Recap of the ILLINOIS/Iowa Dual and Mike Carr

MIKE CARR

It was a bit of a disastrous weekend for ILLINI wrestling. Not everything went wrong, but there were two team losses, one expected, the other less expected. Yet, the worst news for ILLINOIS wrestling didn't happen on the mat. 

Mike Carr is retired. 

Too many injuries have spoiled what started out as, and what would have been, a brilliant wrestling career. Nobody was sure what to expect from the two-time Pennsylvania state champ with the big brain when he came to ILLINOIS. But he put everybody on notice in his first match--a loss to Missouri's Jaydin Eierman--that he would be a force to be reckoned with. 

I recall Mikey shooting a double on the Tiger wrestler late in the match, picking him up and holding him up in the air like Hercules held up Antaeus in that old Greek story. It was a show of dominance in a losing effort, but I knew right then that he would be an All American. 

And if not for the injuries, he would have been.

Later that redshirt freshman year, Carr would make it to the finals of the Big Ten Tournament, beating future National Champion Nick Lee along the way. In the NCAA Tournament, he made it to the Round of Twelve before losing a two-pointer. 

Last season, in his last match in an ILLINI singlet, the future doctor beat the guy who would go on to finish third at the NCAA Tournament. Good luck to Mike Carr.  

THE IOWA DUAL

JUSTIN CARDANI.  The ILLINI grabbed the first takedown with a sweeping single. He reached over and grabbed Ayala's other ankle and was awarded the two. He tried the same takedown in the second and was quick to lift up the leg. Unfortunately, his trip was poorly timed, and they both crumpled to the ground in a stalemate position. After 40 takedown attempts by Cardani, the ref warns Cardani for stalling as the Hawkeye just pushed him out (and even though the ILLINI circled back in). 

In the third period, they're tied up, and you could hear Coach Poeta say, "Throw-by is coming." And it came and led to the winning takedown. That's the kid's best weapon, and Justin needs to look for it. He did a pretty good job staying on the back foot most the match defending it, but that time it cost him. 

It was a loss, but I thought Justin did a better job of converting, and trying to convert, on his single-leg takedowns. When he keeps moving after grabbing the leg, he can convert. When he stops or slows down, his opponent has time to mount a defense. 

LUCAS BYRD.  Went on the offense early, exposing himself but always able to remain in front of Schriever. With about 1:10 to go in the first, he gets a front headlock, improves it with his head-in-the-hole work and gets the two. The beauty of this was that the pair were on the edge of the mat, and Lucas used his mat sense, leverage and momentum to keep either himself or the Hawkeye inbounds at all times. 

The ref took away the takedown that was a takedown. Love to be homered at home. This after the Cardani stalling call. Good grief!

Lucas took it in stride. 

From a very high tie, almost a standing front headlock, the ILLINI runs a slick shrug by to get the angle on Schriever, hit a single, switch to a double, take him to the mat, and this time the ref has to award the two. 

A beautiful ride by Lucas Byrd. I noticed he was on his toes putting as much pressure as possible on the Hawkeye, and the announcer echoed the thoughts in my head. The All American was not doing this:

Down in the third period, Lucas gets up to his feet and immediately turns into Schriever and takes him down for the reversal. Once the escape was a fait accompli, the Hawkeye failed to push him away, and the enemy was at the gates. 

In his 23 college matches, Cullan Schriever has never been skunked until Byrd did it to him. While doing that, the ILLINI's margin of victory over him was better than the margins of victory by Chris Cannon of Northwestern and his teammate, Austin DeSanto. 

The ILLINI with the best weekend was Lucas Byrd. He chain-wrestled and worked and rode his butt off and won two matches against tough guys. 

JOSH CONTRERAS.  The ILLINI is stepping up in weight to fill the gap left by We Rachal and Mike Carr/Dylan Duncan. He beat Liam Cronin at 125 a couple years ago. He's taking one for the team here at 141. So, let's give him what he's earned:

There's an amazing scramble in the first period--one of those scrambles during which both wrestlers are standing while holding one of the legs of the other wrester. This should be flagged immediately as potentially dangerous, but I'm not in charge of that. 

Shane Sparks broke the news about Mike Carr in this match, and he also noted that Dylan Duncan would be back at 141. That will be a big boost for the team. 

CHRISTIAN KANZLER.  The ILLINI still has his knee wrapped, and it doesn't seem as mobile as it could be. Murin attacked that leg, but it was still only 1-1 into the second. When the Hawkeye was on top, he had that injured leg bent up and held with his own leg in the top position--an illegal hold--but the kindly ref just pushed Murin's leg away from trapping his opponent's leg instead of awarding a point or even re-starting. Homered at home. 

