The Beauty and the Bleeps, A Recap of the Badger Dual

THE SCORE

The ILLINI were smashed 32-10 by the stupid Badgers. The dual started at 133, so any advantage in forcing Eric Barnett to make weight and wrestle immediately was lost. My guess is that Bono won the coin flip and gave his 125er time to rehydrate. Here is the official box score:

125: Eric Barnett (WIS) over Dane Durlacher (ILL) (Fall 3:31) (WIS UCT Wisconsin -1.0)

133: Lucas Byrd (ILL) over Kyle Burwick (WIS) (MD 16-5)

141: Joseph Zargo (WIS) over Dylan Duncan (ILL) (SV-1 8-6)

149: Austin Gomez (WIS) over Christian Kanzler (ILL) (Fall 0:42)

157: Garrett Model (WIS) over Joe Roberts (ILL) (Dec 5-1)

165: Dean Hamiti (WIS) over Danny Braunagel (ILL) (MD 11-1)

174: DJ Shannon (ILL) over Andrew McNally (WIS) (Fall 4:55)

184: Christopher Weiler (WIS) over Zac Braunagel (ILL) (Dec 8-2)

197: Braxton Amos (WIS) over Matt Wroblewski (ILL) (MD 10-0)

285: Trent Hillger (WIS) over Luke Luffman (ILL) (MD 10-2)

Also, at that link, you'll find the official recap, which describes the Dylan Duncan bout as "exciting." It did go to overtime, but it was not exciting at all. It was painful to watch. Besides the Badger winning, the real pain involved an obviously sick or massively-dehydrated ILLINI All American unable to put up much of a fight. 

Hopefully, whatever ails Dylan will be resolved before any match with Chad Red on Sunday. If not, he probably shouldn't be in the lineup for seeding purposes.

THE BEAUTY

There were beautiful moments in the dual, including the match wins from Lucas Byrd and DJ Shannon, and, yes, the sight of Dane Durlacher getting his first varsity start. He wrestled hard and well in that first period. 

LUCAS BYRD

The 133 pound match was a bonus-point win for the ILLINI, and it should've been a momentum builder. Lucas won 16-5. Rayvon Foley, Chris Cannon and Drew Matting beat the guy by four or five points. 

Right off the bat, the kid from ILLINOIS shows his chain wrestling mentality, doing whatever it takes to secure the takedown:

Lucas releases the Badger into the wild, then gets another takedown in the first period. He rides him out, finishing the period on top. After a quick escape in the second, the ILLINI did this:

Lucas was doing this to a national qualifier who won a match in the Big Dance last year. You can tell that Big Ten coaches have begun to scout the ILLINI sensation.

The problem is that Byrd can score from multiple platforms. You can stop his tricep grip and the underhook, but what about the ankle?

That trip was not hard. It was not Byrd throwing his leg willy-nilly. Rather, it was just a little subtle nudge that forced the Badger to go where Byrd wanted him to go. 

Lucas added a couple more takedowns and two stall warnings against the Badger in the third period to reach the final margin. 

DJ SHANNON

This was a big match for DJ, as he could really help his bid to qualify for the NCAA tournament with a win here. It will also help his Big Ten tournament seed, as a win puts him at 3-3 in conference duals. 

Even after this match, Andrew McNally was rated #19 on wrestlestat.com. As mentioned in the preview, the Badger is a three-time NCAA qualifier already, and he was a Round of 12er last year. Intermat had him at #26. 

 

The ILLINI puts on a tough ride, but he's interested in more than tough rides. 

Shannon gains a grip, but it breaks and the stinky Badger escapes. McNally gets a takedown, but DJ is instantly out. In the second, Wisconsin starts down and gets a pretty quick escape. He soon tries another shot, but DJ scrambles. Then, the ILLINI -- who can smell what the Ruth is cooking -- locks it up!

DJ took his time and had every duck in a row so that he could get ...

THE BLEEPS

As for the other matches, well, ******* **** that ******* sucked. Ya gotta protect your legs; strategy is your friend--don't wrestle in the other guy's wheelhouse--especially if he's a thrower; and weak shots will be stuffed. 

My greatest criticism is leveled at the ref. He did a fantastic job for one hour, fifty-three minutes and thirty-five seconds. At the end of the Dane Durlacher match, though, we had this:

I appreciate that you can see the ref jumping in to stop any escalation, and I appreciate the team point deduction, but Barnett should've been ******* ******* disqualified for this. 

And that's because in the first period, the ref gave only a meek warning to Barnett for two punches to the face. Here's the first:

Three strikes and you're ******* out!