U20 & U23 IRTC Review
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 was caught with a headlock throw and pinned. He ruined the days of a bunch of guys in the wrestlebacks, though, so far.
FloWrestling has a thirty-second commercial before you watch the wrestling video that you've already paid for. Then, the page is full of distracting ads, which always render before what you actually want to see shows up.
Jake Harrier has been scoring lots of points! He likes the underhook and will put folks on their back with it. He's strong and appears to be in shape already.
Love to see the ILLINI coaches out there! Coaches Poeta, Hunter and Ruth were out there coaching the guys. Jeremy Hunter frequently assumes a Western pose that looks like "The Thinker." Coach Poeta and Ed Ruth will often be found in an Eastern pose, either in a squat like a catcher or on the knees like a person learning Judo from a black belt in the Dojo.
Mikey Bosco has a mean double-leg. He needs work on his leg lace, though, it was up way high, so I'm calling it a thigh lace. (Or, maybe it was a very low gut wrench?).
How hard is it to write a sentence like, "All times Eastern," or just the phrase, "Central time"? USAW is really bad about that with their schedules. Flo is bad at it sometimes as well.
Luke Odom has a thunder underhook that reminds you of IMAR. 74kg is about 6 pounds heavier than 157, so it looks like Luke could fight for that lineup spot if Joe Roberts is going to redshirt. He looked strong and healthy just over 163 pounds. He has a nice double leg from distance. I thought Luke showed a lot of energy even late in periods.
The guys have to watch the leg laces. That can end a match in seconds.
Jake Reicin, or "Jacob," as he's known by Flo Wrestling, threw in some ILLINOIS savvy Freestyle moves, which was nice to see. The discipline is well-taught in this state. A pancake or cement-mixer doesn't have to finish on the back to score two points, if you know what I mean, and I know you know what I mean. Later, he demonstrated how a head pinch only needs to go far enough to expose the back. He also hit a nice double. Looks like Reicin, Odom and Roberts and who am I missing at 157. The earlier two if Roberts redshirts.
There should be a wrestling tournament divided not by weight class, but by IQ. It would be fun to watch those dilberts in the high IQ classes. Also, ties should be resolved by riddle. Of course, the riddles would get easier the lower in IQ class you went. You don't want to have to wait an hour for some dilbert from Wisconsin to figure out a riddle. Something like, "What is bouncy, made of resilite, you're standing on it, and it's called a mat?"
Caden Ernd also likes the emphatic underhook. He went after the #4 seed, which was very nice to see. It was his opponent who was cited for passivity early on. And then it was Caden who scored the first point in that match with a step out. It was 2-2 at the break, and that four seed would go on to win 10-5, but the moxie was nice to see.
Flo clock and timekeepers seemed to be doing a better job this tournament. That surprises me.
Danny Braunagel had a VERY scary moment in his second match. He had his shoulder and arm twisted underneath an opponent and let out a loud yelp. Coach Poeta was beside him before he could finish his yell. Danny won and wrestled in the next round but got hit with the leg lace thing, and you don't want to stop those with a bad arm. I wouldn't be shocked to see a default today if there's any swelling or soreness. He was holding his elbow. I wouldn't be surprised if he wrestled either, as he ended up winning that match via a one-armed fireman's/arm throw.
I spoke too soon. In the match between Zac Braunagel and his opponent from Penn, Neil Antrassian, the scorekeepers were jabbering about something and not keeping score for most of the first part of the match.
There was another scary moment for Zac Braunagel, as he locked up a cradle and was bringing the guy down to pin and his opponent landed hard on his leg. He finished the match and won. Then won his next match. He'll have to beat one more guy to get his showdown with Trent Hidlay in the Semis.
Because this is the Braunagel portion of the review, we handle Joey Braunagel next. He won his first match in the U23 Freestyle (after placing in the U20 Greco tournament the day before). He beat the starter for Appalachian State in a 14-14 wild one. Bulldog is going to be fun! He needed two late comebacks, as he was down 0-8 early, then 9-14 later on. Unfortunately, it seems he had to default later in the tournament.
Kannon Webster, giving up a lot of years, won fourth place in U20 at 61kg, taking out the sixth seed along the way, then giving the number two seed a scare. I still think he's growing.
Still Fighting for Third: Maximo, Harrier, Ruth, Odom, D. Braunagel, and . Zac Braunagel is on the Championship side of the bracket.
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