KANNON WEBSTER, IRTC AT BTS, WE RACHAL, WYATT MEDLIN & MY NEW FAV WRESTLERS

 

KANNON WEBSTER

And the Winner is ...

Kannon Webster, of course. He is the Dave Schultz Excellence in Wrestling recipient for ILLINOIS. He is now part of a proud tradition of Hall of Fame winners to attend the University of ILLINOIS. That list includes Mike Poeta, Matt Lackey, Jason Potter, Mike Behnke, Jimmy Kennedy, Sean Reynolds, Conrad Polz, Luuuke Luffman, Zane Richards and the first ever, David Stoltz. 

Kannon won't have long to celebrate, as he'll be needed in Las Vegas for the US Open starting on April 26. 

ILLINI RTC AT BTS

The IRTC and the ILLINI have been very supportive of Beat the Streets. Seeing former ILLINI like the Rachals, Baan, We and the Deuce-- who is perpetually on the loose--Emery Parker, Josh Contreras and Mousa Jodeh and others giving back and teaching the wee people about wrestling and life means they are getting the absolute best possible education. 

Add guest clinicians like Mike Poeta, Ed Ruth, IMAR, Jeremy Hunter, Bryan Medlin, Zane Richards and Jordan Blanton on top of that. 

Finally, top it off with Coaches Powell and Boyd, and you have a beautiful, brilliant, fully-realized ideal that maximizes talent and creates opportunities. I don't know that there is a better way to put it than that this is such a doggone good and worthwhile thing to do. 

The IRTC recently stopped by to put on a couple of sessions for the kids. I'm sure there were others present, but I saw Coach Medlin, World Team Member Zane Richards and Kannon Webster in short videos of the event. 

WE RACHAL

And fighting out of the Orange corner ... We Rachal! The former ILLINI wrestler has had great success at the Senior US Open in the past, and he's giving it a go again at 67 kg in Greco. He'll be one of 37 wrestlers in the field at that weight, and it wouldn't surprise me if he gets a nice seed based on past performance. 

Also at the weight, you have Jesse Thielke and Steve Bleise. Rachal is representing the ILLINI Regional Training Center. 

WYATT MEDLIN

Adding to the long list of ILLINI or IRTC or ILLINI-adjacent wrestlers at the US Open is another Washington Community High Schooler in Wyatt Medlin. He is now entered at 60 kg in the U17 Freestyle and Greco divisions. Wyatt is one of 58 registered for Greco and 103 signed up for Freestyle. 

Those are some large brackets, and there is still the rest of today to register. 

MY NEW FAVORITE WRESTLERS

At 57 kg in the Senior Freestyle US Open division, two wrestlers saw World Team member Zane Richards registered for the weight along with NCAA champions Patrick Glory, Nick Suriano and Spencer Lee and said, "**** it, I'm in." Those two heroes are Peter Del Gallo of Maine and Aedyn Concepcion of Alaska. 

Last night, my new heroes, I drank a brewski for youski.