THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

I watched Danny Pucino at the Matteo Pellicone Freestyle ranking tournament, and that got me excited for next year's ILLINI squad. Danny lost to the Azerbaijani who was a two-time third-place finisher at the European Championships. What impressed me was that he had this twenty-something freestyle veteran very much on the ropes.  You can see from the action photo above that Pucino (sometimes called "Pacino" by the UWW) started off the bout with a four-point move that Azerbaijan challenged. And lost. Danny must've taken 30 shots in 6 minutes.  The Azer wrestler had to take a fake injury - lung timeout! Maybe if the ILLINI hadn't slipped on that inside trip, he'd've won a medal. I guess we'll never know. That match, though, got me fired up again for next year's ILLINI squad. So, let's take an early look at the most likely starters. ____________________ 285.  LUKE LUFFMAN.   I have gotten a "cease and desist" letter from a group called TH

OVERALL, I WAS ENTERTAINED! The ILLINOIS Junior National Dual teams in Freestyle and Greco didn't finish in first place like we all wanted, but I was entertained. The main problem was an injury to Rocco Hayes. The team was looking incredible in the Greco pool during the first day of the tournament, then Rocco ran into a concussion problem against Iowa.  If Hayes had been able to finish his match, I believe he would've won, and I also believe that that would've been enough to win the dual. Since Iowa won first place in Greco, you know where I think ILLINOIS could have finished.  (There was also the uncalled Noah Tapia pin in that dual, but, hey, that only cost ILLINOIS a couple of points).  After that dual, the team had to forfeit the weight in every match. That included every other match in the Greco Championship Gold-Silver pool, as well as every single match in Freestyle. Still, the team finished in the Championship pool in both Greco and Freestyle, earning a fifth place

RETURN OF A PRODIGAL SON From top to bottom and from side to side, I cannot imagine a better coaching staff at the University of ILLINOIS. This magic fairy tale that started with the hiring of Mike Poeta as head coach has just gotten better.  I didn't think that I could be surprised.  Then, there was the announcement that Isaiah Martinez would be coming home.  The staff now consists of ILLINOIS and ILLINI legend Mike Poeta, then there's of one of the best folkstyle wrestlers to ever don a singlet (and a proven MMA fighter) in Ed Ruth; additionally, throw in an established builder of All Americans and National Champions in Jeremy Hunter and ILLINOIS folkstyle, freestyle and greco legend Bryan Medlin heading the IRTC. Now, IMAR, the most decorated wrestler in ILLINI history. On top of all that, there's All American Travis Piotrowski helping out as an assistant in the room.  And they are all great people!  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I trace all of this back--way back--to Coach Mark

In the second half of Final X staged in New York City, there was only one IRTC wrestler representing, and that was Kamal Bey. He would win his best of three matchup against Britton Holmes by the count of 2-0. In the first bout, it was 10-3 at the time Bey used a reverse lift to chunk Holmes to his back for the pinfall.  The beautiful move in the second match was a duckunder in the second period. That gave Kamal a 5-0 lead. Bey would add four more points to his lead with short time on the clock as Holmes went for the desperation double overs, while the Army (WCAP)/IRTC wrestler locked around the waist and took him to the ground. The pin was called shortly after this: Congratulations to Kamal Bey!  He said he was going to do it, and he did it. Also, congratulations to the IRTC for having two representatives who will wrestle in the World Championships. That's Bey and Max Nowry, both from the Great State of ILLINOIS. They will be fighting for world medals this September in Belgrade, Se

KAMAL BEY The ILLINI Regional Training Center is not finished. On Wednesday, Kamal Bey will wrestle in New York City in Final X. He is the fourth IRTC team member to make the USA World Team, but he wants more than that. He wants to be the American representative at the World Championships.  To do that, he will have to go through a teammate.  This is the hype provided by USA Wrestling : Bout 1 – 77 kg GR - Britton Holmes (Army WCAP) vs. Kamal Bey (Army WCAP) Britton Holmes and Kamal Bey will kick off the action at Hulu Theater in what will be their first match up in recent years. However, that is not the say the two aren’t familiar with each other. Bey and Holmes are teammates who train together every day with Army WCAP. The match in New York City will be an extension of their battles in the practice room. Holmes, a 2021 U23 World Team member, has been etching his name into the Greco-Roman conversation at the Senior level for some time now. To earn his spot in New York, he won the semif

The placers, aka All Americans There were 86 men wrestling in the 86kg bracket. There were 95 in the 79kg bracket, and over 100 in the 65kg bracket. Above, you see the ILLINI placers. Ed Ruth and Danny Braunagel in the U23 Freestyle tournament and Joey Braunagel in U20 Greco. Some of these weights had triple the number of an NCAA tournament bracket. Also, unlike the Big Dance, there were some folks here who were out of NCAA eligibility. I've seen folks on social media call placers All Americans, and I can dig that.  The most fun I had as an ILLINI fan was getting to see the new guys wrestle, watching the match between Edmond Ruth and Danny Braunagel, predicting a comeback from Danny Braunagel in his match against Cael Valencia, but then observing that comeback become something beyond immortal, watching Zac Braunagel's run through the Championship side of the bracket, seeing Caden Ernd back from injury, and having to scroll between ILLINI matches because there were so many of th

Joey Braunagel doing Brawlnagel things The U20 Freestyle tournament is over, but the U23 matches are ongoing later this morning. Here are a few notes about what happened yesterday: Maximo has a delayed firemans to a dump. He shoots a firemans, then pretends to back out, but then suddenly re-shoots and gets the dump. Very cool! That firemans and dump series will score a lot of points for Maximo. Also, the "TEAM POETA" singlet looks great.  Isaiah Delgado of the Brunson UVRTC. This guy is my favorite non-ILLINI. In fact, I hate anybody who is not an ILLINI except for this guy. I bet he lives on Poeta Street.  Michael Gunther had a guy pinned for :20 and it went uncalled. This is Freestyle, and you touch both shoulder blades to the mat, and you are pinned. Bruh, ya missed one here.  Edmond Ruth is going to be fun to watch! He is on the offense from the gun, and he's got a lot of takedowns in his arsenal. His start with the ILLINI and the IRTC got off to a rocky start as he w

DAMN STRAIGHT! The men from the IRTC continue to put on a show. Three of them were in battles at Final X yesterday. Two came away as winners, but they all made the USA World Team. The ILLINI Regional Training Center is now assured of having four wrestlers on the National Team. Here they are: MAX NOWRY The IRTC athlete won his best of three Final X showdown 2-0. It was pretty close, though, as both matches ended 1-1. Brady Koontz is a tall drink of water, very wiry. The OSU wrestler kept a square stance and defended well in both matches.  Nowry estimated that Koontz and he had wrestled at least eight times, maybe nine. So, there were some familiarity issues. In fact, the two will train together over the Summer. That will help Max if he faces the tall, wiry type at the World Championships.  Although offensive scoring successes were lacking, the man from Wheeling, ILLINOIS did express himself on at least one occasion in much the same way that the Incredible Hulk greeted Loki in The Avenge

  Congratulations to Billy Spassov, his family, friends, teammates, coaches, club team and the ILLINI coaching staff! As the shirt in the image above implies, Billy wrestled at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. His club team was Izzy Style.  It's always fun to put a new ILLINI in a photoshop in place of Thor! This, of course, means we need to update the ILLINI Roster and Recruiting Grid. So, here goes: