The ILLINI Midlands Preview (165-HWT)

 

WHAT:  The Midlands 

WHEN:  Thursday, December 29 at 9:30 AM (Central); Friday, December 30 at 11:00 AM (Central)

WHERE:  NOW Arena, 5333 Prairie Stone Pkwy, Hoffman Estates, ILLINOIS

WHY:  To Conquer All!

WHO:  Thirty-Five Team Tournament

TV/STREAMING:  BTN+ (subscription service)

HOW TO WATCH

For those wondering how to watch the tournament, it will be on BTN+, which is a subscription service. Here is some good advice for you: If you are willing to pay $9.95 to watch it, you can go to the website and select a "school pass" for ILLINOIS that is only that amount for one month. If you select a "sport pass" and select "wrestling," it is $69.95 for a year. You get a full year of B1G wrestling, but that's a lot of money. The steps to save money:

1. Go to the website here.

2. You will have a choice between conference pass, school pass and sport pass. Pick "school pass."

3. Underneath that, you will see the logos for various B1G schools. Choose the big Orange "I" for the ILLINI. The first on the left.

4. Beneath that, select the "monthly pass" for $9.95 and follow the payment instructions.

The good news is that I do this every year, and you can terminate the agreement online without having to talk to somebody in sales. Since this is only a monthly pass, you shouldn't even have to do that. I don't think they'll pro-rate your school pass, as the Big Ten Network sucks, so be ready to fork over the entire $9.95. I am not associated with the University of ILLINOIS or BTN.

CORRECTION

In part one of this preview, we indicated that there would be 21 teams competing at the Midlands. FightingILLINI.com indicates that 35 D1 teams will be there. Perhaps some partial squads? Additionally, North Central and the University of Chicago have been invited, and they bring the non-D1 heat. 

A DAY IN HISTORY

Mariah Carey topped the charts with Don't Forget About Us. At the box office, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was number one in 3,853 theaters nationwide. Top video games were Age of Empires III, Call of Duty 2 and World of Warcraft. 

It was December 30, 2005. 

On that same day, the #2-ranked ILLINI won their third consecutive Midlands title with placewinners Alex Tirapelle (1st), Pete Friedl (1st), Mike Poeta (2nd), Tyrone Byrd (2nd), Donny Reynolds (6th), and Troy Tirapelle (7th). Kyle Ott didn't even make the trip. 

By the time the ILLINI held up that Midlands team trophy in 2005, The Matrix was already 6 years, 8 months and 29 days old:

WHO ELSE DO THE ILLINI BRING?

Usually, ILLINOIS has been able to bring along a few wrestlers besides the ones who have started in duals. This is quite an honor. Unlike the MSU Open, for example, only a few slots are handed out by the organizers. Based on previous tournaments and duals, it could be Sammie Hayes, Kole Brower, Jake Harrier, whoever are the non-starters at 157, Trey Sizemore, Caden Ernd and JoJo Braunagel--or others! Of course, if Justin Cardani is healed up, we might see him. 

INDIVIDUAL WRESTLERS

165.  Danny Braunagel (10-2).

Little Brawny has had a very successful season so far, and that should mean a nice seed for the Midlands. With 35 teams entered in the tournament, there will be plenty of wins to be had in the early rounds. Yet, there will be a tough match for everybody in the quarters. Two of the top eight wrestlers at this weight--but not Brawlnagel--will have a tough Round of 16 matchup in the Championship bracket. 

Of those top wrestlers, the ILLINI has only wrestled Dean Hamiti and Olejnik. Hamiti is at 6-1 on the season with a loss to Iowa State's Carr. Peyton Hall is up there at 11-1 with an 0-3 loss to Missouri's #1 O'Toole. Here are the top contenders at 165 according to wrestlestat.com: 

#4 Dean Hamiti ( #11 Wisconsin )

#7 Peyton Hall ( #35 West Virginia )

Cole Cervantes ( North Central )

#10 Izzak Olejnik ( #50 Northern Illinois )

#11 Justin McCoy ( #33 Virginia )

#15 Danny Braunagel ( #26 Illinois )

Darian Estevez ( Chicago )

#27 Holden Heller ( #18 Pittsburgh )

#31 Tony Negron ( #13 Arizona State )

#41 Lucas Revano ( #23 Pennsylvania )

#45 Blaine Bergey ( #27 Princeton )

#50 Joshua Kim ( #44 Harvard )

174.  Edmond Ruth (13-1)

Edmond Ruth has snuck up on everybody with his 13-1 record. He hasn't faced the upper echelon yet, but he's beaten Intermat ranked wrestlers such as #11 Peyton Mocco, #14 Rocky Jordan, and #19 Darrien Roberts (x2). As far as I can tell, he hasn't faced any of the better wrestlers scheduled for the Midlands other than Nick Incontrera (more on that below) and Pitt's Luca Augustine, and Ruth had that dual match go to sudden victory.

