The IRTC's First Day at the WTT

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 two and is on his way to a first period tech fall. 

WEST CATHCART

In his quarterfinal, West faced Ronald Dombkowski of Bad Karma Wrestling Club. Dombkowski is a short wall of a man and very aggressive, but that wasn't enough to stop Cathcart from securing the first period tech fall. 

Here you see the IRTC athlete hitting a sweet duckunder that would lead to the final takedown for the tech fall. The semifinal with his teammate should be great! GO IRTC! 

KAMAL BEY

This is Vengeance Tour '22 for Kamal. He is going to get a chance to rectify the judging error that cost him a shot at the recent US Open. That's because the IRTC wrestler got a bye in the first round, then won in the quarterfinals. That sets up a showdown with Jesse Porter of the NYAC in the semifinals. Vengeance and a berth in Final X are on the line! 

Above, you see Kamal Bey working his magic on Payton Jacobson of Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club. The set up for this four-point feet-to-back move was beautiful. While working an arm drag, Kamal dropped to his knees down around the waist of his opponent. Once in that position--hands locked around the waist--Jacobson was off balance, and Bey just moved his feet like it was a double leg. The IRTC wrestler ended up winning 7-2. 

MAX NOWRY

Nowry received a bye in the first round as the No. 1 seed. In the quarterfinals, he faced another Army WCAP wrestler in Cole Smith. Although familiarity breeds close matches a lot, that would not be the case for Max, as he got the tech fall in less than a minute. 

The image above is near the beginning of the winning sequence for Max Nowry. He started off with an underhook, which he used to bring his opponent to his knees. Smith wanted to elevate, and what you see in the picture is Nowry throwing in a front headlock, which will bring him back down. A quick go behind, three gut wrenches, and the veteran got the job done. A truly remarkable sequence!

As we used to say in the Army, Nowry was "Good to Go." 

The IRTC leader will have Drew West in the semifinals with a spot in Final X on the line. West is a redshirt Senior from Northern ILLINOIS University. 

ZANE, RACHAL AND IMAR 

These wrestlers can still earn third place: 

Zane Richards had a bye in the first round, then he whupped Timothy Levine of the New England RTC in the quarters. The former ILLINI dropped his semifinal match with Vitali Arujau by the score of 0-7. That means their career mark is one victory apiece. 

You can feel the respect:

To get his bronze medal, Zane will need to beat Anthony Molton of Buies Creek Wrestling Club, then either Levine again or Matthew Ramos of Boilermaker RTC. If he wins there, would he get a true second-place match? 

We Rachal lost in the first round to the #1 seed, then received an injury default in the consolation bracket. He will need to win two more matches to get that bronze medal. 

Isaiah Martinez ran into a deranged Alex Dieringer in the quarterfinals, losing to the Okie Lite fellow by the score of 3-14. That was very un-IMAR-like. The IRTC Emeritus then teched Taylor Lujan, formerly of UNI, on the backside. To get the bronze, IMAR'll need to beat David McFadden, and then either Carter Starocci or Alex Dieringer. 

It might be that 74kg is where IMAR needs to be? Back to dominating Jason Nolf? 

TRUE SECOND

It is my understanding that the top three placers during the WTT/Final X process become World Team members. That means extra funding, potential for travel to overseas tournaments, recognition and so on. The question I have about it given the dual WTT and Final X procedures is this: Do you have a true second-place match to determine that third World Team member when there is already an athlete who has won a world medal at that weight and is sitting in Final X? I will update if I get a response to this from USA Wrestling:

This could certainly impact an IRTC athlete: Zane Richards. There will be a best of three between Vitali Arujau and Jacob Camacho. If Arujau wins, and if Richards wins two more matches on the backside, I think USAW owes him a true second matchup with Camacho. What do you think? 

Photo Credits:  All images are screengrabs from Flowrestling.com, except there is a tweet that is the intellectual property of Coach Bryan Medlin and a tweet from ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond.