Recap of ILLINI/Iowa State Dual
TEAM FIGHT
This was a 13-21 team loss, but there was a lot of team fight up and down the roster. It was a loss to the number three team on the road before a huge crowd. The ILLINI wrestled their early-season 149-pound backup at 165, while ISU had their full slate of ten starters.
The preseason decision to schedule a tough team on the road before a big crowd turned out to be inspired. Other conference teams still have B1G duals, so Coach Poeta and staff inked a contract for a final tune-up before the post season.
THE BOX SCORE
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
As it turns out, I'm not a fan of Beauty and the Beast when I have to watch tiny humans in a split screen on my phone. ESPN+ showed wrestling and gymnastics at the same time. I can't use any of the sweet ILLINI highlights because the screen was too small.
I would give David Carr a 3.7 for the backflip.
You see, David Carr did a backflip after beating the ILLINI's former backup 149-pounder by major.
Make that make sense.
DUAL RUNDOWN
ILLINOIS needed wins at 125 and 141 to beat Iowa State and lost them both. Still, a respectable 13-21 loss to the Cyclones, whose mascot is a Cardinal.
Maximo Renteria needs to beat guys like Caleb Fuessley, and it is frustrating when he does not. The duck attempts and high crotch mechanics are beautiful to watch, but they are useless if you don't grab a leg.
Danny Pucino was obviously hurting. He hid the limp most of his match, but it showed itself a couple of times. The injury was especially apparent in his leg defense. Casey Swiderski is a good and strong wrestler, and I thought it would be he who was injured for this matchup.
Hopefully, it is just tweaked, and Danny'll have enough time to heal up before the Big Ten conference tournament.
Lucas Byrd with a brutal major. He is merciless. He will control elite wrestlers for the entire length of the match from handshake to handshake. Zach Redding was coming off the best win of his career against a top ten-ish Biscoglia from Northern Iowa. His confidence must have been very high.
Was very high.
Byrd snatched that confidence away from him like Mr. Burns stealing candy from an unarmed baby. The ILLINI built a major decision win in the process. There's an Iowa State Rivals or Scout board that has a wrestling sub-forum. At least one poster there wrote that it didn't appear that Redding was ever close to an offensive point.
No lies found. Byrd is the Wyrd!
Special mention has to be made of the efforts from Jake Harrier, Anthony Federico and Matt Wroblewski. All three fought their ***** off. All three gave up a lot of weight and size, and all three had to deal with very highly-ranked wrestlers in front of their loud and large home crowd.
Giving up two decisions and a major (and at least one weight class up to an NCAA Champion) is the best outcome any reasonable person could have hoped for given the three matchups. We will be saying goodbye to WroboCop soon, but we'll have more years with Harrier and Federico.
Edmond Ruth with an Edmond Ruth win--Broderson did everything he could to run from Ruth's underhooks but they always getcha. How many times have we seen those underhooks get the job done? Twenty times? (He's hit them for takedowns, near fall or stall warnings multiple times in a few of the matches).
What I appreciate most about his use of that hold is how Ruthless determines what is going to happen, when it will happen and how it happens. He finds a superior position, then his opponent either runs out of bounds, bellies down and gives up the takedown, or gets put on his back.
Second on my list of why I appreciate this attack is that Edmond has an alternate attack when needed: His power double, a perfect compliment to his underhooks.
Mikey Carr was a surgeon in the first period, but he kinda gassed after that. I love to watch pure technique closely associated with Herculean strength and an alligator-jaw grip.
I am sending up the Bat Signal, though, for his Sister and Jesse Delgado to run down to Champaign and become his cruel personal trainers. If he was just getting over a respiratory thing, then forget about it.
That could be the case since he had a great tank in his other matches, including in front of a huge crowd versus Cobe Siebrecht. Additionally, his workouts are ILLINI legend, according to Coach Poeta.
Bigger Brawlnagel beat Yonger the Older by following my plan. 0-0 after the first period, ride him hard after that. What was so beautiful about this match, well, actually, there were a bunch of aspects that stood out.
First, in my mind at least, was that Brawny won the takedown battle against the freestyle takedown specialist. Second, he won the mat wrestling in a convincing manner.
Third, a win against a top-five opponent, a returning All American, on his home mat, was deliciously not unexpected in the least. Sure, the thirty-five-year-old Cuban was the favorite, but this was the marquee matchup of the dual for a reason.
Another fun aspect of the win was that some Jamoke on the Cyclone wrestling board said that Bastida should be "ashamed" to take that loss--but that ignoramus was shouted down by everybody else, who pointed out Zac's many big wins, his skill as a wrestler, and his ranking.
They didn't mention his beating of Brett Pfarr (National Finalist) at the Rumble on the Rooftop a couple years ago or his win over Marcus Coleman in last year's NCAA tournament for some reason. (Dylan Connell lost to the same Coleman yesterday--there'll be better days. Kid's a stud).
The Brawlnagel is gonna be dynamite in somebody's bracket.
I know fans get too excited after big wins and too angry or depressed after big losses, but I'm going to put this out there: Zac has about as good a chance as any 197er to be a national champ. He's right there with the speed/technique guys (Warner, Bastida, Caffey), and he's right there with the strong hulk types (Amos, Hoffman, Stout).
COUNTRY MUSIC
I will no doubt piss off any reader who is a country music fan, but it has to be said: One of the balance beam ladies had country music playing during her routine. Doesn't she know that country music belongs in honky tonks and at cousin-cousin weddings?
🎼 I was drunk the day my Ma got outta prison
🎼 So I practiced the uneven BARS IN THE RAIN
🎼 But before I could stick the landing in my pickup truck
🎼 I got married to my cousin on that damned old train....
Sorry, Country fans. I didn't think it was bad, just incongruous, like a mustard-based BBQ sauce, or buying a pizza in China.
THE BROWERS
These good folks are living their best life traveling to ILLINI home and away duals and to tournaments. I'm super jelly. It is great to see their Twitter posts showing the arena, wherever it might be, and the ILLINOIS heroes warming up.
I just wish the ILLINI had put more of these duals away early so that Kole had a chance to give Lucas Byrd some relief.
DANNY BRAUNAGEL
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I haven't heard anything, but his absence from the Iowa State dual, and the way his hand bandage increased in size the last couple of matches has me worried.
Please. Just no.
Hopefully, the day off was just to give the Brawlnagel time to heal his hand.
UP NEXT
The Illini wrestling squad is off for three weeks to prepare for the Big Ten Championships on Saturday to Sunday, March 4-5 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Look for another award-winning preview soon.
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