ILLINI AT THE JUNIOR DUALS BY THE NUMBERS

Okay, they're pre-ILLINI, but still, these animals lit up the scoreboard in Tulsa at the Junior Duals. They kept the Team ILLINOIS win streak going in Greco, and demolished the competition. It was an absolute delight to watch them wrestle. 

Except for what happened to Nick Nosler. 

It looked bad on the video screen, and later, the announcers in the final said it was a broken ankle. He was a warrior about it. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

The ILLINI recruits and commit (Anthony "Joey" Ruzic) were sharp and on point during a total of 16 duals. This is who wrestled in Tulsa:

And how'd they do? 

As a whole, how did Team ILLINOIS do in Greco? 

What about Freestyle?

Joey Ruzic made the All-Greco team with a spotless record. He only wrestled one match in Free and won it. The rest of the future ILLINI were able to do spot duty in Greco, sharing with other teammates at the same weight. They did have to step it up in Freestyle, as we counted 8 matches for Kannon Webster in that discipline, while Will Baysingar and Logan Swaw wrestled in 7 of the 8 duals. 

The All-Tournament team in Freestyle should include more ILLINOIS kids and ILLINI recruits. 

Between Greco and Freestyle, Peter Marinopoulos wrestled six matches, scoring 14 points in one and 12 in another. Chris Moore was a workhorse with 10 total matches that included a lot of "terminations." 

Besides the studs on Team ILLINOIS, there was Ryan Bennett of Ohio Gray and Braeden Scoles of Wisconsin racking up the techs. Scoles and Bennett only wrestled Freestyle, but the former racked up a perfect 6-0 record, while the latter put up three 10-point techs. 

I predicted that Wisconsin would meet Team ILLINOIS in the Freestyle finals. The Wisky upper-weights were fantastic, including Scoles. Their lighter weights let them down. 

All of the wrestlers were exciting to watch, but we have to make special mention of some of the ILLINOIS lightweights. BottleRoccot Hayes and Caden Correll will always be appointment television. Dom Munaretto looks like he's conducting a symphony out there. He even runs interestingly. And Seth Mendoza still has the baby face (even though he's an assassin) that must cause his grandmother to pinch his cheeks all day. 

And there was ILLINI Coach Christian Kanzler in every match to coach them up. And was that Donny Reynolds running the show? 

Congratulations for a job well done!