ILLINI Recap of the Journeymen Collegiate Classic

STARTERS

A great weekend! All that need be said is that the ILLINI Wrestling team has discovered where the grapes of wrath are stored. 

But we're loquacious. Wordy. So, here's more. 

On Saturday, the Orange and Blue won two duals against Binghamton and Arizona State. The latter is maybe our favorite over the last five years. It was total domination. The coaches have loosed the fateful lightning of their terrible swift sword, to again borrow a line. You can read about Saturday here. 

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The ILLINI won a number of hammer awards at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. Others came close. This is how they did:

BRAEDEN SCOLES. He has had an amazing start to the season. Now at 6-0 with 100% bonus, he had a pinfall, tech fall and major to earn his Hammer at the tournament. He also has a 50% pin rate so far. 

In the video above, you don't see Scoles get his two takedowns that led to a 6-1 lead against Luke Ahrberg of NC State, but you do see him turn and pin him. Ahrberg is a three-time Oklahoma state finalist and two-time champ. 

KANNON WEBSTER. Another 6-0 record for this ILLINI phenom. After beating Jesse Vasquez in the ASU dual, he finished up with three wins at the Classic, including a final win over Cross Wasiliewski. 

If that name sounds familiar it's because Kannon beat him in the Fargo Finals, then beat him again at the Midlands, and now has beaten him to win the Hammer. We should make this an annual event! In the video, we see how Kannon took the lead with a perfect ankle pick. 

DANNY PUCINO. Still another 6-0 record. He has a 50% bonus rate with a pinfall and two majors. For the video above, we selected his underhook trip over the #15 wrestler from Lehigh, Carter Bailey. Bailey is a Senior for the Mountain Hawks and had a 19-8 record last season. 

In the ASU dual, Pucino had a 4-1 victory over then #8 Emillio Asaguirre. The next day at Journeymen, he wrestled nobody lower than #47 on Wrestlestat.com. A great start to the season for the returning National Qualifier and now Journeymen Hammer winner! 

LUCAS BYRD. Still another ILLINI has started the season 6-0. Byrd is the Wyrd spent a lot of time riding this weekend. He's really good at it. He had over 2:00 against #18 Julian Chlebove of ASU on Saturday, then added 1:40 on #13 Brett Ungar of Cornell on Sunday.

As for Cornell, Lucas had to beat two Cornell wrestlers and a kid from Penn to win his Hammer. It seems like the coaches have challenged Byrd to be the hardest wrestler in the NCAA to score against. In six matches against six strong wrestlers with a combined three NCAA tournaments, a round of 12 and a round of 16, he's given up four points. 

And no takedowns. 

OTHER PLACERS

LUKE LUFFMAN and ZAC BRAUNAGEL both placed second. They each have 5-1 records on the season with the only losses coming in the finals of the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. They have 50% and 67% bonus rates respectively. 

Luuuke also had a huge win on Saturday against the traveling mountain and #4 ranked Cohlton Schultz. His finals loss was to #10 Owen Trephan of NC State 4-1 in sudden victory. There was a flurry of shots, and at first it looked like Trephan would score, then it was Luffman, but finally the ILLINI's luck ran out. 

Zac had another battle with an old nemesis. He wrestled Michael Beard in the NCAA tournament two years ago and got the one-point victory over the Lehigh Mountain Hawk. This one was just as close, a one-point decision for the bad guy, although Zac was right on the takedown as the clock went to zero. The corner threw a brick, but the call on the mat stood. 

CAELAN RILEY won three matches and placed first in Pool D. EDMOND RUTH placed third with a great win over #8 Dylan Fishback of NC State, but he lost in SV against Brian Soldano of Rutgers in a match that pissed us off because the ref called stalemate on double unders about five times. 

DANNY BRAUNAGEL place fourth in a brutal bracket getting a win over an NC State opponent. DYLAN CONNELL and JASON KRAISSER placed fifth. Connell had a nice major decision over a tough Harvard wrestler. Also placing fifth was WILL BAYSINGAR, who may have had the most brutal bracket of all. He did beat a two-time Ohio State Champion. CADEN ERND finished in sixth place. 

DESSERT COURSE

The ILLINI will be back in action November 21 (Thursday) for a dual with Missouri and dinner theater. Doors open at 3:00 pm Central. We will be in town for this dual. Buy your tickets here. 

Before that, both Johnny Mologousis and Matt Wrobolewski are on the card in an APFC MMA fight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 17. You'll need UFC Fight Pass for this one. It's $14.99 for two months. Mologousis is 4-0, while WroboCop makes his MMA debut.