Preview of the ILLINI versus Maryland

WHO:  Maryland

WHAT:  Dual

WHEN:  Sunday, January 22 at 2:00 pm (Central)

WHERE:  State Farm Center, Champaign, ILLINOIS 

WHY:  Destroy the Terrapins (/ˈterəˌpin/ noun US, a small edible turtle with lozenge-shaped markings on its shell, found in coastal marshes of the eastern US) LOL! Their mascot is food. 

TICKETS:  FREE ADMISSION

TV/STREAMING:  Update--BTN+ now has the dual.

SPECIAL:  Military Appreciation Day; Free t-shirts to first 200 humans

A DAY IN HISTORY

It was Saturday, January 13, 2007.

Somalia declares Martial law, while an earthquake that measures 8.2 on the Richter scale sends tsunami alerts across the Pacific. Stomp the Yard is the clear leader at the box office with $8,541,104 in ticket sales. The movie asks these questions: "When his brother is murdered, a street dancer moves to Georgia to work his way through college. He joins a fraternity's step dancing team for a competition. Will he also get an education and the girl?"

Irreplaceable by Beyonce and Fergalicious by Fergie are numbers one and two on the Billboard charts. Most importantly, the ILLINI wrestling team is in College Park, Maryland to wrestle the Terps and the UNC Tar Heels. They whup them both. The dual with Maryland is a nonconference stomping that looked like this in the box score: 

ILLINOIS 24, Maryland 10
125: #8 Gabe Flores MD James Knox, 16-8			 4-0
133: #18 Jimmy Kennedy MD Jon Kohler, 16-4		 8-0
141: #8 Cassio Pero dec. #13 Alex Krom, 5-2		 11-0
149: #13 Troy Tirapelle dec. Andrew Schlaffer, 7-2	 14-0
157: #1 Mike Poeta fall Mike McGill, 1:04		 20-0
165: #20 J. Kiessling dec. #14 Roger Smith-Bergsrud, 7-4 20-3
174: #10 Mike Letts dec. Matt Winterhalter, 7-3		 20-6
184: #15 John Dergo dec. Josh Haines, 3-1 (SV)		 23-6
197: #No. 16 Hudson Taylor MD Ben Zulauf, 9-1		 23-10
HWT: John Wise dec. Jerry Afari, 9-4			 26-10

THE TEAMS

The ILLINI are on a seven-match winning streak against Maryland. Pending a result against Northwestern on Friday, the Orange and Blue are 4-3 in duals. They started off with a win over Buffalo (28-9), then a loss to NC State (12-27), a win over Chattanooga (32-9) followed, then a loss to Pitt (6-30). ILLINOIS turned some heads in a loss to the #2 Hawkeyes (19-25), and followed that up with a win against #13 Wisconsin (18-17). Finally, the ILLINI scored a win over Purdue (31-9). 

The Terrapins (a small edible turtle) will face Ohio State on Friday while ILLINOIS tangles with Northwestern. Their current record is a shiny 8-2. Here's how they got there: Bloomsburg (W, 37-6), Duke (W, 37-0), American (W, 29-10), Pitt (W, 18-16), Navy (W, 18-15), Indiana (L, 16-17), Oklahoma (W, 18-16), Ohio (W, 27-13), Campbell (L, 14-21), and Virginia (W, 22-14). 

Since Pitt is a common opponent--and Maryland actually beat them--let's look at that box score:

Full Results

125: No. 26 Braxton Brown fall (4:55) Colton Camacho - Maryland 6, Panthers 0
133: No. 8 Micky Phillippi dec. (5-1) Jackson Cockrell - Maryland 6, Panthers 3
141: No. 1 Cole Matthews dec. (5-1) No. 33 Kal Miller - Maryland 6, Panthers 6
149: No. 24 Ethen Miller dec. (9-4) Tyler Badgett - Maryland 9, Panthers 6
157: Michael North SV dec. (10-8) No. 11 Dazjon Casto - Maryland 12, Panthers 6
165: No. 14 Holden Heller major dec. (12-4) Lucas Cordio - Maryland 12, Panthers 10
174: No. 32 Dominic Solis SV dec. (3-1) Luca Augustine - Maryland 15, Panthers 10
184: No. 24 Reece Heller dec. (10-4) Chase Mielnik - Maryland 15, Panthers 13
197: No. 9 Nino Bonaccorsi dec. (8-2) No. 13 Jaxon Smith - Maryland 15, Panthers 16
HWT: No. 29 Jaron Smith dec. (6-1) Jake Slinger - Maryland 18, Panthers 16

You owe me one hundred pushups, JoJo! In the rain. That salute is too low on your head, and your hand must be flatter. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt on the perpendicularity of your arm because of all those muscles. Drop, soldier! 

THE WRESTLERS

125.  MAXIMO RENTERIA (#82, 3-6) versus BRAXTON BROWN (#20, 15-2)

The algorithm at wrestlestat.com is favoring the ILLINI in most matches, but not in this one. It has Braxton Brown with a 12-2 major decision over Maximo. I don't believe that. I think this will be a nail-biter. They will both have tough matches on Friday with Maximo facing DeAugustino, and the Terp up against Ohio State's Malik Heinselman. 

133.  LUCAS BYRD (#7, 17-3) versus CONNOR QUINN (#239, 0-10)

The starter for Maryland at the beginning of the season was JACKSON COCKRELL (#118, 1-5), but as you can see, he was only a little better. The ILLINI will look for big bonus points in this one. Wrestlestat.com is calling for the tech fall. 

Quinn has given up bonus points in sixty percent of his matches, including to KOLE BROWER (#49, 5-3). Depending on where the dual starts, and if the ILLINI have built up a big lead, we might see the Moline product here. 

