THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

This is gonna cost the University of ILLINOIS a lot of money.  They are moving forward with economic incentive packages for student athletes who make progress in their education. As you may recall, Zac Braunagel was a Scholar-Athlete of the Week this past season; Lucas Byrd earned that honor twice. Moreover, there were seventeen (17!) wrestlers who made the Academic All Big Ten team. Here's the scoop from FightingILLINI.com:  At Illinois, the Alston awards program will take effect for the 2022-23 academic year, with the maximum award of $5,980 made available annually to Fighting Illini student-athletes in all 21 varsity sports. Fighting Illini fans who want to provide financial support toward these academic incentives for Illinois student-athletes can visit  jointheifund.com . If my math is worthy of a white paddle, that would be 17 x $5,980 = $101,660.00. That's assuming an Academic All Big Ten athlete would max out on the award. Now get this, there were thirty-six athletes

CIVIL WAR!   Before we talk about CIVIL WAR!, let us note that ILLINI recruits Will Baysingar and Kole Brower and IRTC-adjacent Wyatt Medlin have all qualified to represent Team ILLINOIS at Fargo this year at their respective age levels. Congratulations! Now let's talk CIVIL WAR! The most unfortunate thing happened: Baysingar and Brower were placed on the same side of the European-style brackets at Freestyle state. They ended up facing off against each other in the pool finals and finished in a 6-6 tie with Baysingar coming out on top via criteria. There was no true second match, which would've been helpful, as they both teched their opponents in the championship and third-place matches.  Of course, whenever there is a CIVIL WAR! amongst the ILLINI recruits, I have to bring up this match between Ernest Benion and Eric Siebert in the IHSA state finals. Both are future ILLINI and future National Champions and future Dike Eddleman Male Athlete of the Year award recipients.   Some

Read this like a comic book.  The first panel is the front cover. It gets you excited about what's inside. Also, we say adieu to our hero, Dylan Duncan, with the emergence of the Avenger known as Pucino.  The second image is what's inside, some of the new recruits! And the final panel is the hilarious and thrilling conclusion to our story.   Note that this particular comic book doesn't include the fantastic class who redshirted last year, all of whom I expect will be fighting for starting spots in the lineup. The ILLINI are looking at serious depth as well as quality, and that bodes well for the future. GO ILLINI!!! 

ILLINI recruits Kannon Webster and Kole Brower were in New York taking names at the Journeyman World Classic. Here's a write-up from theMat.com. It is called a "World" Classic because there were wrestlers there from around the world competing in Freestyle.  To maintain a level playing field, the best of the best went into the draws in the "A" brackets at their weight. Other wrestlers were entered in the "B" brackets.  Kannon won the 132 A bracket with a Kazahk finishing second, while a Uzbeki finished third. Way down in seventh- and eighth-place you find the kids from Blair Academy and Young Guns.  Kole took third in the 138 A bracket, finishing ahead of a number of Europeans and, of course, the kid from Askren Wrestling Academy and many others.  Of course, Kole Brower will matriculate into the University of ILLINOIS so he can redshirt next season, while Kannon Webster has another year of high school. I personally can't help but feel that they wil

WRESTKETBALL Back in the day, I was in an elevator in Champaign, and in popped a fellow who looked me almost straight in the eye. This was the star center of the ILLINI basketball team, Marcus Griffin. Now, I'm only 6-4, but he was at best fractions of an inch taller than me.  Sure, he was slouching, but I'm a tremendous slouch.  And that man won four IHSA basketball titles as a center for Peoria Manual teams, then became an All American for Lincoln College before becoming All Big Ten for ILLINOIS.  At center.  That young fellow had a lot of heart, but they grow them bigger now.  The ILLINI Wrestling team faced off with the latest edition of the basketball team in a friendly Civil War. The teams worked on pummeling, boxing out, and played some handball. Judging by the looks on the faces of Zac Braunagel and Lucas Byrd, they got some serious workouts going: Now, that's a big fella, and I think he's a forward. My guess is that ILLINI strength trainer Adam Fletcher set thi

MEANWHILE ... Your Meanwhile Channel Eight Action News Team conducted a year-long undercover investigation of the NIL situation in college wrestling. What we discovered about shady NIL dealings will shock you. The A.J. Ferrari situation alone will cause your brain to hemorrrhage out your nose.  As part of our investigation, we put "Pavel Nurtovishki," not his real name, up for NIL auction on eBay. The bid sheet listed Pavel (pictured as seen on eBay on the right) as an eighteen-year-old Dagestani wrestler who was second on the Russian Junior Freestyle ladder at 57kg.  He is actually only nine years old.  Still, the bids rolled in.  Tom Brands offered all of Iowa west of the Raccoon River, including Council Bluffs, West Des Moines and Sioux City. Cael Sanderson, known as King Kael on the seedy wrestling NIL app "wrestlebook," offered the Liberty Bell and a Deaconship in the Mormon Church.  continue reading

