams added to the tournaments. This has already happened as other schools have posted their schedules. I expect that there will be additional teams added in the days to come.  The first date on the schedule is an example of this. Oklahoma has been added to the participants list for the Michigan State Open.  MICHIGAN STATE OPEN - November 6, 2021 Team Participants : Michigan State, Oklahoma, Ohio, ILLINOIS, Davenport (DII) Notable Individuals (wrestlestat.com rankings of Top 50 wrestlers): 125 , #11 Rayvon Foley, MSU; #30 Joey Prata, Oklahoma; #47 Justin Cardani, ILLINI; 133 , #8 Lucas Byrd, ILLINI, #37 Anthony Madrigal, Oklahoma; #40 Mario Guillen, Ohio; 141 , #3 Dom Demas, #10 Dylan Duncan, ILLINI; 149 , #10 Mitch Moore, Oklahoma, #20 Mike Carr, ILLINI, #21 Alec Hagan, Ohio; 157 , #15 Justin Thomas, Oklahoma; #20 Chase Soldate, MSU; #49 Jordan Slivka, Ohio; 165 , #22 Jacob Tucker, MSU; #23 Danny Braun

INTRODUCTION ILLINI Nation has had a day to get over a football loss to Maryland. (I would make a joke about their state being named after a girl, but that wouldn't be funny after the football team's loss.). It was time for healing.  And who better to heal the wounds than Jesse Delgado and Christian Carroll? CHRISTIAN CARROLL At Flo Wrestling's Who's Number One match, the headline belonged to ILLINI commit Christian Carroll and his opponent Nick Feldman. The event was broadcast nationally, and there was hype leading up to it. After the event, themat.com had this to say: The other top-15 bout came in what Flo Wrestling dubbed the “Big Man Super Match” between No. 1 at 220 pounds Christian Carroll (Indiana) and No. 1 at 285 pounds Nick Feldman (Pennsylvania). Both showcased standout athleticism throughout the bout, but Feldman earned a 3-2 win to close out the event. What themat.com means with the phrase "top-15 bout" is that both wrestlers were among the top f

The ILLINI are headed to my neck of the woods on November 13, 2021. They'll be in Boone, North Carolina for a dual against Appalachian State University. I will drive up there from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. If you are going to be at the dual, stop and say hello to the 6-4 guy with the bright orange ILLINI hat. I can't wait! This is the full schedule: 11/6/21   @Michigan State Open Participants: Michigan State University, Ohio, ILLINI and Davenport (DII) 11/13/21  @Appalachian State University (dual tournament)* 11/21/21  @Lindenwood Open Participants: Lindenwood, SIU-E, ILLINI, McKendree (DII), Kentucky Wesleyan (DII) 12/11/21  @SIU-E and UT-Chattanooga (duals) 12/29/21  @The Midlands Tournament Participants: Rutgers, Wisconsin, ILLINI, Purdue, Navy, Army, Stupid Northwestern, Campbell, Binghamton, Ohio, SIU-E, Indiana, Cleveland State, Harvard, Penn, Bucknell, Bloomsburg, Franklin & Marshall 01/14/22  @Rutgers 01/16/22   Iowa 01/21/22  @Purdue 01/29/22   Stupid Northwes

 From themat.com: “Big Man Super Match” – No. 1 at 220 pounds Christian Carroll vs. No. 1 at 285 pounds Nick Feldman As if this card wasn’t strong enough, Carroll and Feldman will wrestle in what looks to be one of the night’s top matches. Carroll was dominant at 220 pounds at the 2021 Junior Nationals, cruising to a championship performance. The Illinois commit also took second at the 2021 UWW Junior Nationals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. Going into this academic year, he will be a junior at New Prairie High School. Feldman is a past Who’s Number One winner, winning the 2020 event at 220 pounds. He’s moved up to heavyweight and will look to solidify his standing as the best high school heavyweight in the country (this match will not affect weight class rankings due to the two’s differing weight classes). Feldman is a National Prep champion out of Malvern Prep and is set to attend Ohio State. Saturday’s event will start at 7 p.m. eastern time and can be streamed live on FloWrestl

These beasts are juniors (if their schools have started), are motivated achievers, and will be tsunami earthquakes at ILLINOIS: Always attacking. Huge gas tank. Massive gut wrench. Gets to legs on quick guys. I'm no expert, but the size of those paws suggest to me that Kannon Webster will be much bigger in a couple of years. I think it was Nelson who suggested that he may be at 141 for the ILLINI. I can see that or 149 or bigger. Wow! That was just brutal. Huge gut. Can get to legs.  Proprioception  in spades, except he knows where his body is in space and where his opponents body is. Well-spoken, and energetic. He's gonna be a fan favorite! He'll also need a worthy nickname.

  MEANWHILE ... In news of International Incidents, i t appears that some anonymous person, possibly me, is live-blogging the Yariguin wrestling tournament in Russia with cryptic cries for food, vodka, medicine for his donkey and the deposition of Russian President Vladimir Putin. We have a live shot of the chat here: The comment translates as follows: "I am hungry and my donkey is sick. I would like some potatoes and vodka. Will you fight with me against Putin?" Thus far, the Russians have not taken any counter-measures. This is a link  to one of the three youtube channels carrying the tournament. It would be a shame if more people joined in. A crying shame. We will bring you more as the story develops.... MEANWHILE ... BREAKING NEWS: The Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team is temporarily shut down due to Coronavirus infection. The team cannot practice together until permitted by the Big Ten Covid Protocol and university medical. In the interim, they are using the Zoom Meeting ap to