THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

  You will have a full viewing slate starting on June 3 with IRTC athletes Zane Richards, Max Nowry and Tanner Farmer at Final X . Additionally, there will be a ton of the young IRTC members going to Ohio for the U20 and U23 World Team Trials. That list includes the following wrestlers in the U20 tourney: I've been able to confirm the list with Coach Medlin of the IRTC. He also indicated that there would be even more ILLINI representation at the U23 tourney: The complete list includes the following for U-20: Isiah Pettigrew, Caden Ernd, Luke Odom and Joey "Bulldog" Braunagel. It is fantastic to see Caden back from injury and ready to hit the mat! There's an even larger squad for U-23, which includes: Danny and Zac Braunagel, Maximo Renteria, Jake Reicin, Jake Harrier and Edmond Ruth. I'm excited to see everybody wrestle, but, of course, you always have a little bit more interest in the rooks. How will they stack up?   The veterans have World Team Trials experience

  FINAL X The big show will get started in Stillwater, Oklahoma on June 3, and there will be two IRTC Greco wrestlers featured. In their graphic, it looks like USA Wrestling has put the favorites on the left side and the underdogs on the right: The first matches of the series will be held in session one starting at 2 p.m. CT. Session two featuring match two and three (if necessary) of the series will start at 7 p.m. CT. FloWrestling will provide the live stream.  USAW provided some recent scores for the opponents in these matches, including this information: Recent results September 11, 2021 - Senior World Team Trials Round 2 - Max Nowry dec. Brady Koontz, 3-1 September 11, 2021 - Senior World Team Trials Round 1 - Max Nowry dec. Brady Koontz, 2-1 April 30, 2021 - Senior Nationals Finals - Max Nowry dec. Brady Koontz, 1-1 November 15, 2019 - Bill Farrell Memorial International Round of 16 - Max Nowry dec. Brady Koontz, 5-2 June 8, 2019 - Final X Round 2 - Max Nowry dec. Brady Koontz, 1

Here's your 2022 IRTC Final X poster. I retain no copyright, so you can sell it, use it as a screensaver, post it anywhere, make NFTs to sell to stupid people, but ... and this is a big but, I do ask that you don't put mustaches or eye patches or scars on the athletes. That would be super childish, bruh! What are you, like twelve?  This poster celebrates an epic achievement by the ILLINOIS Regional Training Center in getting four athletes to Final X. Three of the wrestlers, Tanner Farmer, Kamal Bey and Max Nowry will wrestle in Final X for the top spot on the World Team. Zane Richards will wrestle at Final X for the third spot on the World Team.  The poster is understated yet powerful, like a Rothko. It is deep like a slice of Papa Del's pizza and tangy like the sauce at Li'l Porgy's. Retail price is $1,000,000.00 (US), but you can have it for the low, low price of free.  ____________________________ Photo credits: "BuILLt Here" is from the University of I

The ILLINI Regional Training Center put three athletes into Final X, and Zane Richards will also be there wrestling for the third spot on the World Team. This was a brilliant tournament for the IRTC! On the Greco side, the only wrestler to lose a semifinal match was West Cathcart, and his loss was to fellow IRTC big Tanner Farmer.  On the Freestyle side, Zane Richards lost in the semis, but he won two matches on the back side to earn third place. Because there is a world medalist at this weight, he will get a chance to earn true second (and a spot on the world team) at Final X in a showdown with Jacob Camacho.  Final X, for some reason, is divided between Stillwater, Oklahoma (June 3) and New York City (June 8). The IRTC has wrestlers who will be competing in both of these venues. Kamal Bey will wrestle in New York, while Max Nowry and Tanner Farmer will wrestle in Stillwater. Here's some getting-to-Final-X action: MAX NOWRY When it is said that Max Nowry is a veteran, that is base

For the first ten days of the May basho in Japanese professional Sumo, I hated everything. The Sanyaku (the three ranks below Yokozuna) were absolutely pitiful. The sumo itself was pretty boring. Fan favorites like Hokutofuji and Takarafuji were obviously hurt, and it showed in their abysmal performances.  Worst of all, were the judge's errors. The Gyoji, the kabuki-theater-fellow-reffing-inside-the-ring, got a lot wrong, and the ringside judges got other things wrong. There were at least five calls that were blatantly offensive to my delicate sensibilities. In sumo, that usually means that the wrong wrestler was awarded the win, even though he touched out or down first.  Each time, it seemed to hurt my favorite wrestlers and help the ones I loathed.  But the judges must have gotten the message, as they cleaned up their act. Then, some magical performances from Ura and that amazing showdown between Terunofuji and Takakeisho turned everything around. Check out that bout between the

OVERVIEW The ILLINOIS Regional Training Center is on pace to get three athletes into Final X. One Final X slot is already secured, but we don't know who it will be, either Tanner Farmer or West Cathcart. They face off in a semifinal later today for that Final X position.  Additionally, Max Nowry and Kamal Bey are into the semifinals, and with a win, they will also become Final X athletes. Here's the roundup from yesterday's action: TANNER FARMER Tanner Farmer is into the semis after an 8-0 tech fall in 2:01 in his quarterfinal match. As noted above, his opponent will be fellow IRTC athlete West Cathcart. So, no matter what happens, there will be at least one ILLINOIS Regional Training Center wrestler at Final X.  Suit up, Coach Medlin!  In the image above, Tanner Farmer has secured the takedown. You can see confirmation at the table. It looks like his opponent, Tom Foote of the NYAC, is in pretty good position to defend the gut wrench, but he fails. Farmer scores another tw

WHAT:   World Team Trials WHEN:   Saturday, May 21 - Sunday, May 22 WHERE:   Xtream Arena, Coralville, Iowa WHEN X 2:   All Freestyle and Greco weights start on Saturday, May 21 at 10 am. Semifinals for Zane Richards and Isaiah Martinez would start that same Saturday afternoon at 4:30 pm. IRTC Greco wrestlers have their semifinals on Sunday starting at 10:30 am. Best two of three championship matches start that same Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm for Freestyle and Greco.  TV/STREAMING:   Flowrestling  MAX NOWRY Nowry is the #1 seed at 55kg in Greco. He has to be the most consistent performer for Team USA's Greco squad. Nowry has won three Pan Am Championships and placed fifth in the 2019 World Championships, losing to the Silver Medalist by one point. That's on top of University and Military world championships.  The IRTC athlete is currently ranked #11 in the world, even though he didn't wrestle in the most recent Continental championships (Pan Ams) because of security concer

Again, please let me know about any changes. If a student-athlete is in the transfer portal, he will not show up in this graphic, but I hope that he stays.  The big news from this roster and scholarship grid is the depth. The ILLINI have depth at every weight, which hasn't been a luxury some years in the past.  The ILLINI will be strong in the upper weights. Who's this Ruth fellow I've been hearing so much about? Coach Poeta goes into the recruitments of both Ed and Edmond Ruth in this interview on the ILLINOISMatmen.com Rokfin channel. (It's a pay site.).  He has high praise for both and great expectations for Edmond. Really great expectations. If Edmond were to win a national title, it would be the first for ILLINOIS since IMAR. Could there be a race between Lucas Byrd and him?  There'll probably be some major wrestle-offs in the upper weights. You have young, hungry guys like the 25-6 Dylan Connell and the exciting Joey Braunagel itching to scrap.   Will Luke Od

As usual, please let me know what I need to add or remove. Are the weights correct for each athlete? Probably not. It is impossible to judge the growth spurts of folks like Kannon Webster and Will Baysingar.  The red highlighted names are the red-shirt year for that student-athlete. Any wrestler in the transfer portal will not be listed here, but I hope he decides to come back.  I expect there will be wrestle-offs at most of these weights. The one that should be the most scintillating is at 125 between Justin Cardani and Maximo Renteria. I am going to ask them to wear body cams and post that video.  The team sports an amount of depth at each weight class that I haven't seen in quite some time. With the financial incentives for academics that will be provided to ILLINI wrestlers in the future, that will be another drawing point. Stay on the team, work toward your degree, and you will get $$$$.  Lucas Byrd is on schedule to become the first ILLINI wrestler to earn five All-American h

Read this like a comic book, from top to bottom, left to right.  The front cover lets you know what kind of story you're in for. In this case, you are entering the Multiverse along with Dr. Strange and Sammie Hayes.  The next page is one of the universes in the Multiverse. An unsavory one. The one where you have to kiss your Great Aunt's ruby red lips when she comes to visit, and your Great Uncle is all too willing to tickle you. And you end up having to bite a finger to get him to stop.  In this part of the Multiverse, cows eat you.  Finally, a happy ending, as you turn the page, and our hero triumphs in the ILLINIverse.  Congratulations to Sammie, his family, friends, club, coaches, teammates and the ILLINI staff, who all got a special shout-out in his announcement tweet. GO ILLINI!!!

The ILLINI can boast seven student-athletes who have earned NWCA Academic All American honors for 2022. That is the list you see above. This is quite a lot more than the school usually receives in a given year.  I went back and checked.  That's when I found the following: As you can see in the uppermost image, the coaches spelled Zac Braunagel's name right for a change, but check out what they did to poor John Dergo back in 2010. Note that Rocky IV was released back in November, 1985, so it is confusing how that name would pop up.  How could you possibly confuse these two: In any event, congratulations to all of the ILLINI Academic All Americans! 

While you've been spending all your time debating freestyle versus folkstyle in your Bible Study group, the ILLINI coaching staff have hit the road to strengthen personal connections and to make new ones. This is their "BUILLT HERE" campaign. It makes sense, my friends, because if you lock down this state, you could have great to championship-winning wrestling, football and basketball teams each year at the University of ILLINOIS.  Here are some of the great destinations that coaches Poeta, Hunter and Ruth have visited while criss-crossing this beautiful state: Washington has been a state championship machine for some time now, and it is where ILLINI recruit Kannon Webster calls home. Looks like the Ol' Mat Coach gave somebody there quite a go.  Hitting the rising programs. You gotta get the farmboys. They're big and strong and tough. Coach Ruth is still doing his MMA pose. McLove it! Check out my ILLINI LEGENDS: JORDAN BLANTON interview here for more from the Re

Over the weekend, ILLINI Wrestling fans had to divide their attention between the US Open in Las Vegas and Greco State in Dekalb, ILLINOIS. There were a lot of matches won by ILLINI recruits and IRTC regulars. Then, there was IRTC-adjacent Wyatt Medlin (pictured above with the point man in his ILLINI recruitment). WILL BAYSINGAR AT GRECO STATE Adding to his championship at ILLINOIS Freestyle State was Will Baysingar (pictured at right), who came away with a matching Greco crown. He's now qualified to represent the state in both disciplines.  It seems that both Will and Kannon Webster are in growth spurts, as they've both moved up in weight. With each having a year left in high school, where do they end up? The ILLINI have an amazing legacy in the middle weights (Poeta, IMAR, Tirapelles, etc.) Joining him on the Freestyle squad will be ILLINI recruit Kole Brower.  Additionally, IRTC-adjacent Wyatt Medlin (pictured at top) won a Greco crown in his age division. You could say, wel