AOC is an ILLINI, National Duals Taken Over by ILLINI, and ZANE!

During this off-season, it has become readily apparent that there is no off-season for ILLINI and IRTC wrestling. There's **** going down all the time. We want to put out videos, but between watching ILLINI and IRTC athletes and ILLINI recruits and commits wrestle, and catching the latest news on social media, there's barely enough time to write. 

AUSTIN O'CONNOR

A seismic change occurred yesterday as Coaches Poeta and Medlin announced the arrival of Austin O'Connor as an Assistant Coach--and as an IRTC athlete? Here was the announcement on Twitter:

The Lockport native won a couple of National Championships for North Carolina in 2021 at 149 and in 2023 at 157 and was a five-time All American along the way. Of course, he was a four-time IHSA Champion for St. Rita. 

There might be an MMA future as well with Austin inking a deal with American Kickboxing Academy, which has fronted such fighters as Daniel Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov. This is another bullseye for Head Coach Mike Poeta and the ILLINI. Recruits everywhere will want to get a call from him, but in-state kids especially. 

JUNIOR DUALS

ILLINI recruits and commits are tearing up the mats in Tulsa at the Junior Duals. By my count, Team ILLINOIS has won 13 straight duals. That included a Greco Championship going away. It has been amazing to see such a huge effort from the future ILLINI. Here's another box score from the Greco duals:

Maybe Minnesota Red should have stayed in the hotel? I mean, c'mon, these are rude and obnoxious beat downs that must be against Oklahoma law. We've seen Peter Marinopoulos, Anthony Ruzic, Kannon Webster, Will Baysingar, Logan Swaw and Chris Moore destroying folks. 

On top of that, you have leadership from Christian Kanzler, and then there are recruits like Ryan Bennet smoking people for Ohio Gray, and Braeden Scoles doing the same for Team Wisconsin. In fact, it looks like that Wisconsin team will meet up with ILLINOIS later today. 

Intermat listed this recruiting class as Top Ten, and they may be even better than that. 

Congratulations to all the wrestlers! It has been a joy to watch. 

ZANE, ZANE, ZANE

Since Final X, Zane Richards has done some interviews. He was there with the "crazy guy on the bus" quote for the Flo interview on the Bader Show. More recently, he joined USAW's David Mirikitani for an interview alongside Coach Medlin. Check it out, it's fun: