Recap of ILLINI / Iowa Dual

There was an absolute ton of excitement generated at the ILLINI-Iowa dual last night. It was all knotted up at 19-19 with one match to go. The Hawkeyes won it and the dual by the score of 25-19. That was a great dual! They say there's nothing to cheer about when you lose, but when the #27 football team is tied with the #2 team and there are only two minutes to go in the fourth quarter.... 

I think moral victories are important and should be celebrated. 

Last year, Lucas Byrd was the lone ILLINI to get a win in the dual with Iowa. The year before that, only Luke Odom and Zac Braunagel scored victories. Last night, five of the ten ILLINI scored wins. This was the lede at FightingILLINI.com:

In front of a packed house at Carver Hawkeye Arena, and streaming across the country on BTN Plus, Lucas Byrd, Danny Pucino, Mikey Carr, Edmond Ruth and Zac Braunagel all won big-time matches. I will put together a highlight video tomorrow. Here's the box score:

ILLINOIS 19, Iowa 25

125: Spencer Lee (Iowa) defeated Maximo Renteria (Fall 2:24)
133: Lucas Byrd defeated Cullan Schriever (Iowa) (Fall 2:58)
141: Danny Pucino defeated Drew Bennett (Iowa) (Major Dec. 20-8)
149: Max Murin (Iowa) defeated Kevon Davenport (Fall 3:37)
157: Mike Carr defeated Cobe Siebrecht (Iowa) (Dec. 12-7)
165: Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) defeated Danny Braunagel (Major Dec. 15-4)
174: Edmond Ruth defeated Nelson Brands (Iowa) (TB-1, 3-1)
184: Abe Assad (Iowa) defeated Dylan Connell (Dec. 3-1)
197: Zac Braunagel defeated Jacob Warner (Iowa) (Dec. 3-1)
285: Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) defeated Matt Wroblewski (DQ, stall out)

133.  LUCAS BYRD.

Last season, Byrd wrestled Cullan Schriever to a controlled 5-0 victory. He was having none of that this year. Lucas had the soul-destroying pin in the first period. The Hawkeye had a very nice 12-3 record as the Iowa starter before tonight. He was 15-5 last year. 

Lucas Byrd has accounted for 22.22% of all losses by Schriever over the past two years. 

In a post-match interview, Coach Poeta cited Lucas and Danny Pucino for getting the momentum started, and he added that "Byrd's just tenacious." The pinfall was a big part of the excitement at the dual, as it countered Spencer Lee's six points almost as soon as Spencer had his hand raised. 

141.  DANNY PUCINO.

About Pucino's match, Coach Poeta said his young star "had highlight reel takedowns." Danny won the match 20-8, a major, with a ton of takedowns. This is Drew Bennett's fifth year in college, and he had a nice 7-4 record this season before the match. Last year, the Hawkeye actually won against ILLINOIS at the dual. But not against Pucino.

Danny may wrestle Wisconsin's backup on Sunday, as Joseph Zargo took the day off to heal or duck against Penn State, while his understudy, Felix Lettini, gave up a major to #5 Beau Bartlett. 

157.  MIKEY CARR.

I had to squint at my laptop to make sure I was seeing right. Mikey Carr? Wrestling in the ILLINI/Iowa dual? It was him! Coach Poeta said this about the prodigal son after the match: "What a wonderful way to start the year for Mike Carr picking up a ranked win in his first match back in years. Mike will continue to get more comfortable out there and the skies the limit for him."

Carr's opponent, Cobe Siebrecht, was undefeated at 6-0 before last night with five of the wins coming by way of bonus, including a pinfall of #20 Anthony Artalona of Penn, and a major decision over #31 Jason Kraisser of Iowa State. 

Siebrecht is a funky wrestler, and that funk caught Carr one time. The rest of the time, though, it was Carr converting on his meat and potatoes takedowns. It was a true delight for me to see Mikey back on the mat. By all accounts, he's a super-competitive fellow, and he knows he's got one last shot. 

174.  EDMOND RUTH.

Nelson Brands was certainly in shape and ready to wrestle. He had also scouted Edmond Ruth pretty well, as he knew to back out of the ILLINI's double unders as fast as his feet would allow. For his part the ILLINI knew what to do against Brands, who scores lots of his points on go-behinds off of his opponent's bad shots. 

