THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

  The Threeeee Is The New Twooooo Podcast will be back! The 2024-2025 ILLINI Wrestling team promises to be fun and exciting, and we'd like to bring you the news, dual previews and interviews with your hosts, Brian Swaw and Greg German.  We had a blast last year talking about the ILLINI and talking with Orange and Blue legends. Here they are: EPISODE 1: ALL-AMERICANS ZANE RICHARDS & THE BRAWLNAGEL TWINS EPISODE 2: THERE WAS NO EPISODE TWO BECAUSE THREEEEE IS THE NEW TWOOOOO EPISODE 3: COACH STEVE MARIANETTI EPISODE 4: COACH JESSE DELGADO EPISODE 5: COACH MIKE POETA EPISODE 6: COACH BRYAN MEDLIN EPISODE 7:  ALL-AMERICAN EDMOND RUTH EPISODE 8: COACH JORDAN BLANTON

  WHAT : ILLINI v. SIUE Dual WHERE : First Community Arena, Edwardsville, ILLINOIS WHEN : Saturday, November 2nd, 6:00 pm (Central) TV/STREAMING : ESPN+ HISTORY : ILLINI 9-0 since 2002 UPDATE ON STREAMING According to both the ILLINI and SIUE websites, the match will be streamed on ESPN+. So, if you got ESPN, you can watch, but you better log in now because it's a hassle. If you don't, you can go here and purchase a month for $11.99. UPDATE ON LINEUPS Southern ILLINOIS came out with an article about their lineup after wrestle-offs, going weight by weight. There will be some changes. We will add those below. For example, it appears that Drew Davis will get the start at 125 because the true Freshman won the wrestle-off.   THE START OF THE SEASON Both the ILLINI and SIUE have just completed wrestle-offs. Seniors have graduated and new faces have arrived. The rookies will be discussed below in the individual matchups. Whether ready or not, the season starts on Saturday. The fans

  The BIG MATCH was All American Edmond Ruth over National Qualifier and 4x ILLINOIS State Champ Dylan Connell. Lot's of respect shown in that match. Lucas Byrd was mean against his own teammates. Wait'll he gets ahold of the stinky noisy guys from other teams! Kannon Webster versus Jake Harrier was a one-point match last year. Jake was the starter the year before.  A match that we really wanted to see was Zac Braunagel versus Isiah Pettigrew. Isiah started last season while Zac was on his Olympic redshirt. The match did not disappoint! Luke Luffman is somehow quicker than he has ever been. He's always been agile, but WOW!  We would give outstanding wrestler awards to two ILLINI: Jason Kraisser and Braeden Scoles.  Scoles convincingly beat last year's true Freshman starter and National Qualifier Chris Moore and a really tough spot starter in Caden Ernd. Jason Kraisser pinned both his opponents, including Logan Swaw who got the start at B10's after the injury to Joe

L to R, Dylan Connell, Christian Kanzler and Edmond Ruth.  The handshake. Here are the approximate scores of the wrestle-off matches held on October 24: 125 Ramazan Attasauov D Caelan Riley (8-1) 133 Anthony "Joey" Ruzic D Brian Beers (4-3) 133 Lucas Byrd MD Brian Beers (15-3) 133 Lucas Byrd TF Anthony "Joey" Ruzic (19-4) 149 Jake Harrier D Hudson Goebel (6-4) 149 Kannon Webster MD Jake Harrier (10-2) 157 Logan Swaw D Charlie Fifield (7-3) 157 Antonio Alvarado WBF Tegan Chumbley 157 Jason Kraisser WBF Logan Swaw 157 Jason Kraisser WBF Antonio Alvarado 165 Braeden Scoles TF Caden Ernd (19-4) 165 Braeden Scoles MD Chris Moore (16-5) 174 Danny Braunagel MD Cooper Wettig (16-4) 184 Edmond Ruth D Dylan Connell (4-1; SV) 197 Zac Braunagel TF Isiah Pettigrew (25-9) 285 Peter Marinopoulos MD Marko Ivanisevic (19-7) 285 Luke Luffman TF Marko Ivanisevic (16-1)  285 Luke Luffman MD Peter Marinopoulos (10-2) There are videos posted of wrestle-off matches. They wrestled on two m

We look back at recent Iowa wrestling public relations disasters through the eyes of the Hawkeye's greatest wrestling icon, JOMBO ™ . 

ILLINI COACHES The ILLINI are coached by Mike Poeta, Jeremy Hunter for the wee ones, and IMAR and AOC for the bigguns. Do we need to spell out their full names, biographies and favorite movies? No. This is the best staff in the country. That's all you need to know. Add in Director of Operations Bryan Medlin and Christian Kanzler, starring as Director of Player Operations.  We do wish athletic departments, and, yes, it is a problem with every single athletic department in this great country of ours, would not use the word "player" when referring to a "wrestler."  Brian Swaw was the "Voice of the ILLINI" last year, and we hope he's back. He kept the student announcers from using "player" instead of "wrestler," and for that we are grateful.   EARLY LOOK / TEAM RANKINGS This early look at the ILLINI Wrestling team is based on the lineup reported by Wrestlestat.com and the schedule provided by FightingILLINI.com. We do expect fire at