ILLINI AT JUNIOR DUALS

GRECO DUALS

In the first match of the day, the first wrestler to take the mat for ILLINOIS was ILLINI incoming Freshman Anthony "Joey" Ruzic. He would win 9-0 with the tech fall and score four big team points for the home team, starting them off on a 52-14 romp of Ohio Blue. 

The ILLINOIS team is stacked, and it has three future ILLINI, including Ruzic, Jayden Colon and Marko Ivanisevic. It is a pleasure to watch all the ILLINOIS kids and to get to know them. 

In their next match, the ILLINI faced Minnesota Red. It was Marko Ivanisevic who scored the ILLINI points for Team ILLINOIS, as he won 7-0 against a hulk-bro wrestling for that silly Golden Gopher state. The final team score was 38-22. 

That win pushed ILLINOIS into the finals of Pool D where they'll meet Colorado. CORRECTION: An earlier iteration of this post stated that the team would face California Blue in the Pool Finals. That was actually the ILLINOIS Women.

In the pool finals, Team ILLINOIS was deadlocked 8-8 with Colorado, as the mile high state had some tough middleweights. But after that, the dam broke, and the good guys built a 35-9 lead. 

Marko Ivanisevic got the full 5 team points with a forfeit at heavyweight, although the Trackwrestling software and the FloWrestling screen showed him winning at 215 and 285! 

The last ILLINI match was won by Joey Ruzic as he beat a kid named Nick Dardanes (a son?) from Colorado by tech fall. The final team score was 46-18. 

  

On day two, Team ILLINOIS had Oklahoma Blue in their first match of the Gold Pool. It was Jayden Colon's turn to score, as he won a 9-2 match over a tough Okie. The match of the day might have been a loss for the good guys, but it was an 18-19 loss by Gauge Shipp. If you're gonna lose, just blow it out, brother! 

43-20 was the final score. Other teams have a few great wrestlers, the ILLINOIS has tough Greco hombres up and down the roster. Like I always ask, "Are you the Greco guy, or are you afraid of the Greco guy?" 

ILLINOIS has Iowa next on Mat 11. 

And what a match it was! ILLINOIS won 31-31 on criteria (most wins 8-7). The only ILLINI Freshman to see action was Jayden Colon who had a great come-from-behind 8-5 win over Iowa. Caden Correll had what might have been the best throw of the tournament, switching to a reverse throw while in mid-air. The last match saw the ILLINI down, needing a pin or scoreless tech to have a chance to win. Matty Jens came through! 

In the next round, it didn't go Team ILLINOIS' way. It was awful. Pennsylvania was able to forfeit the last two matches because of their large lead. 

The good guys came back in the third-place match to whup Idaho. It was the bad guys who were forfeiting late matches. 40-27, and that ends a long day for the fighters from the Land of Lincoln

As for the women, they finish in fourth place. Congratulations to all! 

FREESTYLE DUALS

Team ILLINOIS had the number one seed in Pool D and got a bye in the first round and faced Oklahoma Red in round two. It went well for the good guys. 

ILLINI commit Marko Ivanisevic got the only pinfall early on, but the rest of the team scored techfalls until the score was 25-1 with Seth Mendoza next on the mat. 

Later in the dual, Jayden Colon got the 12-2 techfall to add to the ILLINOIS lead. The final score was 59-8. Ouch, baby!

In the next round, the team faced a tough Idaho team. Early on, Caden Correll showed another highlight reel move with a spin-around single that would work on the dance floor and the wrestling mat. 

I hope he eats a lot of food and lifts a lot of weight. He's fun to watch!

A side note: I love to hear the Women in the background cheering for each other! Wow! They are into it. I watched the ILLINOIS women wrestle a couple of the duals here, and watching them support each other reminds me of this meme I did a while back:

Instead of Dickens actors, it could read KPOP audience members or toddlers at a birthday party. From what I've seen so far of the men, Team ILLINOIS on the Men's side does a better job of supporting each other than the other squads. I especially like how they jump off their chairs to towel down and cool off their teammates during breaks. 

As a final non sequitur before we get back to the Idaho dual, we will be publishing a post about the Athletic Director's decision to put on "pause" the new wrestling facility. We almost never get angry with ILLINOIS people, but, man, we're pissed right now.

The Idaho dual is getting away from the potatoheads. With 6 matches to go, it is 30-7 for the Land of Lincoln. Don't want to jinx anything, but it will be Iowa in the Finals of Pool D. It's now 43-14 with ILLINOIS ahead, and we're in the penultimate match, and the Idaho coaching staff throws a brick with their wrestler leading 7-2.

While watching the ILLINOIS team versus Iowa dual, let us beg the powers to be to bring back the best singlet the state has ever had. You know what we're talking about:

 

The first half of the dual with Iowa went swimmingly. Everything seemed to be in hand. We had to miss the rest because of a prior engagement and came back to a 30-34 loss. Glad we missed it. We did end up missing Jayden Colon's 18-11 win over his Iowa opponent, and that's a shame. 

Team ILLINOIS came back to win the true second match against Michigan 45-21. In the Gold Pool, the first match is against Ohio Blue, although on Track in the brackets, it shows both Blue and Red. Also, FloWrestling is showing Women's Greco when you try to watch. 

According to Track, Jayden Colon got the :54 second pinfall over his Buckeye State opponent. Eventually, we were able to find the stream. Team ILLINOIS lost 21-46.

Continuing in the Gold Pool, the team lost to Pennsylvania 38-27. The good guys came back to win their final pool match against a tough California Blue team by the score of 41-26. Jayden Colon added a 15-4 tech fall to the point total.

Team ILLINOIS will rerun their match with Iowa in the Fifth-place medal final.

Huge come-from-behind 34-30 win for Team ILLINOIS versus the baddies, Iowa, to win 5th at Junior duals. Totally flipped the script from the 30-34 loss in the Finals of Pool D.

One key was to not allow a single point in all those late match ILLINOIS tech falls. The final tally is a Third in Greco and a Fifth in Freestyle for the tough kids from the State of Broad Shoulders.

I will always be a fan of each of these wrestlers. Lots of GUTS. Cheers! CONGRATULATIONS!