ILLINI vs. Ohio State, ZANE & the CHRIS MOORE Handshake

 

WHAT:  ILLINI versus Ohio State dual

WHEN:  Friday, January 12 at 6 pm (Central)

WHERE:  Columbus, Ohio

TV/STREAMING:  BTN+ (subscription streaming service)

TICKETS:  Adult $20; Youth $16

ALL-TIME RECORD:  38-36-1, ILLINI

A DAY IN HISTORY

Travel back with us to Sunday, January 17, 2021. Around the country, everything pretty much sucks. Covid's still here. The top two movies in theaters are The Marksman and The Croods: A New Age. On the Billboard Hot 100, Mood by 24kGoldn featuring iann dior tops the charts followed by Ariana Grande's Positions. 

As if all that wasn't bad enough, your snotty little brother has to wait another three days for the release of Hitman 3 for PlayStation and Xbox. He is insufferable. 

But that day has one redeeming quality. 

On this bright, glorious day, the ILLINI Wrestling team beats Wisconsin (21-9) and Ohio State (18-15) in a triangular at State Farm Center. Double winners on this remarkable day include Lucas Byrd, surprise starter Danny Pucino, Danny Braunagel, Matt Wroblewski and Luke Luffman. Here's the box score:

125: Malik Heinselman (OHST) over Justin Cardani (ILL) (Dec 9-2)

133: Lucas Byrd (ILL) over Jacob Decatur (OHST) (Dec 2-0)

141: Danny Pucino (ILL) over Dylan D`Emilio (OHST) (Dec 12-7)

149: Sammy Sasso (OHST) over Michael Carr (ILL) (Fall 2:45)

157: Elijah Cleary (OHST) over Johnny Mologousis (ILL) (Dec 3-2)

165: Dan Braunagel (ILL) over Ethan Smith (OHST) (Dec 6-5)

174: Kaleb Romero (OHST) over DJ Shannon (ILL) (Dec 7-1)

184: Zac Braunagel (ILL) over Rocky Jordan (OHST) (Dec 2-0)

197: Matt Wroblewski (ILL) over Gavin Hoffman (OHST) (Dec 4-2)

HWT: Luke Luffman (ILL) over Tate Orndorff (OHST) (Dec 3-2)

THE SEASON SO FAR

The ILLINI are 3-3 on the season so far with wins over SIUE (28-7), Central Michigan (32-3) and North Carolina (20-13). The losses were to Navy (18-23), Pitt (9-22) and Missouri (6-29). ILLINOIS' last outing was a fifth place finish at the Midlands in a field of 42 teams. Ohio State is 8-1 with wins over Virginia Tech (24-12), Edinboro (53-0), Columbia (49-0), Hofstra (51-0), UNI (26-7), Lock Haven (28-9), NC State (21-20) and Cornell (21-20). The Buckeyes lost to common opponent Pitt (13-21). Because Pittsburgh was a common opponent, let's see that Ohio State box score:

No. 19 Pitt 21, No. 5 Ohio State 13

125: Colton Camacho (Pitt) dec. No. 22 Brendan McCrone (OSU), 14-9 (Pitt leads, 3-0)

133: No. 12 Nic Bouzakis (OSU) dec. No. 23 Vinnie Santaniello (Pitt), 5-2 (Tied, 3-3)

141: No. 20 Cole Matthews (Pitt) dec. No. 3 Jesse Mendez (OSU), 4-2 (Pitt leads, 6-3)

149: No. 5 Dylan D'Emilio (OSU) dec. No. 19 Finn Solomon (Pitt), 12-11 (Tied, 6-6)

157: No. 13 Paddy Gallagher (OSU) maj. dec. Jared Keslar (Pitt), 17-3 (OSU leads, 10-6)

165: No. 8 Holden Heller (Pitt) maj. dec. No. 20 Isaac Wilcox (OSU), 10-2 (Tied, 10-10)

174: No. 9 Carson Kharchla (OSU) dec. No. 19 Luca Augustine (Pitt), 11-7 (OSU leads, 13-10)

184: No. 20 Reece Heller (Pitt) maj. dec. No. 15 Gavin Hoffman (OSU), 12-2 (Pitt leads, 14-13)

197: No. 17 Mac Stout (Pitt) dec. No. 22 Luke Geog (OSU), 7-1 (Pitt leads, 17-13)

285: No. 14 Dayton Pitzer (Pitt) maj. dec. Hogan Swenski (OSU), 12-2 (Pitt wins, 21-13)

WHY WE HATE OHIO STATE

Ohio State reminds me of the micro-instant when you realize that, yep, you're gonna throw up. You can't stop it. It's coming. You pray there's nobody in the bathroom because it's moving like a bullet train. Yet, they want everyone to put a "The" in front of their name. Ha! Like they're The Son of Sam or The Green River Killer or The Night Stalker. 

Their pleas for respect go unanswered. Look at this ranking of the country's top public universities and weep, you sad, vile, awful little buckeyes. By the way, did you know this about the buckeye? They are "inedible seeds contain[ing] tannic acid and are poisonous to cattle and humans." 

Of course they are.

THE CHRIS MOORE HANDSHAKE

True Freshman ILLINI Wrestler Chris Moore has a pretty interesting and unique handshake. We conducted an in-depth investigation. Here are the results: 

 

INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS

Before breaking down the individuals, it should be noted that Wrestlestat.com is projecting a 25-9 win for the poisonous seeds. The ILLINI winners according to that engine include Kannon Webster over Dylan D'Emilio (even though the OSU kid is ranked #9, while Kannon is at #12 and might be back in redshirt), Chris Moore at #36 over #18 Bryce Hepner, and Edmond Ruth over Carson Kharchla (who I've heard is out with an injury). 

There has been a lot of mix-and-match going on in the ILLINI lineup so far this season. Who the Orange and Blue put on the mat at some weights is not known at this time. We'll provide our best guesses. 

125.  #76 JUSTIN CARDANI versus #15 Brendan McCrone. Cardani has the much better record against common opponents at 7-2, while McCrone is at 2-4. The Buckeye had a nice pinfall of then-#1 Jakob Camacho of NC State a couple weeks ago. If healthy, this is a match that Cardani could win. However, he was in street clothes at Midlands, though he did some light warmups with the other wrestlers. If he's unavailable, expect to see CAELAN RILEY. 

For a college wrestler, McCrone gets a lot of pins. So, whomever takes the mat for the ILLINI will need to avoid his pinning combinations. 

133.  #51 ANTHONY MADRIGAL versus #6 Nic Bouzakis. Here again, we don't know if Madrigal will suit up for the ILLINI. He was at Midlands, like Cardani, but did not wrestle. Instead, we saw KOLE BROWER. Bouzakis is a major decision favorite over Madrigal according to Wrestlestat.com. 

141.  #35 DANNY PUCINO versus #4 Jesse Mendez. The Wrestlestat algorithm is calling for another major decision for the bad guy here, but this should be a very entertaining match with a speed versus speed theme. And the ILLINI has had experience beating Dylan D'Emilio, who's a weight above for this dual (and who got PUCINO'D) during the dual two years ago

149.  #12 KANNON WEBSTER versus #9 Dylan D'Emilio. The major question here is whether Kannon is wrestling or redshirting. That question was raised anew when he wrestled unattached at Midlands. He has already wrestled four "attached" matches for the ILLINI, so if he wants to keep his redshirt on, he can only have one more. 

If Kannon is unavailable, the ILLINI have JAKE HARRIER in the wings. The Ohio State kid is having a good year with his 16-4 record and two wins over top-ten rated wrestlers. 

157.  #69 JOE ROBERTS versus #22 Paddy Gallagher. Last year, Gallagher was a disappointment for Buckeye fans as he finished with a 12-11 record. He's already 16-5 this season, and four of his five losses were to wrestlers rated in the top six by Wrestlestat.com, while his fifth loss was to the #13 fellow. 

Joe Roberts started the season with a four-match winning streak, including an upset of Central Michigan's excellent Johnny Lovett. At the Midlands, though, he had a 1-2 mark, including a loss to a wrestler he'd already beaten this year. Sickness? Minor injury? This could be a competitive match, and Wrestlestat.com is calling for a regular decision. 

165.  #36 CHRIS MOORE versus #18 Bryce Hepnar. It was Hepnar who got the call in OSU's last dual with Cornell, losing a close 4-6 match against a very good wrestler. The dual before that saw Isaac Wilcox get a win over his pretty good NC State opponent. Both have plenty of experience in duals. 

Moore had a real nice Midlands tournament with five wins. For all this hard work, he's seen his Wrestlestat.com ranking go up by 113 points in three weeks. As the true Freshman, he would seem to be at a disadvantage in this matchup, but Wrestlestat.com is giving him the one-point win. CADEN ERND, LUKE ODOM and COOPER WETTIG are also potential starters for the ILLINI. Note that Moore has wrestled attached four times already this season. 

