Preview of the Armbar at the Armory

ILLINI WRESTLING PREVIEW OF BUFFALO AND NC STATE DUALS

  

WHAT:  JOURNEYMEN WRESTLING’S ARMBAR AT THE ARMORY

NO, REALLY, WHAT:  Triangular with Buffalo Bulls and NC State Wolfpack

WHEN:  November 18 at 5:30 pm (Central) against Buffalo; 7:30 pm (Central) against NC State

WHERE:  Washington Avenue Armory, 195 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York

WHY:  To Conquer the East!

TV/STREAMING:  The duals will be streamed on FloWrestling (subscription service)

TICKETS: $30 (plus $2.50 convenience fee)

 

WHY WE HATE NORTH CAROLINA STATE

 

They put mustard in their barbecue sauce. Really. Can there be a graver indictment of a society than that? They could pick any condiment in the world to put in their sauce, and they chose the exact opposite of the best one. Seriously, the stuff looks exactly the same when they serve it to you and when you barf it out two hours later. I want to punch them so bad.

 

THE SCHEDULE

 

The ILLINI weigh in an hour before the action starts. Their first dual is against Buffalo, then two hours later, they have a go at NC State. The Wolfpack’s first dual is against Central Michigan, so they’ll have a little more of a challenge before facing the ILLINI. Iowa is scheduled to have two duals at the same event, challenging their wrestlers with Sacred Heart and then Buffalo (after the ILLINI have shredded them).

 

THE BUFFALO DUAL

 

Wrestlestat.com predicts a 32-3 ILLINI victory in this dual. Although they are both in New York, Albany is four to five hours away from Buffalo by car, so it won’t be much of a home dual for the Bulls. Besides having one clear favorite in the dual at 157 pounds, Buffalo has a couple of other threats. Here are those other threats:

 

At 125, Tristan Daugherty is at #50 on wrestlestat.com, and this will be his third year starting for the Bulls. He’s had two winning seasons as a starter—but just barely. His career mark is 23-19. Still, he had a recent loss by one point to Oklahoma’s Joey Prata, so there’s some dog in him.

 

At 133, the wrestler isn’t ranked very high and doesn’t have a very good record, but Coach Poeta has indicated that he’ll likely bring a freshman at this weight to give Lucas Byrd a break before his All-Star match. I still see Kole Brower or Hayden Halter or Brian Beers having a competitive match here.

 

At 157, Luke Odom is 1-2 against common opponents, while the Buffalo starter is 5-0. Michael Petite is the highest-ranked Bull at #28 on wrestlestat.com. This is his fourth year starting, and he’s qualified for the NCAA tournament twice. He has one win at the Big Dance two years ago against MSU’s Chase Saldate. This is the match that wrestlestat.com is picking as a win for the bad guys. Odom could surprise.

 

At 174, the other competitive match could involve Edmond Ruth versus the Buffalo’s Jay Nivision. That’s based on their respective rankings at #36 for the ILLINI and #39 for the Bull. (I think Ruth is super-underrated here so it shouldn’t be that competitive). Edmond is 4-0 against common opponents, while Nivision is 1-3. This is the Buffalo kid’s second year starting, and he did qualify for NCAAs last season with a fine 19-11 record. He has a recent 1-5 loss to Oklahoma’s Darrien Roberts, a guy who the ILLINI beat twice at the MSU Open, though they were close matches. I’m gonna say Ruth by 5+ here.

 

THE NC STATE DUAL

 

After destroying unlucky Buffalo, the ILLINI will have a battle on their hands against North Carolina State. Wrestlestat.com’s algorithm has it as a 20-12 win for the dread Wolfpack. Just as in the first dual, one of the best wrestlers for this team is at 157, so Luke Odom will need to bring an Orange and Blue attitude on this day.

 

Kevon Davenport will be favored at 149, Danny Braunagel at 165 and Edmond Ruth at 174. Additionally, wrestlestat.com has #6 Zac Braunagel’s name misspelled, and the service favors #15 Isaac Trumble. We shall see. The Wolfpack has started the season with three dual wins against a game App State team (26-12), a sad Lockhaven squad (32-4) and stupid Nebraska (23-10). Let’s have a look at that Nebraska dual.

 

No. 9 NC State 23, No. 17 Nebraska 10
125: Jacob Van Dee def. Jarrett Trombley (NCSU); 7-3 dec.
133: Kai Orine (NCSU) def. No. 26 Boo Dryden; 6-4 (SV1)
141: No. 20 Ryan Jack (NCSU) def. No. 29 Brock Hardy, 9-7 dec.
149: Jackson Arrington (NCSU) def. Dayne Morton, 11-5 dec.
157: No. 4 Peyton Robb def. No. 6 Ed Scott, 2-8 dec.
165: Don Cates (NCSU) def. Adam Thebeau, 12-6 dec.
174: No. 3 Mikey Labriola def. Brock Delsignore (NCSU), 13-5 major dec.
184: No. 3 Trent Hidlay (NCSU) def. Nathan Haas, TF 6:26
197: No. 18 Isaac Trumble (NCSU) def. No. 24 Silas Allred, 9-2 dec.
285: Tyrie Houghton (NCSU) def. No. 28 Cale Davidson, 5-4 dec

For fans of ILLINOIS schoolboys, North Carolina State have added the Curran brothers from Dekalb, Danny and Tommy, as freshmen. Their fine 133-pounder, Kai Orine, is from Missouri. As you are no doubt aware, Joe Roberts transferred to ILLINOIS from NC State. He won’t be wrestling in this dual, unfortunately, as he looks to be redshirting. I say “unfortunately” because former teammates usually have competitive matches.

