Zac Braunagel, Tanner Farmer and Caelan Riley News!

ZAC BRAUNAGEL 

At the World Team Trials yesterday, the Brawlnagel captured the title and earned a spot on the Senior United States Greco National Team. He also won a spot in Final X against Alan Vera. 

The ILLINI wrestler and Belleville native represented the ILLINI RTC in the tournament. In the semifinals, Braunagel beat Timothy Young of Army WCAP by tech fall. In the finals, he faced Richard Carlson of Minnesota Storm. That's the match featured in this video:

SPOILER ALERT: Zac won the championship final 6-0. His big move was a underhook lateral drop that looked like a combination of Judo and Magic. There's a slow motion version in the video above. Here's a screen capture from the match:

In his semifinal match against Army wrestler Timothy Young, Zac used short drags, a go-behind off a Russian tie, and a gut wrench to secure the tech. In the finals, he hit that voodoo lateral drop and a push-out, showing a diversified offense. It also showed how tough the State of ILLINOIS is in all of the international styles.

TANNER FARMER

Bad luck struck Farmer in his semifinal match. Up 5-0 and rolling early in the first period, he sustained a calf injury. He finished the match but lost 5-6 to Donny Longendyke of Minnesota Storm. He was unable to continue in the tournament. 

He had won a spot on the World Team last season, but will have to wait until next year to regain that spot. His journey resembles Zane Richards' more than Jordan Burroughs' at this point. Hopefully, he can repair and retrain and enter some big Greco tournaments in the meantime. 

CAELAN RILEY

Coming over from the Citadel, Caelan Riley wrestled at 125 for the Bulldogs as a redshirt. He did wrestle a couple of dual matches for the Citadel at 133. 

One of his teammates at Libertyville High School was Danny Pucino. So, please give a big Guardians of the Galaxy welcome to Caelan: