WELCOME TO MARKO IVANISEVIC, LINDENWOOD RESULTS AND TĪNĒ ILLINI

WELCOME TO MARKO IVANISEVIC!

The big man has arrived, and his name is Marko Ivanisevic. He lists himself at 6-2 and 240 and hails from Hinsdale Central and Izzy Style Wrestling. Marko has two older brothers who wrestled and went on to play football for Princeton. 

Coach Poeta managed to keep the younger Ivanisevic down on the Farm. Marko is a two-time state placer, a winner of plenty of tournaments like the Central Regional, Northern Plains, the Moore-Prettyman, &tc, and he has another year to add to his mantle. Then, the year after that, he can work in the room with Luuuke Luffman as a redshirt.

Congratulations to the ILLINI staff, the Ivanisevics, and the high school and other coaches and training partners who shaped his future. Here's a little video to welcome Marko:

LINDENWOOD OPEN

Early in the tournament, there were three ILLINI on the mats at the same time. In the Frosh-Soph division, William Baysingar got the early takedown, two sets of back points, then pinned his opponent from Missouri in 2:28. In the same division (but a separate bracket) Hudson Goebel racked up three takedowns in the first period and then added an escape and riding point to secure the 11-3 win. 

These were their first wins as ILLINI.

At the same time, in the Gold division, Jake Harrier finished early with an 18-1 tech fall. 

The major problem with the Lindenwood Open this year was that it was not streamed by anybody. All we had were the little green and red men wrestling on Trackwrestling software. The ILLINI were tilting and riding and taking down opponents like crazy, but we couldn't see it. 

Danny Braunagel led the way with a Championship in the Open division up at 174 pounds. He teched his way to the finals, and then he teched his finals opponent 17-0. Interestingly enough, the guy that the Brawlnagel destroyed in the finals beat Northwestern's David Ferrante 8-4 in the second round. 

Peter Marinopoulos also won a Championship in the Frosh-Soph division. He earned three straight tech falls, then a medical forfeit before beating a familiar face, state champion Justin Hoffer from Washington Community (now Bellarmine) in the title bout 7-3. 

Placing second in their respective divisions were Will Baysingar (a close 7-8 loss in the finals), Joey Braunagel in the Open division and Logan Swaw in the Frosh-Soph category. Swaw had to face an opponent in the finals who already had a year in college and more than 30 collegiate wins.  

Caelan Riley had three straight wins on the back of the bracket to finish as Consolation Champion. With two wins on the front side and two on the back, Hudson Goebel finished fourth. Sungyup Ryu had a very nice win in the first round against a kid from Oklahoma State who was a 4-timer from Kansas. Also scoring points for the ILLINI were Charlie Fifield, Daniel Renshaw, Jake Harrier, Chase Waggoner and Cooper Wettig. These were the top point scorers for the team:

TĪNĒ ILLINI

It is time for another tīnē illini segment because, as is common knowledge throughout the world, there is nothing better than ILLINI on the smallish side. This little angel has a big brother who will be an ILLINI wrestler next year. As you can see, she is a treasure:

That's who we're talking about! And below, we have to break character once again to say: Adorbs!