ILLINI/Pitt Dual Highlights & Recap

ILLINI VERSUS PITT HIGHLIGHTS

We usually provide highlights and a recap the same night of a dual or the next morning but decided a cooling off period was necessary in this instance. It was a bad news/bad luck day for the ILLINI, but there were still a few magical moments. There should've been more, but this is what we have in video form, starring JOE ROBERTS, CHRIS MOORE, EDMOND RUTH and DANNY PUCINO:

ILLINI VERSUS PITT RESULTS

With Dylan Connell out with injury and Kannon Webster not wrestling for unknown reasons, the ILLINI only won 3 of 10 matches. Here is the official box score from FightingILLINI.com:

 

Weight	Matchup	Score
157:	Joe Roberts (ILL) dec. Jared Keslar (PITT), 6-3	ILL 3 I PITT 0
165:	#9 Holden Heller (PITT) dec. Chris Moore (ILL), 11-10	ILL 3 I PITT 3
174:	#4 Edmond Ruth (ILL) dec. #20 Luca Augustine (PITT), 11-5	ILL 6 I PITT 3
184:	#15 Reece Heller (PITT) major dec. Caden Ernd (ILL), 11-3	ILL 6 I PITT 7
197:	#19 Mac Stout (PITT) dec. Isiah Pettigrew (ILL), 7-4	ILL 6 I PITT 10
285:	#11 Dayton Pitzer (PITT) dec. #8 Luke Luffman (ILL), 10-3	ILL 6 I PITT 13
125:	Colton Camacho (PITT) dec. Justin Cardani (ILL), 4-0	ILL 6 I PITT 16
133:	#17 Vinnie Santaniello (PITT) dec. #24 Tony Madrigal (ILL), 5-4	ILL 6 I PITT 19
141:	#27 Danny Pucino (ILL) dec. #13 Cole Matthews (PITT), SV-1 6-3	ILL 9 I PITT 19
149:	#23 Finn Solomon (PITT) dec. Jake Harrier (ILL), 12-11	ILL 9 I PITT 22

As you can see, it was quite a lopsided win for the Panthers. There were bright spots, and all the matches were close, but there was also some sloppy wrestling. Missing Dylan Connell (out indefinitely with an injury) and Kannon Webster (out for unknown reasons) didn't help. 

Coach Poeta was likely stern on the way home. 

The ILLINI's worst dual last year was against Pitt, so hopefully things get better from here on out this year. That's not a guarantee with Missouri next on the schedule for December 21. The ILLINI will need to get Dylan Connell out of the boot he's wearing, heal up Tony Madrigal and work on some things in practice. 

INDIVIDUAL MATCH RESULTS

157  JOE ROBERTS. It was a good night for Joe, as he improved to 4-0 on the season with the 6-3 win. He was expected to win, and he went out and did it. 

So far this season, Joe has been strong when he needed to be, technical when that benefited him, and smart at all times. It also helps that he's getting good at converting takedowns.  

165  CHRIS MOORE looked incredible against the 9th ranked Holden Heller. The ILLINI's defense was STOUT! Yes, he gave up a lot of points, but he also made Heller pay dearly for his offense using pure strength. Just a couple more ounces of energy, and this would've been an ILLINI upset for the ages. 

Heller needed a takedown with five seconds to go to secure an 11-10 win. 

174  EDMOND RUTH looked immaculate! His opponent, Luca Augustine, is a very tough defensive-minded wrestler. The Panther also worked on his body over the off-season to improve it. He is a giant muscle now. Yet, it was Edmond Ruth who imposed his will here. 

Edmond had beaten Augustine twice before in very close matches, but in this one, he blew it open for an 11-5 win. What we liked to see most of all was the beautiful blast double against a superb defensive wrestler. Folks will avoid his underhooks, so Edmond will need to vary his attacks. That double looked sweet! 

184.  CADEN ERND sacrificed his body (almost literally) to take on the #15 Reece Heller because of a recent injury to DYLAN CONNELL. He gave up the major, but put up an heroic fight along the way. Kudos to Ernd for the effort, as he looked tiny out there against the Panther, and just bad luck for the ILLINI with the injury to Connell. We were really looking forward to Dylan closing the gap with this Heller fella. 

