ILLINI at the US Open

There will be a huge ILLINI presence at the US Open that will include current ILLINOIS wrestlers, IRTC athletes and even recruits. The lists below include only those who have registered so far. There might be additional registrations because the US Open is set for April 26-30 in Las Vegas and registration closes on April 23. 

At this time, here are your heroes:

Senior US Open (Freestyle)

57kg    Zane Richards

97kg    Josef Rau (Formerly IRTC)

SENIOR FREESTYLE

We start off with World Team member and World Cup hero Zane Richards. The Lion of the IRTC will want to win this tournament to get a shot at Final X against Thomas Gilman. I expect him to be the top seed. That would be perfect as it would likely put Nick Suriano and Patrick Glory in a semifinal. Another person to keep an eye on is Jakob Camacho. That's the fellow that Zane needed to beat (and did beat) in his final match to make the World Team. 

Zane won that match comfortably. 

At this point, there is no Spencer Lee entered in the field. In fact, other than Glory and Caleb Smith, there are not that many recent college NCAA qualifiers registered for this event. 

At 97 kilograms, you'll see Joe Rau in a tough field as well, a field that includes past and current World Team members like J'den Cox and Michael Macchiavello. I think that Rau will be a three seed here, as he had a dynamite Freestyle US Open last year, finishing in second, but that shouldn't have been a big surprise, as he came in fourth in the Freestyle World Team Trials back in 2018. 

As a 0-time high school place winner, but a multi-time USA World Team member and winner of many tournaments and All-American honors, Rau is a great story. 

Senior US Open (Greco)

60kg    Lucas Byrd

77kg    Kamal Bey

77kg    Danny Braunagel

87kg    Zac Braunagel

130kg  Tanner Farmer

130kg  Luuuke Luffman

SENIOR GRECO

This whole group of ILLINI and IRTC wrestlers have been either age-group World Team members or Senior World Team members. Lucas Byrd at 60kg may end up being the three seed behind Ildar Hafizov and Dalton Roberts, both of Army (WCAP), as USAW usually rewards consistent attendance. Yet, Byrd is the Wyrd is talented enough to win the whole thing. (This is where you say, "Duh.")

I don't see Max Nowry at 60kg or 55kg, but I'm unsure of the qualification process for Greco and his injury status (although he was at the recent Greco Camp at Washington High School). 

Kamal Bey and Danny Braunagel will need to get past Jesse Porter and RaVaughn Perkins at 77kg. This is the largest and quite possibly most talented of the Senior Greco fields at the tournament. The big names are showing up. Just the four mentioned in this paragraph are beasts. 

The 87kg field is smaller for Zac Braunagel, but there are two deep threats in Alan Vera and John Stefanowicz. It is pretty interesting to see everybody that the Brawlnagel wrestled in the college season up at 92kg (Freestyle) or 97kg (Greco). He finally gets to wrestle folks his own freaking size! 

The big boys, Tanner Farmer and Luuuke Luffman, will also face a terrific field at 130kg. At press time, it is possible that Farmer will end up the three seed, while Luffman gets the four. That's because of the return of World Teamer Adam Coon, and then there's Cohlton Schultz. 

Farmer wrestled with an injury (but still made it competitive) at Final X, and, of course, this will be the first official action for Luffman coming off his surgery and rehabilitation. It will be exciting to see how these lads do injury-free!

U20 US Open (Freestyle)

65kg    Kole Brower

65kg    Charlie Fifield

79kg    Caden Ernd

97kg    Joey Braunagel

U20 FREESTYLE

I counted eighty-five wrestlers already registered for 65kg at the U20 US Open tournament. That includes University of ILLINOIS team members Kole Brower and Charlie Fifield. A name that popped out was Pierson Manville, but Brower already beat that guy. There's also some stars coming straight out of high school that the ILLINI will need to put in their places. 

At 79kg, Caden Ernd is in a field of sixty-five wrestlers. Ceasar Garza, a pretty tough kid from Cali and an MSU starter, will be one of the headliners here that Ernd will need to take out. 

Joey Braunagel checks in at 97kg, and that field has only thirteen wrestlers so far. I have to admit that I don't recognize any of the other twelve wrestlers. 

U20 US Open (Greco)

55kg    Joey Ruzic  (Recruit)

97kg    Joey Braunagel

U20 GRECO

There are sixteen wrestlers registered for 55kg so far, and that includes Anthony "Joey" Ruzic, an ILLINOIS commit. He's still in high school and challenging himself here. Ruzic is the big name in the field with his Junior Greco National Championship. 

Doing yeoman's work is Joey Braunagel at 97kg, entered in both Freestyle and Greco. I guess he's figuring that this is better than doing pushups in the rain at Officer Candidate School or going out to the field for training in the desert or the woods. (He would be right, believe me. Haha!). The biggest Brawny is one of ten wrestlers registered at this weight. 

The IRTC contingent will be led by this fellow:

And that fellow--without the beard--has been at the "Biggest Greco Camp in the World" held at Washington High School in the great State of ILLINOIS. There were a lot of ILLINI and IRTC wrestlers there:

In addition, the IRTC staff includes Head Coach Mike Poeta, Jeremy Hunter and Ed Ruth. 

The US Open will be streamed by Flo Wrestling, and I will be watching to see how the ILLINI and the IRTC wrestlers do against the field. There should be lots of highlights! So excite! 

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Photo credits:  Friends of ILLINI Wrestling, the University of ILLINOIS Athletic Department (with some photoshopping involved), the Daily ILLINI, FightingILLINI.com, FloWrestling and Twitter.