There is some question about whether Harvard's Phillip Conigliaro will wrestle at Midlands. The former Round of 12er defaulted out of the Cliff Keen Invitational at the beginning of the month, and Harvard hasn't listed their expected starters yet. He has a 4-3 record on the year with one of the losses to Darrien Roberts, a fellow who has been beaten by Ruth twice. 

Donnell Washington at 15-1 could be an exciting opponent for the ILLINI, as they both like to go big. Ruth should have a clear advantage in the stamina department. 

Nick Incontrera of Penn is 11-3, and he has also lost to Darrien Roberts. Last year while Edmond was wrestling unattached he beat Incontrera 4-3 at the ILLINOIS Matmen Open. Ruth has won three of his last four tournaments entered, and this bracket looks welcoming for him. Here are the top wrestlers at this weight in the tournament according to wrestlestat.com: 

#10 Phillip Conigliaro ( #44 Harvard )

#15 Edmond Ruth ( #26 Illinois )

#17 Donnell Washington ( #38 Indiana )

#21 Nick Incontrera ( #23 Pennsylvania )

#30 Troy Fisher ( #16 Northwestern )

#35 Logan Messer ( #58 George Mason )

#37 Hayden Pummel ( #50 Northern Illinois )

Joey Jens ( North Central )

#52 Alex Cramer ( #56 Central Michigan )

#55 Luca Augustine ( #18 Pittsburgh )

#56 Kole Mulhauser ( #27 Princeton )

#59 Jay Nivison ( #54 Buffalo )

184.  Dylan Connell (6-7).

Dylan is another of the young ILLINI who'll need to stack some wins in this tournament to fill out his NCAA resume. He'll have a tough B1G Conference slate starting with Iowa's Abe Assad just a week after the Midlands tournament. 

Two of his tougher opponents will be revenge matches with Reece Heller of Pitt and Guiseppe Hoose of Buffalo. The Bulls' Hoose was a one-point loss for Connell, so he'll have every opportunity to come out on top in this retelling of that story. 

Brian Soldano of Rutgers is 10-1 on the year with his lone loss a very respectable 3-5 to #8 Trey Munoz. He also teched Arizona State's Montalvo. Virginia's Neil Antrassian is 9-2 on the season with a nice win over 2x National Qualifier Caleb Hopkins of Campbell, and a major over Jack Jessen of Northwestern. (Dylan beat Jessen by a 9-3 score). 

If everything goes well for the young ILLINI, he should stack up those much-needed wins until he reaches the semifinals. Then, he'll have to get a little lucky. Here are the top wrestlers at the weight according to wrestlestat.com: 

#6 Brian Soldano ( #21 Rutgers )

#17 Anthony Montalvo ( #13 Arizona State )

#26 Reece Heller ( #18 Pittsburgh )

#29 Neil Antrassian ( #33 Virginia )

Wyatt Haynes ( Chicago )

#41 Guiseppe Hoose ( #54 Buffalo )

#46 Anthony Carman ( #35 West Virginia )

#48 Maximus Hale ( #23 Pennsylvania )

#53 Dylan Connell ( #26 Illinois )

197.  Zac Braunagel (9-3).

According to Intermat, the top of the Midlands rankings would be #2 Nino Bonaccorsi, #12 Braxton Amos, #13 Zac Braunagel, #14 Luke Stout and #19 Kordell Norfleet. As you can see in the wrestlestat.com ratings below, they favor an ILLINI over somebody else, which is as shocking as Ben Franklin twerking in a spacesuit. 

What this means is that the semifinals at 197 will be fire at the Midlands, and Zac wants to avoid the #4 seed, as that will mean he'd have an extra-tough quarterfinal. 

As you may recall, the Brawlnagel had an epic match with Bonaccorsi in the dual. They both move like lightweights, and it was a catfight that took sudden victory to determine a winner. Braxton Amos is at 6-1 on the year with a close 3-5 loss to Yonger Bastida and very close wins over Jacob Cardenas of Cornell and Luke Stout of Princeton.

Luke Stout has a nice 6-2 record and has wrestled some big names pretty tough, losing to Braxton Amos in sudden victory, majoring Cam Caffey and beating Indiana's Nick Willham and Rider's Ethan Laird by whiskers. 

Amos is a pretty quick gorilla, Stout the long-armed fellow who already has a hand near your knee, Norfleet I thought had HEW, but he's back with a 6-5 record and injury defaults out of Cliff Keen at the beginning of the month. It should be noted that Big Brawny beat Rutgers' Billy Janzer back when they were both at 184. 

Here's the top of the 197 competition at the Midlands:

#9 Nino Bonaccorsi ( #18 Pittsburgh )

#16 Zach Braunagel ( #26 Illinois )

#17 Luke Stout ( #27 Princeton )

#18 Kordell Norfleet ( #13 Arizona State )

#19 Braxton Amos ( #11 Wisconsin )

Cade Creighton ( Chicago )

#34 Cole Urbas ( #23 Pennsylvania )

Andrew Demos ( North Central )

#39 Andrew Davison ( #16 Northwestern )

#41 Nick Willham ( #38 Indiana )

#44 Sam Mitchell ( #54 Buffalo )

#45 Austin Cooley ( #35 West Virginia )

#47 Michael Battista ( #33 Virginia )

#54 Billy Janzer ( #21 Rutgers )

#56 Anthony Perrine ( #52 Cleveland State )

285.  Matt Wroblewski (9-5)

WroboCop already has nine wins on the year. He has absolutely destroyed the consolation brackets of the tournaments he's wrestled this season. The mild-mannered pitchman for Fiesta Cafe ("You don't have far to go for the great taste of Mexico at the Fiesta Cafe. Ole!") will face perhaps the toughest bracket at the Midlands. 

By the way, we can give thanks this holiday season that Matt wasn't asked to sing the jingle. 

The top four in the bracket will be top ten wrestlers with tons of experience, big wins and AAs at heavyweight. Wroblewski will need to avoid them in his bracket for as long as possible and stack those sweet, sweet wins to pad his NCAA resume. 

If he's wrestling sharp, I believe the ILLINI can slot in right behind that top four. Indiana's Kaminski has a real nice 8-1 record, but he really hasn't wrestled anybody yet. Wolfgram of West Virginia is 8-4 with no noteworthy wins this year, although he did qualify for the Big Dance last season with a 20-11 record.

McKiernan, McDermott and Goldin are pretty much the same heavyweight. WroboCop will need to learn how to beat this kind of standard-issue fatty. Here are the top competitors at the Midlands:

#4 Lucas Davison ( #16 Northwestern )

#7 Cohlton Schultz ( #13 Arizona State )

#8 Yaraslau Slavikouski ( #44 Harvard )

#10 Trent Hillger ( #11 Wisconsin )

#22 Jacob Kaminski ( #38 Indiana )

#25 Michael Wolfgram ( #35 West Virginia )

#26 Colton McKiernan ( #60 Southern Illinois Edwardsville )

Robby Bates ( North Central )

#29 Boone McDermott ( #21 Rutgers )

#39 Ben Goldin ( #23 Pennsylvania )

#42 Daniel Bucknavich ( #52 Cleveland State )

Cole Fibranz ( Chicago )

#44 Matthew Cover ( #27 Princeton )

#49 Bryan Caves ( #56 Central Michigan )

#51 Jacob Slinger ( #18 Pittsburgh )

#62 Vincenzo Pelusi ( #71 Franklin & Marshall )

#64 Matt Wroblewski ( #26 Illinois )

CONCLUSION

I thank the powers to be that we've had World Cup duals and major high school tournaments to watch in the interim because there has been a lull in the ILLINI schedule. That gets remedied now in a big way! This will not be the Midlands like the Midlands was in 2003-2005 and 2012 when the ILLINI won it, but it will still be a big tournament with lots of opportunities available for wrestlers wearing the O&B. 

Just going by likely seeds, the ILLINI could have multiple champions and up to four total podium finishes if all goes well. That might be enough to squeeze onto the podium, but what ILLINOIS really needs is for the new guys at 125, 141, 149, 157 and 184 to stack some wins, and for one or more of those guys to break through and place.

B1G Conference season starts exactly one week after Midlands, and that will mean consecutive duals against Iowa and Wisconsin. So, the ILLINI need to win some big matches starting on Thursday. 

GO ILLINI!!!