197.  ISIAH PETTIGREW and his opponent #19 Mac Stout did exactly what we expected: Clashed heads when both shot a blast double at the same time. Stout won 7-4, but Pettigrew was game. 

We are hoping that Isiah will begin to start matches a little better in the future. If he's not fighting from a hole, he can put his excellent conditioning to work against his opponent. For his weight, though, it has to be said that Stout might be the strongest wrestler in the NCAA this year. 

285.  LUKE LUFFMAN wrestled like a smart All American heavyweight for 6:23 and then like a JV 98-pounder for the final :37. Luuuke had to be ready for an attack during those last few seconds, and a simple sprawl would've finished off the match. When he gave up his leg, instead of doing what he always does, the crotch lift, he tried something different and paid the price. 

Pitzer put a lot of muscle on his frame over the off-season, so he was a lot closer to Luffman's weight than expected. Still, to become an AA, this is the kind of guy the ILLINI will have to beat. The strategy in this match was to use his big advantage--weight--against his opponent. When he went away from that and tried speed and funk is when the trouble started. 

125.  JUSTIN CARDANI started the season with two nice wins but has since dropped his last three. Is it the shoulder injury holding him back? A recent tweak to it? Whatever the reason, he needs to change something up because in his next 9 matches (not including the Midlands), we have him as a favorite in one. 

Seven of those matches feature top twenty wrestlers. 

Colton Camacho is a wrestler he should beat. Instead, Justin didn't score a point in a 0-4 loss. Can he make his matches about his and his opponent's gas tanks? Cardani has never been one to wilt. Why not up the tempo? Either that or some other strategy because as of this minute, he's wrestling like a #13 or #14 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. 

133.  TONY MADRIGAL continued the bad news/bad luck day for the ILLINI. He looked like a winner early in the match, then grabbed his hamstring and wasn't the same after an injury timeout. Kudos to Vinnie Santaniello for the 5-4 hard-fought win and for his stopping the match after the Madrigal injury. You don't see that much in NCAA wrestling, so you have to applaud it when you do. Vinnie has character.

The Pitt wrestler will get an NCAA tournament bid, so this wasn't a bad loss. However, it was a potential stepping-stone win that would've moved Tony up the rankings. But for now, that hamstring needs to heal, or it will be bad news/bad luck for Madrigal the rest of the season. Luckily, the ILLINI have KOLE BROWER ready to step right in. 

141.  DANNY PUCINO lights up a match just by his presence. We think he has one of the best gas tanks in the NCAA. He beat #13 Cole Matthews, adding another AA to his victory list, in remarkable fashion. He needed to leg out of a single in the first, then he scored the only takedown in regulation with a diving ankle grab. 

Though he presented himself well in the waning seconds, even had a reshot, the ref awarded an egregious stalling point to Pitt, sending the match into overtime. There, in a seatbelt whizzer position, he used that mercurial gas tank to horse over Matthews to get the takedown. This was a big time win!

149.  JAKE HARRIER came out on fire against his #24-ranked opponent getting the early takedown. The announcers (and everybody at intermat.com) thought it was KANNON WEBSTER wrestling. Because of the bad lighting, it took us a few double takes to realize it wasn't. 

Jake still looks a little small for 149, but he fought like hell. The final score of 11-12 for the Panther was indicative of the closeness of the match and the effort expended by both wrestlers. 

A Pitt win had been secured before the 149 match, so perhaps Coach Poeta thought it wise to rest Kannon for this one. Or, it could be he was sick during practice week, or maybe he will use that redshirt. We don't know. 

THE CROWD

There was a VERY VOCAL contingent of ILLINI fans at the dual. That was heartening to hear over the stream, and it must have lifted the spirits of the ILLINOIS wrestlers. Pittsburgh is about 470 miles from Champaign and about 460 miles from Chicago. 

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Photo credit to Kevin Brower. Tweet credit to Jackie Brower. Audio and video credits for the video to ACCNX.