ILLINI AT U20, THE BIG BOARD AND EARLY D1 RANKINGS
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 streamingstreaming 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 four points.
The ILLINI have two athletes registered for the U20 Freestyle event. There is also a U23 event going on simultaneously, but nobody from the U of I has entered. Additionally, Greco will begin a couple of days before Freestyle, but there are no ILLINI registered for it. The two entered so far are:
70 kg KANNON WEBSTER
Challenges will come from wrestlers like Brock Mantanona, Antrell Taylor (if he can make weight at 154 pounds and some change), Dylan Gilcher, Tyler Kasak and Ethan Stiles. With his showing at the 2024 US Open, expect KANNON to receive a very high seed in this tournament. This might be a good time to mention that there are other ILLINOIS athletes from NIU, SIUE and other schools who will be wrestling. There are 15 wrestlers registered at this weight so far.
79 kg CHRIS MOORE
Challenges will come from Gabe Arnold, M.J. Gaitan (Edmond Ruth beat him in the blood round) and William Henckel among others. Of note, Bradley Gillum will be repping ILLINOIS and SIUE at this weight. At this time, there are 13 wrestlers registered at 79 kg.
Win the tournament and what you earn is a best-of-three trials finals against PJ Duke at 70 kg and Zack Ryder at 79 kg. We're sure the young ILLINI are itching for that, especially a rematch between WEBSTER and Duke. The 2024 U20 World Championships are slated for September 2-8 at the Pontevedra Municipal Sports Hall in Pontevedra, Spain.
THE BIG BOARD
There are two future ILLINI on the final FloWrestling big board. It seems that the University of ILLINOIS is unfairly handled by that outlet. Let me give you a few examples:
Colin Kelly is a recent ILLINOIS State Champion (his second) and is listed at #30, but Flo is not up to date with his college choice. They still have him down for Wisconsin.
The service had him at #100 until the commitment to the Badgers.
On the other hand, Ryan Bennett recently won an Ohio State Championship (his second) while beating another wrestler on the big board (#63 Omar Ayoub) and saw his ranking plummet from #31 to #78. It's just crazy!
Additionally, three-time ILLINOIS State Champions are not on the board. Hmmm. I wonder why?
In any event, congratulations to those two, they deserve their rankings and more, and our sympathy to the other ILLINI recruits, who didn't get their due from Flo.
THE EARLY D1 RANKINGS
We also think the ILLINI got done dirty in these rankings, but given the powerful team the university will field next season, there are still plenty of ranked ILLINI. Immediately below is the short and dirty followed by our commentary.
125 -- Unranked
133 #8 -- LUCAS BYRD
141 #22 -- DANNY PUCINO
149 #11 -- KANNON WEBSTER
157 #22 -- JASON KRAISSER
165 -- Unranked
174 #10 -- DANNY BRAUNAGEL
184 #5 -- EDMOND RUTH
197 #9 -- ZAC BRAUNAGEL
285 #16 -- LUKE LUFFMAN
That is a powerful dual team. Still, we believe the ILLINI got shortchanged. The biggest issue is at 165. Whether it is CHRIS MOORE, BRAEDEN SCOLES or COLIN KELLY, this is a weight in which the team should be ranked.
Last year, as a true Freshman, CHRIS MOORE beat #11 Caleb Fish, #12 Maxx Mayfield and #22 Stoney Buell. Sure, he lost to all three earlier in the season, but here's the thing about Freshmen: They tend to get better. MOORE basically proved that proposition! On top of that, the ILLINI also gave #7 Antrell Taylor two very tight matches, one that went into SV.
Another omission could well be at 125.
RAMAZAN ATTASAUOV is supposedly transferring to ILLINOIS. He was on the wrestlestat.com ILLINI roster earlier this year. He is no longer there, but he's also no longer on the Iowa State roster for next season. Could it be an admissions issue?
We don't know.
In any event, the former Cyclone was a National Qualifier at 133 with a 16-8 record and a number of quality wins. If he can hit 125 in a healthy manner, he'll be worthy of a ranking for sure.
Additionally, a pissed-off and fired-up LUCAS BYRD at #8 is just wrong. The BRAWLNAGEL TWINS aren't given enough credit for their Olympic redshirt years, and KANNON WEBSTER at #11 is hilarious.
Like LUCAS BYRD, the big guy in the middle, LUUUKE LUFFMAN is coming back from injury, so I can buy a lower-than-expected ranking. Luke hasn't had the same amount of time to heal as Lucas. Still, we expect him to climb those rankings when the season starts.