174.  #10 EDMOND RUTH versus #23 Rocco Welsh. Wrestlestat.com has Carson Karchla in the lineup against Ruth, and the Buckeye loses a one-point match. It is our understanding that he's done for the season. It was Rocco Welsh who wrestled for the Bucks in their last dual. 

If you plug Welsh into the matrix, it spits out a decision win for Ohio State. I don't believe that. 

184.  #52 DYLAN CONNELL versus #31 Gavin Hoffman. The engine predicts a close win for the Buckeye, but will Connell be able to wrestle? He was in a boot earlier in the season and then seemed to reinjure his foot at the Midlands. That's too bad because a healthy Connell is going to give Hoffman lots of problems, especially if he's cutting a lot of weight. This could be another Missouri dual situation with one of the 165lbers moving up two weights. Is JOEY BRAUNAGEL anywhere close to 184 pounds? 

197.  #60 ISIAH PETTIGREW versus #29 Luke Geog. If Pettigrew gets off to a good start in this match--his problems this season have stemmed from bad (and sometimes really bad) first periods. If he can keep it close early on, this could be an epic battle. In fact, we're calling it our Upset Special. Pettigrew got three good wins at the Midlands, including a ranked win over Martin Cosgrove of Penn. This is a slight upgrade in talent, but the ILLINI's learning curve is on the bounce. 

285.  #15 LUKE LUFFMAN versus #11 Nick Feldman. This is a match that Wrestlestat.com wrongly predicts as an Ohio State win. Feldman is talented but young, and though he has a pretty nice 14-3 record, the best wrestler he's beaten is at #21. He's lost to #14 Owen Trephan recently and #27 Hunter Catka earlier in the season, and these are guys Luuuke would handle. 

Moreover, Feldman famously beat Christian Carroll in a close match at Who's #1, and we all know Carroll opted out of his ILLINI verbal because he was going to sit behind Luffman for a year (besides his redshirt). So, we're gonna call this our "Wrestlestat.com Upset of the Match." 

ZANE, BEKHBAYAR, MEDLIN & THE IRTC

The ILLINI Regional Training Center is deep in the process of getting their athletes ready for the Olympics. Part of that process will be the Croatia Ranking Tournament, which starts on Wednesday. 

Tomorrow.

ZANE RICHARDS will be there at 57 kg in a strong bracket that will include China's Wanhao Zou, Thomas Gilman, Horst Lehr, Aman from India as well as wrestlers from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. For American Freestyle fans, you can also expect Darian Cruz representing Puerto Rico and Brandon Courtney. 

Representing the IRTC and Mongolia is BEKHBAYAR ERDENEBAT at 61 kg. There are fewer wrestlers entered at this weight given the upcoming Olympics, but there is some quality, including Rzazade of Azerbaijan and Michael McGee of the USA.

ADDITIONAL AMERICANS

At the heavier weights there are additional Americans registered, including Joseph McKenna, Yianni Diakomihalis, Nahshon Garrett, Quincy Monday, Jason Nolf (not my favorite wrestler), Evan Wick, Joseph Lavallee, Zahid Valencia, Chance Marsteller, Max Dean, Isaac Trumble (off his Midlands tournament), Kyle Snyder, Michael Macchiavello, Christian Lance, Mason Parris and Nick Gwiazdowski. 

That's a lot of the Good Old US of A! 

GRECO! 

There will be a Greco component, and KAMAL BEY is entered in a huge field at 77 kg. There are 43 wrestlers registered at this weight. Other Americans include Ravaughn Perkins and Benjamin Peak. 

There's another large field at 97 kg, which includes two Americans, JOE RAU and Alan Vera. Hopefully, Rau will get his revenge on Vera at this match--without any referee hijinks! 

SCHEDULES

Both Zane and Bekhbayar will wrestle on Wednesday. Tomorrow. Their weight classes will wrestle all matches that day, including the finals. Kamal will wrestle all day on Friday. On the tournament's last day, Sunday, is when Joe Rau takes to the mat. 

STREAMING

FloWrestling is handling the streaming for the event. Matches start at 10:00 am local time, which is 3:00 am Central time. Finals are at 6:00 pm local time, which is 11:00 am Central.  

GO ILLINI & IRTC!!!