JOE ROBERTS.  The first period provided a good illustration of why it is important to listen to your coaches. Kaleb Young tries a fireman's, but it ends up with both of the wrestlers facing each other on their knees with ties. Coach Poeta immediately yells, "Wrestle up" multiple times. Coach Ruth can be heard saying, "Get to your feet." 

Roberts didn't, and Young, who had an overhook on one side, threw in a vicious underhook on the other and pancaked Joe to his back, where he spent the next two minutes fighting off the pinfall. 

Credit to the ILLINI, he didn't give up the pin, but he was so exhausted he eventually gave up the tech. 

DANNY BRAUNAGEL.  The ILLINI gives up the quick takedown. You have to know that's coming, Danny, my man. That's like being surprised when you drop a bottle of soda and are shocked when you immediately open it. 

To his credit, Brawny only gives up :02 of riding time. 

Another lesson in listening to your Coach in the second period. Coach Poeta yells, "No straight arms [in the ties], he's looking for a post.]. Three seconds later, Marinelli tries to post up the elbow and shoot in. Thankfully, Danny Braunagel was listening, and the set up failed. 

During the broadcast, the announcers mentioned that the Brawlnagel had a previous loss to the Hawkeye by major. In fact, he had two previous losses, both by major. In this dual, it was a much tighter 4-1 decision for Marinelli. That's improvement, especially against the number one ranked wrestler in the country. 

BAAN RACHAL.  In his ILLINI dual debut, Baan faced a few obstacles, he's up a weight class from 165, he's wearing a heavy shoulder brace, and he's facing a four-time AA in Michael Kemerer. Early on, it is Rachal with the beautiful offense, a double leg that got close, a duck that didn't, and a third attempt at a fireman's without the arm (or a high crotch) that the Hawkeye stuffed. That led to a pin. 

I liked Baan's gumption and his attempts at offense. They didn't work, but you could tell that Kemerer found some respect for him. 

ZAC BRAUNAGEL.  In this match, the Brawlnagel again looked smallish compared to his opponent. He has added bulk to his shoulders and biceps, but there is still a gap. This was a tight, good match until Assad scored a takedown with the clock winding down in the second period. Can't let them limp arm out with a couple seconds on the clock! Squeeze. 

MATT WROBLEWSKI.  Like he did against Greg Bulsak of Rutgers, Wrobocop starts immediately with a blast double. And just as in the previous match, the effort comes up just short. Just need a couple more ergs, Matt! 

Here, Jacob Warner stopped the momentum and got his own takedown, but not before the ILLINI tried some of his famous acrobatics, which didn't prevent the score, but did land a knee to Warner's noggin. 

LUUUUKE LUFFMAN.  The ILLINI let the Hawkeye get an angle and then a quick snatch single early in the first period. The last two seconds of the match proved very interesting, as Luke began to bench press Cassioppi, and he was actually doing it. Unfortunately, to generate that amount of force, he had to have his shoulder blades on the mat. 

BOX SCORE.  I didn't do a play-by-play or mention many good things that Iowa did because I don't like Iowa. But I will record the box score here:

FULL RESULTS

125: Drake Ayala (IOWA) over Justin Cardani (ILL) (Dec 7-4)

133: Lucas Byrd (ILL) over Cullan Schriever (IOWA) (Dec 5-0)

141: Drew Bennet (IOWA) over Josh Contreras (ILL) (MD 10-1)

149: Max Murin (IOWA) over Christian Kanzler (ILL) (Dec 9-3)

157: Kaleb Young (IOWA) over Joseph Roberts (ILL) (TF 16-1 7:00)

165: Alex Marinelli (IOWA) over Dan Braunagel (ILL) (Dec 4-1)

174: Michael Kemerer (IOWA) over Baan Rachal (ILL) (Fall 2:35)

184: Abe Assad (IOWA) over Zac Braunagel (ILL) (Dec 5-2)

197: Jacob Warner (IOWA) over Matt Wroblewski (ILL) (Dec 6-0)

285: Tony Cassioppi (IOWA) over Luke Luffman (ILL) (Fall 6:47)

UP NEXT

No. 15 Illinois travels to No. 16 Purdue to take on the Boilermakers on Friday night beginning at 6 p.m. CT.

REPRESENTING.  The last three matches were, in effect, a dual between the ILLINI and ILLINOIS. To all the kids out there that want ILLINOIS to represent, why don't you represent ILLINOIS? That's what Mike Poeta did, and great team and individual honors happened after that.