In yesterday's post , "ILLINOIS Regional Training Center Rocks the Bill Farrell," I left out the biggest IRTC story. Why? Because I was ignorant.  I needed to educate myself.  I knew of leg fouls. They are a big no-no in Greco. But I didn't really know about leg fouls. My knowledge of leg fouls is like my knowledge of how a TV works. I would need to research the rules.  Now that I have, I think I can write about the big IRTC story from Bill Farrell.  You see, there was this guy ... His name is Kamal Bey, and he's kind of a big thing in Greco.  He joined the IRTC recently to some fanfare and rejoicing. That's when he entered the Bill Farrell Open. Kamal Bey wins in the first two rounds by tech fall. In the next round, he faces #1 seed Jesse Porter.  At 2:11 of the second period, Bey's already up by the score of 2-1, and Porter is hit for passivity, giving the IRTC star another point. That makes the score 3-1 in favor of Kamal, and Porter is put in the down

THE BILL FARRELL OPEN In Freestyle , Zane Richards won his bracket at 57kg. And the surprise of the tournament was Joe Rau at 97kg finishing with a Silver freestyle medal. In Greco, it was Max Nowry and Tanner Farmer winning their brackets.  PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Both Max Nowry at 55kg and Tanner Farmer at 130kg earned spots to represent the USA Greco team at the Pan Am Championships .  QUALIFIERS FOR THE WORLD TEAM TRIALS GRECO -- Max Nowry at 55kg, We Rachal at 63kg (based on last year's World Team Trials finish), Ellis Coleman at 67kg (based on Olympic Trials finish), Kamal Bey at 77kg, Joe Rau at 87kg, Tanner Farmer at 130kg. Note that Lucas Byrd has also qualified for the Greco World Team Trials by finishing top five at the NCAA Championships.  FREESTYLE -- Zane Richards at 57kg (who had already qualified based upon his Olympic Team Trials finish), Joe Rau at 97kg (which means he is qualified for both Greco and Freestyle). OTHER QUALIFYING EVENTS TO COME: • 2022 Senior

  There is nothing as shocking or as sad as the sudden passing of a young wrestler, so full of fight and with so many adventures left unfinished.  The ILLINI remembered young warrior Francis Edelen this past Saturday, April 2, 2022.  These photographs of the ceremony were provided by a gracious ILLINI fan: OTHERS REMEMBERED THE YOUNG WARRIOR His passing was written up by the Chicago Tribune  and USA Today . He was the star of a "Time Capsule" on this blog before the dual with Minnesota. It went like this: TIME CAPSULE It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was an age of information, and an era of disinformation.  It was February 12, 2016.  On that day, Jim Gilmore drops out of the Republican primary for President of the United States. He is better known as Jim Whomore? The Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni civil wars still rage on.  And the ILLINI roll over the Gophers.  It was a dual full of unexpected turns, huge upsets and important firsts. Francis Edelen gets his

The ILLINI's Lucas Byrd is pictured in this iconic neutral pose, the one in which he is all up in his opponent's face. To the right is a picture of Coach Poeta's famous orange shoes. Photo credit: FightingILLINI.com.  This is snipped from FightingILLINI.com at this link : Fighting Illini 133-pounder  Lucas Byrd  capped off his second straight All-American season with a pin (6:59) of No. 4 Korbin Myers of Virginia Tech to place fifth at NCAA Wrestling Championships inside Little Caesars Arena on Saturday in Detroit, Mich. Byrd finished his weekend with a 6-2 record, including four wins over top-10 seeds. Matching his finish from 2021, Byrd clinched his spot on the podium Friday night to become the 40th Illini wrestler to earn multiple All-America honors, securing a 30th straight season of at least one Illini All-American. The two-time All-American finishes his 2021-22 season with a 27-5 overall record, finishing fourth at Big Ten Championships and fifth at NCAA Championships

There are seventeen ILLINI on the wrestling team who have earned Academic All Big Ten distinction this season. More than Men's Gymnastics, and even more than Women's Gymnastics, proving, yet again, that ILLINOIS wrestlers are the coolest and the smartest.  Their heads are not just for locks!  Parents of recruits / future ILLINI studs take note. Congratulations are in order for these young men who have participated in the university's toughest sport while at the same time paying attention in class, even when that professor with the hair and the shirt just drones on and on: