THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

U20 TOURNAMENT WHAT : U20 & U23 World Team Trials WHEN : May 31-June 2 (ILLINI wrestle on Saturday, June 1) WHERE : The Spire Institute, Geneva, Ohio WHY : Winners rep Team USA at the World Championships TV/STREAMING : Not listed by USA Wrestling, Flo or Track UPDATE:  FloWrestling will provide brackets and streaming streaming for the event. Brackets are not up yet. UPDATE:   Kannon Webster won the challenge tournament, and in doing so, beat the Michigan commit and U17 World Medalist Brock Mantanona in the semifinals, then beat 2024 NCAA All American Antrell Taylor in the Finals.  In the best of three for the spot on the world team, he lost out to P.J. Duke. Congratulations on Alternate on the World Team!  Chris Moore finished 2-2 in the event. We think he gave up some weight here, as he went at 79 kg. But he had a lot of fire, and he did have one of the loudest oohs and aahs from the crowd.  To get that reaction, he picked up a double leg and did a flip out of bounds to get his

  And here's a JOMBO ™  classic:

  UPDATED POSTER. VERSION 2.0.  

The May basho (tournament) is now 7 matches old. The winner will be the wrestler with the best record after 15 matches in 15 days. This particular tournament is plagued with injuries and no shows.  The top-ranked wrestler, the Yokozuna, pulled out, and also among the second-highest ranked wrestlers, two of these Ozekis have pulled out. Additionally, one of the wonder teens from the last tournament, Takerufuji, is not wrestling.  That makes for a blah basho for me.  There are no undefeated rikishi (wrestlers) left. Moreover, a couple of the guys at 6-1, I think, have little chance to win. That includes Ura, who is more of a showman than a legitimate challenger. He likes to fly around and attempt difficult winning holds. He usually loses to who he is supposed to lose to and wins only against who he is supposed to win against. Another, Takarafuji, is pretty old and has been feasting on lower-ranked wrestlers to get to his 6-1 mark. I like him a lot, but he looks like my personal accountan

 

  JASON KRAISSER I had heard that this was a possibility. Looks like a grad student or Senior, one-year deal to fill 157 for the former Cyclone. Danny Nini can be built up in the meantime. Logan Swaw can take a well-earned redshirt. Kraisser was a starter for Campbell (20-10) and then for Iowa State (22-15) with a Round of 16.  I expect that this will be the middle and upper-weights for the ILLINI: 149 Kannon Webster 157 Jason Kraisser 165 Braeden Scoles 174 Danny Brawlnagel 184 Edmond Ruth 197 Zac Brawlnagel HWT Luuuke Luffman Image above courtesy of our friend FSL ILLINI  If you have been paying attention, you might remember that Jason Kraisser wrestled Mikey Carr during the latter's last dual in an ILLINI singlet. That match was described in terms that would make Grantland Rice proud in FSL ILLINI's post on this website entitled, " One Last Dual for Mikey Carr ."  If you haven't read it, I suggest that you do so now. It has been nominated for an actual, real sp

  Welcome to your first fight promotion, Austin O'Connor, now here's your first fight!  As you can see, the fight is set for June 9 in Rosenberg, Texas . Having lived in five different cities that span Texas from South to North and from left to right, I can say that I had never heard of Rosenberg. The city has a population of 38,282, and is about 30 miles out of Houston.  Most importantly, Rosenberg is about 50 miles from Tomball, Texas, which is where War Training Center is located. Fontenot fights out of War Training Center in Tomball, Texas. Those two cities are on the opposite sides of Houston.  Hopefully, there won't be any homers judging the bout.  June in Texas will already be very hot and extremely humid. (I lived in Beaumont about 80 miles away, and it is swampland; still never heard of Rosenberg or Tomball.). At least there will be easy travel from Chicago to Houston.  ILLINI Wrestling standing behind their guy. Hell yeah!  According to Tapology, Camden "Cam&

  Also today, we are pleased to announce a deal that will combine the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the Jombo ™  Comic Universe. Tomorrow, we will inform Disney and Marvel Studios. In the meantime, let’s celebrate with a wall poster of your favorite JCU and MCU villains. Hang it up in your dorm room, basement or closet. Be one of the cool kids and not a total loser jerk!

If you hadn't heard about DANNY NINI before, you can bet that somebody close to the program knew all about him. Austin O'Connor recently graduated from the same University of North Carolina program from which Nini has transferred. Talk about a scouting report! It might even be that Danny sought out the ILLINI to train with the best middleweight coaching staff in the business with Mike Poeta, IMAR and AOC. It could also be the case that he wants a future in the MMA world and can find that training in ILLINOIS. Anybody with the courage to do a kids-watching-Saturday-morning-cartoons pose on an alligator is gonna be a good get.  In fact, he wrestled Haines a couple years ago while moving up a weight from 149 to 157 in the UNC/PSU dual and lost a very respectable 1-4 decision. AOC saw something in Danny Nini that made him feel that he could wrestle in the tough middleweights in the B1G.  Back in high school at Lake Highland Prep in Florida, Danny was ranked at 138. He's coming