141.  DANNY PUCINO (#8, 11-5) versus KAL MILLER (#38, 11-6)

Look at that wrestlestat.com ranking for Danny Pucino. Coming off two pins is gonna do that, especially if you've also beaten a Hawkeye by major decision. Miller just had his best win of the season against #27 Brian Courtney of Virginia. He'll have a strong test on Friday against either Dylan D'Emilio or Jordan Decatur of Ohio State. 

The road in the Big Ten can be a hard and cruel place for true Freshmen like the Terrapin. Wrestlestat.com predicts a 14-7 win for the ILLINI. 

149.  JAKE HARRIER (#189, 4-9) versus ETHEN MILLER (#25, 20-4)

For some reason, our friend Andre at wrestlestat.com has KEVON DAVENPORT (#68, 6-8) beating Ethen Miller by the score of 8-5. They wrestled at the Tiger Style Invite, and it was Miller who won the 3-2 decision. If you put Jake Harrier's name in the program, it shows a 9-3 win for the Terrapin. 

Miller also beat Harrier at the Tiger Style Invite by major. Harrier really seems to have come on strong in his last two duals. Is it enough to reverse a major decision? And Kevon hasn't been in the lineup, so where he's at is anybody's guess. 

Miller is a redshirt Freshman who has been wrestling light's out. He has a one-point loss to #19 Jaden Abas of Stanford and a one-point win over #17 Mitch Moore of Oklahoma. He will be the favorite in this match. 

157.  ANTHONY FEDERICO (#102, 5-9) versus MICHAEL NORTH (#29, 14-4)

Until I see MIKEY CARR (#19, 1-0) shaking hands in the center of the mat, I will keep putting Anthony Federico as the starter. He did a really good job against Purdue's Kendall Coleman in the last dual, and he didn't do too bad against Wisconsin's Garrett Model before that. 

Federico and North also met at the Tiger Style Invite, and that ended up being a major decision for the Terp. Wrestlestat.com predicts a decision for North against Federico, but it would be Carr over North. 

165.  DANNY BRAUNAGEL (#16, 16-5) versus JOHN MARTIN BEST (#99, 8-9)

The ILLINI will want to get bonus here. The Brawlnagel is coming off a pin in his last match, and wrestlestat.com predicts a major decision in this bout. The Terrapin was a hard out for other quality wrestlers last season, but not so much this year. A major isn't a foregone conclusion, but it could certainly happen.

Against common opponents, Danny Braunagel is 4-1, while his opponent is 0-5. Martin Best is on a four-match-losing streak, and he has to wrestle Ohio State on Friday. 

174.  EDMOND RUTH (#11, 20-1) versus DOMINIC SOLIS (#53, 9-4)

Ruth may have a pretty easy match on Friday against Northwestern, while Solis will have his hands full with Ethan Smith. Wrestlestat.com predicts a 7-4 decision for the ILLINI. 

Edmond has a much better record against common opponents at 8-1 compared to Solis' 2-4. Depending on whether we see the double-unders or not, this could be a major decision. 

184.  DYLAN CONNELL (#22, 14-10) versus CHASE MIELNIK (#106, 4-12)

The ILLINI have seen improvement up and down their lineup, and another case in point is Dylan Connell, who sports a shiny, new #22 rating from wrestlestat.com. According to my eyeball test, this is a matchup that most likely straddles the line of a major decision. Our favorite algorithm is calling for the major, an 11-3 win for the good guy. 

Mielnik is on a five-match-losing streak, and he'll see Kaleb Romero on Friday. He's given up a major decision in his last three, and that will be true (or worse) against Ohio State. 

197.  ZAC BRAUNAGEL (#13, 16-3) versus JAXON SMITH (#20, 13-5)

This will be a revenge match for the Brawlnagel. Smith caught him and got the fall at the Tiger Style Invite. Wrestlestat.com is willing to overlook that, though, and give the ILLINI a 7-6 victory. I can dig that. 

The Terrapin has wrestled a lot of quality opponents this season, and he's done pretty well against them. However, he's on a two-match losing streak, and he will face Ohio State's Gavin Hoffman on Friday. This will be another epic brawl. Too bad there's no television or streaming!

285.  MATT WROBLEWSKI (#103, 10-10) versus JARON SMITH (#33, 8-5)

These two have a lot of common opponents because they both wrestled at 197 before moving up to heavyweight. WroboCop is 9-25 against those guys, whereas Smith is 12-18. Wrestlestat.com is predicting an 8-5 decision for the small edible turtle. 

The two have met twice before with the Maryland kid scoring two wins, one by major. This might be a good match for the ILLINI's freight train double. 

CONCLUSION

The ILLINI are getting some love from wrestlestat.com, which predicts a 28-7 victory for the good guys. Maryland has that nice 8-2 record, but they also have the longest B1G conference dual losing streak in memory. Moreover, they have those losses to Indiana and Campbell. 

The ILLINI will have to beat Northwestern in Evanston on Friday and then come back home to face the Terps on Sunday. Maryland will have to face Ohio State at home on Friday and then travel to Champaign for the Sunday dual. 

Unless they catch someone, it doesn't look like Maryland should expect much bonus. On the other hand, the ILLINI will be favored to score bonus at 133, 165 and possibly 174. Even if the Terps were to secure an upset or two, those bonus points should be enough to send them home with an "L." 

EXTRA CREDIT

There's some more great news involving the ILLINI and Wisconsin. Braeden Scoles, the three-time State Champion from Kewaskum, went on a Vision Quest. I'll let the tweet tell the remarkable story: