ILLINI AT FARGO 2024

The ILLINI had two incoming Freshmen in Anthony "Joey" Ruzic and Marko Ivanisevic, along with Wyatt Medlin, wrestling both styles at Fargo this year. Their best results were in Greco, so we'll start with those. 

ANTHONY "JOEY" RUZIC

This is what USA Wrestling wrote about Ruzic in an article on their main website:

Illinois was led by individual champion Michael Rundell (100) and Anthony Ruzic (126), both who have won previous Junior titles.

...

Ruzic, who is heading to the University of Illinois this fall, shut out Jackson Heslin of Connecticut, 6-0 in the finals. It is Ruzic’s third Fargo title, having won the Junior Greco-Roman crown in 2022 and a 16U Greco-Roman title in 2021.

At this link, Ruzic explains in his post-match interview how you have to get matches to jump levels, which is what he wants to do to be able to face tough Big Ten opponents. In talking about the University of ILLINOIS, he said that "I wanted to wrestle there since I was a little boy."

Joey outscored his opponents 56-2, scoring technical falls in all of his matches except for the 6-0 win in the finals. Despite his two previous championships, he was awarded a six seed. He ended up beating the #2, 3, 9, 11 and 27 seeds along the way.  

Here are Greco highlights for the ILLINI:

Video credit to FloWrestling; outro music by Audio Beats. Photo credits in the outro sequence to FightingILLINI.com, NCAA.com, uiaa.org, wrestlingchangedmylife.com, ILLINOISMatmen.com, flowrestling.com, intermatwrestle.com. This video is not to be monetized.

WYATT MEDLIN

Last year, Wyatt won a Stop Sign in the 16U Greco tournament. This year, he moved up to Juniors and faced some older kids, especially in the Finals. He becomes a 2x Finalist and 1x Champion--so far. Medlin came from the third seed, so he can certainly be said to have out-performed his seed, especially since he was moving up in division. He finished with a 6-1 record, outscoring his opponents 63-30. The major reason for the 30 points given up was a first round win over a Minnesota kid by the score of 22-14. Still a tech fall, but it had a lot of fireworks!

MARKO IVANISEVIC

The big guy in the middle had a 3-2 record and outscored his opponents 16-12. His tournament came to an end in the blood round.

TOTALS

ILLINI Wrestlers again accounted for big team points for the State. Counting Greco and Freestyle, the ILLINI won a total of 28 matches with 9 losses. Each of the three wrestlers got in at least 10 matches counting both styles.

ILLINOIS

The State of ILLINOIS again won a Junior Greco crown, scoring a total of 171 to Oklahoma's second-place total of 122. There were 10 All Americans from the Land of Lincoln, including Ruzic, Medlin, Michael Rundell (Champion), Caden Correll, Caleb Noble, Alihan Bereket, Matty Jens, Michael Calcagno, Ray Long and Vince DeMarco.

Michael Rundell was the only Champion from the State in Freestyle, but including him there were 8 All Americans including Brady Teunissen, Caleb Noble, Jackson Barnhart, Matty Jens, Michael Calcagno, Nicholas Garcia and Seth Mendoza. ILLINOIS finished fifth.

In 16U Greco, Aaron Stewart and Jonathan Rulo were Champions with additional All Americans Brandon Green, Brody Kelly, Bruno Cassioppi, Ismael Bereket, Jeremy Marshall, Josh Hoffer, Rocco Cassioppi and Symon Woods. Among all the states, ILLINOIS finished third.

The men wrestling 16U Freestyle had two Champions, again Aaron Stewart and Jonathan Rulo. Additional All Americans included Brody Sendele, Bruno Cassioppi, Ismael Bereket, Joseph Favia, Josh Hoffer, Kaleb Pratt, Michael McNamara, Niko Odiotti and Rocco Cassioppi. The team finshed second among the states.

COACHES

I'm sure there were more coaches with ILLINI connections than I personally saw. There were so many ILLINOIS wrestlers! Of course, the kids benefited from Coach Medlin in their corner, as well as Zane Richards, Zac Braunagel, Luke Luffman, Ermak Kardanov, and then there were the Blantons and Pattons of the world. If I missed someone, sorry, but holy cow, that's a lot of great coaching right there!