THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

WHAT : Triangular with Pitt & Chattanooga WHEN : Saturday, December 3, 2022 (starting at 1pm Central) WHERE :  State Farm Center  WHY :  Hone Skills TV/STREAMING : BTN+  ( subscription service ) TICKETS :  FREE ADMISSION PROMOTIONS :  Dementia Awareness Night THE LAST CHATANOOGA DUAL The ILLINI are 4-0 against the Mocs all time. That fourth win for ILLINOIS was less than a year ago with a surprise hero emerging for the Orange and Blue. Because of an injury to Matt Wroblewski, the ILLINI needed someone to step into the breech.  The dual started at 125, and by the time the 165ers took the mat, Chattanooga was up 12-3 with only a win from Lucas Byrd to stem the tide of war. After decisions by both Braunagels and DJ Shannon, the battlefield beckoned to Nikita Nepomnyashchiy. The dual score was 12-12 at the time.            The veteran ILLINI jumped up in weight from 184 to 197 to face a wrestler with a 30-21 career mark. Nepo rose to the challenge and scored a major decision victory ov

WHAT : Triangular with Pitt & Chattanooga WHEN : Saturday, December 3, 2022 (starting at 1pm Central) WHERE :  State Farm Center  WHY :  Hone Skills TV/STREAMING : BTN+  ( subscription service ) TICKETS :  FREE ADMISSION PROMOTIONS :  Dementia Awareness Night A DAY IN HISTORY November 22, 2009 was a Sunday, and it was the day that CNN named Efren Penaflorida the Hero of the Year for his efforts in starting a pushcart classroom in the Philippines to educate the poor in different areas. Jay-Z, Drake, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift were dominating the charts, but it was Owl City topping all of them with Fireflies , which included this lyric: "I get a thousand hugs, From ten thousand lightening bugs. As they try to teach me how to dance." No. Seriously. You can see for yourself . Why would I lie about something like that? The Men Who Stare at Goats was still in theaters, but it was getting killed at the box office by Twilight , a love story between a human

Midorifuji is on the left. On the right is current Yokozuna Terunofuji. Both won technique  prizes at the January 2021 basho. In the middle is Daieisho, who won the Emperor's Cup. I was watching the latest Sumo basho and witnessed a beautiful arm drag that I thought would provide a nice lesson. The artist is called Midorifuji (which means Green Wisteria in Japanese). He has the distinction of being one of the smallest wrestlers in Sumo's top division.  He is listed at five-feet-seven on the card, but, yeah, sure.  Below is a video of him performing an arm drag to perfection against an opponent who is 125 pounds heavier and at least five inches taller: I've told this story over at ILLINOISmatmen.com, but it deserves repeating. The proudest day of my life involved a number of arm drags. You see, my boy was a wee tyke back in the day, and he had joined the local wrestling club.  I enjoyed the practices, sitting against the wall, watching him roll around. In his first practice

   LUCAS BYRD ILLINI history was made last night. At the NWCA All-Star Classic, Lucas Byrd came away with a 3-2 victory over #4 Michael McGee. The highlight of the night for ILLINI fans was an exquisite cross-body ankle pick by Byrd that constituted the only takedown between the two All Americans.   As expected, McGee did not want to tie up with the man in the bright Orange singlet.  And McGee's outside attacks were ineffective. Besides the takedown, each wrestler managed escapes for the other points in the match. Here is the key takedown in slow motion:   According to Jason Bryant on Twitter , this was the 13th win for the ILLINI at the All Star Classic. Other winners for the O&B at 133 include  Mark Jayne, Jimmy Kennedy and Zane Richards. That's some august company, and speak of the devil. ZANE RICHARDS   On November 19, in New York City, Zane Richards put it on the line at the Bill Farrell Memorial Tournament. He went 3-0 to win the Gold at 57kg. The IRTC and

Gregor Gillespie is an NCAA wrestling and UFC legend. He won the championship at 149 during the 2007 NCAA tournament, beating former champ Dustin Schlatter, future champ Jordan Leen and three-time AA Josh Churella along the way. Gillespie won 152 matches for Edinboro and was a four-time All American. His MMA record is 14-1, and he's currently fighting in the UFC. Mike Poeta started off as a 165-pounder for the Fighting ILLINI--taking one for the team in the process--before shifting down to 157 for his last three seasons. He became one of the most successful wrestlers in school history and was a member of ILLINOIS' 2005 Big Ten championship squad. Individually, Poeta was a three-time All-American, two-time NCAA finalist and two-time Big Ten champion. He is now Coach of the University of ILLINOIS's wrestling team. You are seeing a snippet of a match from the Las Vegas Invitational back in December of 2007. The previous year, Gillespie won his national title at 149, while