There was nothing for the Hawkeye to feast on last night. 

Coach Poeta said: "Edmond Ruth is doing a good job picking up wins, but he knows he needs to attack more. He's as hard as anybody in the country to takedown but you can't keep playing with fire. He's good enough to put matches away earlier and build a lead. That's my job to get it out of him." 

197.  ZAC BRAUNAGEL.

This bout lived up to the marque matchup hype. Two ILLINOIS schoolboys throwing down at full blast for six minutes and fifty-six seconds. It was about that time that the Brawlnagel secured an amazingly quick and technically beautiful takedown for the 3-1 win over last year's NCAA Finalist at 197. 

I was worried that Warner would use blood time to get some lung relief from his exertions, but to his credit, he cleaned up quickly and didn't have a problem with it later in the match. 

Coach Poeta had this to say: " Zac Braunagel baby! What a month he's had: Midland's champ and a top five win [in] the country tonight in that guy's home. Can't say enough good things about him right now. His shots look great. His defense is stingy. Really impressed with him right now."

All of ILLINILand is looking forward to Braunagel / Amos II on Sunday. Or, will Coach Bono duck his wrestler? Three losses in a row might hurt his NCAA resume, you know. 

BROADCAST ISSUES

There has never been so many issues with the stream as there were with the audio during last night's broadcast. The announcers, Alex Marinelli and Kaleb Young--when they were audible--did a very good job. They seemed to know the ILLINI wrestlers decently well, and, of course, they're very familiar with the Iowa program. 

They also know the sport of wrestling. 

Still, it was kind of funny how often they wanted a stall called, though, as if it is a virus that has infected all of Iowa City. 

Even when the audio was working, the crowd noises were muted. Was that because Iowa has had problems with the crowd making racists comments? I don't know. But it certainly dampened the energy. Moreover, I couldn't hear the crowd's reactions when Lucas Byrd and Mikey Carr taunted them. Ha!

NEXT UP

The next ILLINI dual is right around the corner. Tomorrow in fact. The ILLINI face off against the Wisconsin Badgers at State Farm Center for a matinee at 3:00 pm (Central). FREE ADMISSION! The Badgers lost last night to Penn State. Here's the box score for that:

Jan. 6, 2023 - #11 Wisconsin 11, #1 Penn State 28 - Madison, Wis. | WIS-PSU

125: #5 Eric Barnett (WIS) over Gary Steen (PSU) - TF 15-0 5:11 |  5-0
133: #1 Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) over #27 Taylor LaMont (WIS) - MD 14-5 | 5-4
141: #5 Beau Bartlett (PSU) over Felix Lettini (WIS) - MD 12-3 | 5-8
149: #2 Austin Gomez (WIS) over #15 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) - Dec 6-2 | 8-8
157: Levi Haines (PSU) over #16 Garrett Model (WIS) - MD 16-6 | 8-12
165: #5 Dean Hamiti (WIS) over Matt Lee (PSU) - MD 18-6 | 12-12
174: #1 Carter Starocci (PSU) over Josh Otto (WIS) - MD 22-8 | 12-16
184: #1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) over Tyler Dow (WIS) - TF 16-0 4:33 | 12-21
197: #5 Max Dean (PSU) over #14 Braxton Amos (WIS) - MD 11-2 | 11-25*
285: #1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) over #11 Trent Hillger (WIS) - Dec 6-2 | 11-28
* Wisconsin lost 1 team point for control of mat area during the 197 bout.
All rankings are Intermat for Jan. 4, 2023.

BIG ASK

If you know any of the ILLINI wrestlers who have wrestled in the Chattanooga or Pitt duals, or will wrestle in the Wisconsin dual, ask them if they want a Vision Quest-like video on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. You see, Edmond Ruth has been doing these fantastic "Post-Workout" videos on Instagram, and that gave me an idea. 

Let's go the whole nine yards? 

Dim light, some stretching, some level changes, some sprawls, some sit-outs, some jumping rope, and then exit through some double doors. I splice their entrance into State Farm Center from those duals listed above, throw in some Lunatic Fringe music, and this could be fun. It would look a little something like this:

I get goosebumps every time I watch that scene. 

Once the wrestlers have finished their videos, just load them onto Instagram, and I'll go to work. When finished, I'll put a copyright for the wrestler in the video, so that it belongs to them.