The ILLINI Scholar Athlete of the Week: Lucas Byrd


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.


As reported yesterday, Lucas Byrd was also one of the 17 ILLINI wrestlers to earn Academic All Big Ten honors. It appears that Byrd is the only two-time winner of the award this year. Zac Braunagel also won the distinction this season. 

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