THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

  I Was Wrong.  Deuce Rachal is not right for Sumo. He is meant for bigger and better things. This is some of what was posted on his  Fighting ILLINI bio : Has worked as a karate instructor A member of the chess club Is a national and world champion in Brazilian jiu jitsu hopes to become a doctor Majoring in molecular biology If you can throw big people around, that's a good thing. If you can save people's lives, that's an astonishingly great thing. Whether as a doctor or scientist, the Deuce needs to be on the loose helping people.  The End of the November Basho. The final Sumo tournament or "Basho" of the year has ended. The winner was the Yokozuna Terunofuji. He finished with a perfect 15-0 record, cementing his legacy. He won four of the six tournaments this year, including the first two after becoming a Yokozuna. The latter hadn't happened since the 1960s.  The Yokozuna is an underhook destroyer. In fact, he will use his cunning to force his opponents  in

The newest Avenger is HUDSON GOEBEL from Findlay, Ohio. HUDSON GOEBEL had his Freshman-year state tournament cancelled in Ohio. During his Sophomore year--this past season--GOEBEL made it to the finals were he faced off against a Senior by the name of Sean Seefeldt. Our young hero lost that match in triple overtime.  Seefeldt went on to join the Penn wrestling team, where he is now 2-1 on wrestlestat.com with a win over the #38 wrestler in the country at the Shorty Hitchcock Open.  Of course, GOEBEL couldn't wrestle in that tournament because he's only a Junior in high school!  As a Freshman, HUDSON GOEBEL had a 40-9 record at 106. Last season, he was runner-up at 120 to a Senior from St. Eds. What will be in store in the future for this young man? P.S. I didn't realize that Iron Man used to look like that. Wow, Iron Man, you've come a long way, baby!

If you want to continue reading the story that starts in the image above, go to this link of the article about 150 years of ILLINI making history. In the article you'll find a heart-warming story of a coach being a great coach.  But there's more to the story.  A lot more.  This is the coolest stuff I've found in a long, long time.  The ILLINI great Matt Lackey won a National Championship in 2003. He did it in the most spectacular fashion with the footsweep heard 'round the world. This is what that looked like: There is no video of the entire championship match, which is one of the uncoolest things I've encountered in a long, long time. But, if you dig a little deeper into the Matt Lackey story, you'll find this gem from The Daily ILLINI : “Growing up in Moline, we got Iowa public television, which televised every single Iowa wrestling meet,” Lackey said. “Everyone out there watched Iowa wrestling back then. They had some great wrestlers there back then, and, of

We've had the MSU Open and the Lindenwood Open to get a chance to know the ILLINI Freshmen, and they look incredible.  Dylan Connell  made it to the finals of both tournaments. Along the way, he teched just about everybody. He has an unstoppable sweep single and cross-wrist tilt. He's hard to ride and a hard rider. In the finals of the Lindenwood Open, he wrestled a circus freak from Oklahoma State who won all the tournaments in high school. The match went to overtime, where the performer who had escaped from a sideshow managed the takedown. NOTE:  Here's the interview of these fellows: Maximo Renteria  started off his ILLINI career with a bang at the MSU Open, looking like a serious stud. Unfortunately, something caught up to him in his next match and he had to forfeit out after that. Whatever it was that sidelined him kept him out of the Lindenwood Open as well. Here's to a quick recovery because I would really love to see what he can bring to the Midlands. Another wr

MEANWHILE ... Stay tuned for our March 2023 report on the Iowa Hawkeye 2022 wrestling team. You won't believe what they have to say!

Jesse Delgado's last loss during the 2014 season was in the dual against Penn State's Nico Megaludis, a close 4-5 decision. After that, he strung together 16 straight wins, including victories over Megaludis and Iowa's Cory Clark in the Big Ten Tournament. Following that, the ILLINOIS great secured another win over Cory Clark at the NCAA Tournament, then finally capped it all off with his Fine Art performance in the finals against Nahshon Garrett. Cornell's Garrett was a four-time AA and a one-time champ, winning it all at 133 in 2016. During the 2014 season, Garrett was ranked number one by wrestlestat.com, and he ended up with a sparkling 37-2 record. Both of those losses were to Jesse Delgado.  The first loss to Delgado came during an early season dual . That was a 6-2 result in favor of the ILLINI. Garrett entered the NCAA tournament that year with more wins than Delgado and one less loss. If I remember correctly, a majority of the internet fans picked Garrett to wi

Here at the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum we've come up with a new feature: The ILLINI Athlete of the Week. The video below is for the week ending November 21, 2021. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.   There were no starters here except for Joe Roberts and, of course, Danny Pucino and We Rachal, who've had spot starter duties in the past. The bad news is that Baan Rachal, Eddie Ordonez and Caden Ernd may have been injured. Hopefully, nothing significant.  The good news is that the freshmen and sophomores there looked really good, and that despite the absence of one Maximo Renteria, who would've chewed up this field at 125. The Oscar nominees for best entertaining wrestler in a starring role include: Danny Pucino at 141; Joey Braunagel at 197; and Dylan Connell at 184.  These guys are popcorn destroyers! The video streaming sucked very badly for the first couple of hours. I called it the worst failed video stream I've seen since 1998. Trackwrestling and the video providers did not get on the same page regarding mat assignments vis-a-vis the cameras. But the major problem is that many of the cameras provided the same mat. That was corrected for the last

INTERMAT RANKINGS The latest InterMat poll shows eight ILLINI wrestlers ranked. As a team, the ILLINI are ranked #22 in the tournament category , and #20 for duals. Here are the individual ILLINI and their rankings: 125 -- Justin Cardani #25 133 -- Lucas Byrd #9 141 -- Michael Carr #8 149 -- Dylan Duncan #5 165 -- Danny Braunagel #23 184 -- Zac Braunagel #18 197 -- Matt Wroblewski #25 285 -- Luke Luffman #21 None of the ILLINI starters have a losing record after the MSU Open. InterMat has Mike Carr at 141 and Dylan Duncan at 149. So the mystery continues! The folks at InterMat spelled Zac Braunagel's name correctly -- a first for any ranking or seeding or bracketing service! Congratulations are in order.  Cardani, Byrd, the Brawnys and Luffman have beaten multiple people ahead of them in the rankings. There is room for them to improve on their current placement during the season.  TOM RANKINGS Theopenmat.com has only 20 slots in each of their individual weight categories. That will

Just so we understand each other. Drug abuse is not funny at all.  Not even a little bit.  This is Issue #1 of Tales From the Land Where Time Has Just Begun. Stay tuned for more hijinks from our new friends NitLion64 and his life partner, Wilma. 

One of the best matches in NCAA history has to be Isaiah Martinez versus Jason Nolf in the NCAA finals. Like Hall of Fame ILLINI Steve Marianetti before him, IMAR would keep a wrestler from becoming a four-time NCAA champion.  He did it in style.   You might recall that IMAR lost the match against Nolf during the dual, snapping his 52-win unbeaten streak. Something I point out to anybody who'll listen is that IMAR was--at the time of that dual loss--in the middle of his descent to 65kg to try to make a world team. Compare IMAR in this video from the dual with IMAR in the video of the Championship match below. IMAR looks like IMAR's little brother.  Another aspect of this season was the untimely death of Isaiah's father. That pretty obviously took a toll on him, but it also motivated him in his championship quest. Here's the video from the finals: :05  IMAR makes his run out from the tunnel and into the arena. Any decent ref would have awarded him two points just for th

  NFTs for these spectacular and original works of Fine Art have not been flying off the shelves like we had expected. So, we've decided to slash our price from $80,000.00 per blockchain NFT to $79.99. That's a deal that you can't beat, and we can't repeat!  In other wrestling cartoon-related news, sometime soon the Jombo Cinematic Universe (or "JCU") will add another character besides Jombo, his wife Karen McFeedstore, and Jombo, Jr.  We haven't settled on a name for this fellow, but our draft name and backstory is "NITLion64, the PSU Internet Keyboard Warrior Who Claims That He's NOT Addicted to Meth, and Who Believes That Nothing on Earth Existed Before 2010." Stay tuned! 

The Lindenwood Open has always been a mystery to me.  Like rabbits and pitchers of milk in a magician's black top hat. That can't be fun for the rabbits, can it? I've only ever seen results from Lindenwood, a small blurb at FightingILLINI.com, or some odd mention on the internet. Now, we have an opportunity to pull the curtain aside and actually watch it.  And there will be thirteen mats of it! And those thirteen mats will have thirteen cameras pointed at them. The list of teams sending wrestlers is massive, so this will be a strong tournament. Here are the particulars: That is just an image above. Here's the actual link to the Rokfin page with information about the tournament and viewing options. If you have questions, comment below, and I'll send them along to the organizer.  I am not affiliated in any way with GroWrestling other than we follow each other on Twitter (starting about 15 minutes ago). The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum will have a "roving repo

THE DEUCE PETITION Consider this a petition to get Deuce Rachal into Sumo in Japan. He would be a perfect representative for the sport. He is big. He is personable. He is daring. He can throw large humans. I assume he can consume vast quantities of the famous Sumo Stew,  Chanko Nabe . If a resume is necessary for the Japanese Sumo Association, I present the following: This would be perfect for the Deuce, as it would allow him to go on the loose about 90 times per year, and that doesn't include exhibitions. And why not Luke Luffman in a couple of years? There have been 186 athletes wrestle Sumo in Japan who were not born in that country.  THE NOVEMBER BASHO The final Basho of the year has just started. You can see all the bouts from day one here . They've already uploaded day two here . I have also produced a video based upon a match from day one that caught my eye.  In this match, you will see some incredible athleticism, as one of the Sumo, Endo, twists his body in the air to

  My Swiss banker asked me if it was a good idea to piss off half of my potential readers. Lucky for him, I don't understand Swiss. This is issue #2 of the adventures of JOMBO, the greatest cartoon featuring amateur wrestling in the history of the world.   Oh, Jombo! What will you do next? 

The ILLINI missed out on the Mountaineer Invitational because of Stupid Covid. That would've happened tomorrow. Next up is the Lindenwood Open. Here are the particulars: WHAT:  Lindenwood Open WHEN:   All day, Saturday, November 20, beginning at 9:00 am  W HERE: Robert F. Hyland Arena, St. Charles, MO WHO:  ILLINOIS, Missouri, SIUE, McKendree University, Kentucky Wesleyan and Fontbonne. In addition, many teams send a few wrestlers. Stud wrestlers from small schools have the opportunity to garner the attention that they need to get to the next level. For example Demetrius Thomas and Boo Dryden both who won the Open representing non-D1 schools before transferring to big-time Power-Five schools.  WHAT:   Bracketed Individual Tournament with Frosh-Soph and Open Divisions TV/STREAMING:   Nothing as far as we know. Except this year, the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum may have a roving reporter who can provide information and analysis regarding the ILLINOIS wreslters.  POSSIBLE OPEN E

  ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum, a subsidiary of ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond, is offering sole ownership of the single NFT of this very valuable First Issue of The Adventures of Jombo TM McFeedstore, the Iowa Hawkeye Internet Wrestling Fan Who Reeks of Vinegar and Ham and Is Court-Ordered to Submit to Bi-Weekly Drug Testing Because of Previous Felony Convictions at auction.  If you can't risk being out-bid, you may buy it outright for $80,000.00 (US). That would be a very stupid thing to do, but you are the captain of your wallet, a man and/or woman of discerning taste, and you know that investments in Fine Art produce great dividends over the long term while enriching your soul. 

  In answer to the title question, yes. Baysingar will! He was ranked in the Top 20 in the nation as a Freshman at 106. He won 3rd in state that year with a 51-2 record. Last season, Baysingar finished on the top of the podium with a State Championship at 120 as a Sophomore. What lies ahead? Probably a lot more growing and podiums between Kannon Webster and Baysingar as the ILLINI continue to dominate the lighter weights.  Congratulations to Will, his family, friends, teammates and Coaches, and kudos to the ILLINI staff. Cheers!

This is from FightingILLINI.com : CHAMPAIGN, Ill.  – The Fighting Illini wrestling team has withdrawn from a scheduled appearance at the Mountaineer Invitational in Boone, North Carolina, on Sunday, Nov. 14, due to COVID-19 issues within the Illinois program. This decision was made out of an abundance of caution surrounding the health and safety of the tournament's participants. This is good news for Arizona State University.  The ILLINI are 3-0 against ASU. The last two times the ILLINI wrestled them, the O&B came out on top in a big way, even when ASU was favored to win the match. For example, there was this 26-9 shellacking in 2017: 125: Travis Piotrowski (ILL) dec Josh Kramer (ASU), 6-4 SV-2 133: #6 Zane Richards (ILL)­ tech fall Ted Rico (ASU), 18-1 141: Nikko Villarreal (ASU) decision Mousa Jodeh (ILL), 5-4 149: Eric Barone (ILL) dec. Josh Maruca (ASU), 4-2 157: #18 Kyle Langenderfer (ILL) dec. #6 Josh Shields, 6-5 165: #1 Isaiah Martinez (ILL) fall #9 Anthony Valencia (A

The ILLINI wrestling team will be at the Mountaineer Invitational all day on Sunday, November 14 in Boone, North Carolina. That is the home of the Appalachian State University Mountaineers. Here are the particulars: WHAT:   The Mountaineer Invitational SAY AGAIN?:   It's an eight-team dual tournament, Mr. Noseypants.  WHEN:   Sunday, November 14 starting at 8am Central and running all day WHERE:   Boone, North Carolina WHO:   ILLINOIS, Arizona State, Appalachian State, Air Force, Indiana, Duke, Kent State, Gardner-Webb VIDEO/STREAMING:   None reported so far. The Invitational is not listed on Flo, Trackwrestling or the SoCon digital network.  FORMAT:   I don't know the exact format, but I imagine it will have to be seeded, with the top two seeds going to ILLINOIS and Arizona State. If I were in charge of seeding and setting up the Invitational, this is what it would look like: ILLINOIS vs. Kent State .   If the ILLINI face the Golden Flashes in the first round, they should have