70 kg KANNON WEBSTER
Challenges will come from wrestlers like Brock Mantanona, Antrell Taylor (if he can make weight at 154 pounds and some change), Dylan Gilcher, Tyler Kasak and Ethan Stiles. With his showing at the 2024 US Open, expect KANNON to receive a very high seed in this tournament. This might be a good time to mention that there are other ILLINOIS athletes from NIU, SIUE and other schools who will be wrestling. There are 15 wrestlers registered at this weight so far.
79 kg CHRIS MOORE
Challenges will come from Gabe Arnold, M.J. Gaitan (Edmond Ruth beat him in the blood round) and William Henckel among others. Of note, Bradley Gillum will be repping ILLINOIS and SIUE at this weight. At this time, there are 13 wrestlers registered at 79 kg.
Win the tournament and what you earn is a best-of-three trials finals against PJ Duke at 70 kg and Zack Ryder at 79 kg. We're sure the young ILLINI are itching for that, especially a rematch between WEBSTER and Duke. The 2024 U20 World Championships are slated for September 2-8 at the Pontevedra Municipal Sports Hall in Pontevedra, Spain.
THE BIG BOARD
There are two future ILLINI on the final FloWrestling big board. It seems that the University of ILLINOIS is unfairly handled by that outlet. Let me give you a few examples:
Colin Kelly is a recent ILLINOIS State Champion (his second) and is listed at #30, but Flo is not up to date with his college choice. They still have him down for Wisconsin.
The service had him at #100 until the commitment to the Badgers.
On the other hand, Ryan Bennett recently won an Ohio State Championship (his second) while beating another wrestler on the big board (#63 Omar Ayoub) and saw his ranking plummet from #31 to #78. It's just crazy!
Additionally, three-time ILLINOIS State Champions are not on the board. Hmmm. I wonder why?
In any event, congratulations to those two, they deserve their rankings and more, and our sympathy to the other ILLINI recruits, who didn't get their due from Flo.
THE EARLY D1 RANKINGS
We also think the ILLINI got done dirty in these rankings, but given the powerful team the university will field next season, there are still plenty of ranked ILLINI. Immediately below is the short and dirty followed by our commentary.
125 -- Unranked
133 #8 -- LUCAS BYRD
141 #22 -- DANNY PUCINO
149 #11 -- KANNON WEBSTER
157 #22 -- JASON KRAISSER
165 -- Unranked
174 #10 -- DANNY BRAUNAGEL
184 #5 -- EDMOND RUTH
197 #9 -- ZAC BRAUNAGEL
285 #16 -- LUKE LUFFMAN
That is a powerful dual team. Still, we believe the ILLINI got shortchanged. The biggest issue is at 165. Whether it is CHRIS MOORE, BRAEDEN SCOLES or COLIN KELLY, this is a weight in which the team should be ranked.
Last year, as a true Freshman, CHRIS MOORE beat #11 Caleb Fish, #12 Maxx Mayfield and #22 Stoney Buell. Sure, he lost to all three earlier in the season, but here's the thing about Freshmen: They tend to get better. MOORE basically proved that proposition! On top of that, the ILLINI also gave #7 Antrell Taylor two very tight matches, one that went into SV.
Another omission could well be at 125.
RAMAZAN ATTASAUOV is supposedly transferring to ILLINOIS. He was on the wrestlestat.com ILLINI roster earlier this year. He is no longer there, but he's also no longer on the Iowa State roster for next season. Could it be an admissions issue?
We don't know.
In any event, the former Cyclone was a National Qualifier at 133 with a 16-8 record and a number of quality wins. If he can hit 125 in a healthy manner, he'll be worthy of a ranking for sure.
Additionally, a pissed-off and fired-up LUCAS BYRD at #8 is just wrong. The BRAWLNAGEL TWINS aren't given enough credit for their Olympic redshirt years, and KANNON WEBSTER at #11 is hilarious.
Like LUCAS BYRD, the big guy in the middle, LUUUKE LUFFMAN is coming back from injury, so I can buy a lower-than-expected ranking. Luke hasn't had the same amount of time to heal as Lucas. Still, we expect him to climb those rankings when the season starts.
PJ Duke is also at 70kg and he already holds a decisive victory over Kannon, time for some payback hopefully
ReplyDeleteLooks like Duke will be waiting in the best of three finals. Their last match involved two crucial and high-scoring 50/50 positions, and Duke won them both. That is unlikely to happen again. Moreover, if that match had lasted another minute, Kannon woulda wore him out. Hi Huff! Keep it up, brother. You know wut I mean. Haha! Cheers!
DeleteAhh thanks for the clarification, hoping we see Kannon go on a big run
ReplyDeleteYes, sir!
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