 

At 125, NC State will have two-time NCAA qualifier #35 Jarrett Trombley. He is in his third year starting and has a nice 61-28 career mark. Significantly, this is his first year at 125, as he’s been wrestling at 133 for the Pack. He might be having some issues with the pull, as he’s started the season 0-3. Losses to #13 Anthony Noto and #22 Caleb Smith are excused, but he also lost in the Nebraska dual to #177 Jacob Van Dee. He’s 1-2 against Louie Hayes, formerly of Virginia, for his career, though, which is interesting because he might be matched up with younger brother Sammie Hayes, depending upon who goes for the ILLINI. The Orange and Blue had zero wrestlers at this weight at last weekend’s Tiger Style Invite because of injuries to Justin Cardani, Maximo Renteria and Sammie Hayes. Trombley will have a couple hours to liquid-up after weigh-ins, so he should be stronger than the usual dual. Still, either Renteria or Cardani should be a pick-em battle.

 

The Wolfpack has #23 Kai Orine at 133. Whether he faces Lucas Byrd or a true freshman might be a match-day decision for Coach Poeta. He plans to use one of the freshmen at this weight in either the Buffalo or NC State dual or both. Byrd is 11-6 against common opponents, while Orine is 6-9. Of course, Orine faced DeSanto once, while Byrd had the privilege four times. This is the second year of starting for the Wolfpack kid, and he wrestled in the NCAA tournament last season, finishing with an 18-7 record.

 

At 141, the ILLINI will send out Danny Pucino, if he’s recovered from his MSU Open injury. He’d face #13 Ryan Jack, who’s in his second season as a starter after finishing last year with a nice 18-9 record and an NCAA berth. Last year he had one- and two-point losses against Cole Matthews of Pittsburgh, Jaydin Eierman of Iowa and #9 Clay Carlson of SDSU, so you know he’s a goer. Jack is a big 141 pounder so Pucino will need to use his technique and wily moves against him.

 

The ILLINI should be favored at 149 (although the Pack wrestler is way underrated), while NC State will be heavily favored at 157 with the #6 Ed Scott.

 

First-year starter #57 Donald Cates at 165 is in his fourth year out of high school. He has had some decent losses to Alex Marinelli (by 5) and Minnesota’s Cael Carlson (by 1) last season. This year, he’s 3-3 with losses to the #31, #28 and #52 wrestlers. #14 Danny Braunagel at 6-2 this season should be favored here.

Edmond Ruth and his 9-1 record should be favored over the #62 Brock Delsignore at 174, a first-year starter for the Wolfpack. Delsignore had a nice redshirt season but he’s started out 2-4 this year with no big wins and some inexplicable losses. Or, could it be that dropping down to 174 is hard for the guy who wrestled at 184 last year? In this dual, he’ll have a couple of hours to rehydrate. Will that help?

 

Dylan Connell will take on #3 Trent Hidlay at 184. All you can say is that this will be a good time for Dylan to measure himself against one of the best. Connell had a match last year with Oregon State’s brute Trey Munoz, and he kept it to a respectable 1-6 decision loss. If the ILLINI can avoid a major here, that would be a win. Seriously. Here’s hoping that Hidlay has eaten too many hoagies and has to scrap to make weight.

 

Besides the Byrd/Orine matchup at 133, the other highlight could be at 197, where Zac Braunagel brings his #6 wrestlestat.com ranking against #15 Isaac Trumble, the mammoth 197-pounder for the Wolfpack. They’re both 1-0 against a pretty good common opponent (#68 Anthony Perrine of Cleveland State), and they both scored about 7 or 8 points against him. Trumble is 3-0 on the season and qualified for the Big Dance last year, finishing with a very nice 21-6 record. In his last dual, the NC State grappler squashed a hyped-up Silas Allred of Nebraska 9-2. Like the Brawlnagel, Trumble is skilled at Greco, so we could have some upper body in this one! The pack kid had some nice wins last year against #14 Nino Bonaccorsi of Pittsburgh, #7 Rocky Elam of Mizzou and #8 Jay Aiello of Virginia. He had a one-point loss to Jake Warner of Iowa. This will be a true showdown between size versus speed, strength versus technique.

 

North Carolina State has a legit heavyweight in #18 Owen Trephan with a nice 49-18 career ledger, but it is his first year starting. He’s not super big and will not be cutting weight to make 285. In fact, WroboCop should tower over him. Trephan will be quite a bit wider, though. Like his ILLINI opponent, the NC State kid isn’t afraid to shoot a low single. In fact, he seems to be fine without tying up, just sitting outside to shoot. This should be a pretty good match with the Wolfpack wrestler favored.