This will be a short recap of the Buffalo and NC State duals, which were part of the Armbar at the Armory promotion put on by Journeymen Wrestling. The recap will be short because the matches were pretty disappointing except for a few bright spots. I'm sure the wrestlers have already heard it from their coaches on the way home.  THE BUFFALO DUAL 125:  Maximo Renteria  (ILL) defeated Pat Adams (UB) (Dec 7-4) 133:  Kole Brower  (ILL) defeated Tommy Maddox (UB) (Dec 11-4) 141:  Danny Pucino  (ILL) defeated Jack Marlow (UB) (Dec 11-5) 149:  Kevon Davenport  (ILL) defeated Kaleb Burgess (UB) (Dec 5-3) 157: Nick Stampolus (UB) defeated  Luke Odom  (ILL) (Fall 5:40) 165:  Danny Braunagel  (ILL) defeated Noah Grover (UB) (Fall 4:42) 174:  Edmond Ruth  (ILL) defeated Jay Nivison (UB) (Dec 2-1) 184: Giuseppe Hoose (UB) defeated  Dylan Connell  (ILL) (Dec 4-3) 197:  Zac Braunagel  (ILL) defeated Eli Sherren (UB) (Dec 12-5) HWT:  Matt Wroblewski  (ILL) defeated Greg Hodulick (UB) (MD 10-2) The

WHAT :  NWCA All-Star Classic WHEN :  Tuesday, November 22 at 7:00 pm (Central) WHERE :  Austin, Texas WHO :  Lucas Byrd vs. Michael McGee TV/STREAMING :  FloWrestling (subscription service) WHY :  Because the Best Love to Compete From Michael McGee, you can expect doubles, shrug-bys, and singles, almost in that exact order. He will stay low, just like Lucas Byrd, and he also has a reach out ankle grab from all fours that has to be scouted. Another attack that he doesn't use that often, although it is effective, is the re-shot double the way Jordan Burroughs does it: When the opponent is still recovering from a shot and is crouched over on his knees or squatting is when he bowls them over with a reshot.  Lucas Byrd is #5 according to wrestlestat.com, while McGee is #4. Yet, it is the ILLINI who is the predicted winner by an 8-6 score according to that website's algorithm. The Orange-and-Blue-wearing Ohio kid has a 1-0 career mark against the Sun Devil, pinning him at 6:17 in th

INTRODUCTION Like every other fan of wrestling in America, I like the Iranian wrestling team, but I love the Iranian wrestling fans. They are me, but with a stronger beard game. For Iran, wrestling is basketball and baseball and football; they are a wrestling country and a wrestling power. The enthusiasm of their fans make them the best in the world.   We can all agree on that.  Because of events over the past decade, I have not only watched Iranians wrestle, but I've also studied that country's wrestling teams in terms of their social and political significance. I have written articles on the subject since at least 2015, as I noticed a change in Iran, a melting of hearts, which I suspect was due, at least in small part, to wrestling.  WRESTLING DIPLOMACY It was in 1998 that sixteen American wrestlers landed in Iran with the flag of the United States embroidered on their warmups. Very few of their countrymen had set a foot inside Iran for nearly twenty years--not since the host

The ILLINI have a recruiting class that is insane.  We at the ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond covered five of them in our last post here . Now, we need to shout out to another three. They had to wait a day so they get a special graphic. They are, left to right, Brandon Morvari, Simley Senior High School, Minnesota, Peter Marinopoulos, Marist High School and Logan Swaw, Lockport High School: Congratulations to these young men, their family, friends, coaches and teammates, and to the ILLINI Coaching staff, who are guardian angels for their wrestlers. Brilliant! 

ZANE RICHARDS TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Even from my seat in South Carolina, I can tell that Zane Richards works his *** off and that he wears his heart and his loyalty on his sleeve. Before, he has wrestled for Carbondale Community High School, the Fighting ILLINI and the IRTC. Now, he will again wrestle for the United States of America.  He did so as a Cadet at the World Championships in Hungary in the long, long ago.  The World Cup will take place in Coralville, Iowa on December 10-11, and it will feature Senior men's teams from the USA, Iran (maybe), Japan, Mongolia and Georgia, along with a team of international all stars who weren't part of any of the top five teams at the previous world championships. This is the roster for the American men: United States Men’s Freestyle World Cup Team 57 kg - Zane Richards, Champaign, Ill. (Illinois RTC/Titan Mercury WC) 57 kg - Nick Suriano, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen WC) 61 kg - Seth Gross, Madison, Wis. (Wisconsin R