LUCAS BYRD, ALL AMERICAN

The ILLINI had another All American for the 30th year in a row. His name is Lucas Byrd, and he had the best takedown in the NCAA tournament. It went a little something like this:

Earlier in the match, Lucas scored another takedown that raised a deep, philosophical question:

Stand ups, sit outs and switches are for peasants! 

Coach Mike Poeta letting his Italian show:

Lucas will take on Austin DeSanto later this morning for the right to wrestle for third place. On the other side of the bracket, it is Michael McGee versus Korbin Myers. Earlier in the day, ILLINI big man Luuuke Luffman had a great time in his match until the Gothiest heavyweight I have ever seen threw in legs. Does he not know that's not allowed? 

Zac Braunagel had the most excruciating bad luck to have a loss in sudden victory of the Blood Round. On the other hand, he can feel good about having wrestled the best and most entertaining match of the tournament: His win over Iowa State's Marcus Coleman in the second round. 

That match was an Avengers movie. 

A FINAL TIME CAPSULE

It was thirty years ago today.

If you liked video games, perhaps you were playing Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom or maybe you found your pleasure in Battle Cars while listening to Nothing but a "G" Thang by Dr. Dre. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston was still high on the charts after nineteen weeks. 

Or, if you didn't suck, you were watching the NCAA wrestling tournament as the ILLINI started their current annual streak of at least one NCAA Wrestling All American. That year, Steve Marianetti would finish fourth.

He would improve on that finish in the future.