THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

The ILLINI Wrestling team broke up into two teams for dueling tournaments that started on Sunday. Most of the team went to the Midlands.  That crew included Dylan Connell, Jake Harrier, Caden Ernd, Charlie Fifield, Caelan Riley, Brian Beers, Kole Brower, William Baysingar and true Freshmen Anthony Ruzic, Jayden Colon, Ryan Bennett and redshirt Freshman Antonio Alvarado.  A second team consisting of Chris Moore, Logan Swaw and Danny Nini headed over to the Soldier Salute. What follows is a short recap of how the ILLINI did.  THE MIDLANDS The leading scorers for the team that went to the Midlands were: Dylan Connell                          4.5 Jake Harrier                              2.0 Jayden Colon                            2.0 Charlie Fi...

  WHAT:   Midlands Championships WHERE:   NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, ILLINOIS WHEN: Sunday, December 29 at 9:30 Central all day, then Monday, December 30 at 10:30 Central WHO:  20 full teams (see list below) TV/STREAMING: BTN+ (subscription service) WHO'S GOING? We've now heard and seen multiple sources which indicate that the ILLINI will send a contingent to the Midlands. We've also heard that it will not consist of the starters except for Caelan Riley. That's too bad because the Orange and Blue would win it again this year.  Still, the team has a lot of wrestlers who have been with the program for a number of years, and it's best to keep them healthy and then peak them in March.  Apparently, the Midlands is an Invitational, so wrestlers can't show up as unattached. They have to represent the team. That means folks who might not want to use up a red shirt right now will need to stay off the bus. Still, there could be as many as 16 ILLINI who could show...

  LUCAS BYRD If Lucas Byrd drank a glass of milk every time he's won the Prairie Farms Scholar-Athlete of the Week award, he'd weigh 300 pounds and be able to produce his own milk. The webpage at FightingILLINI.com that provides this recognition is here . It reads as follows: Graduate student  Lucas Byrd  helped the No. 11-ranked Fighting Illini wrestling team to a 34-3 win over No. 28 Indiana in the inaugural Big Ten Takedown in Indianapolis on Dec. 6. Ranked No. 2 at 133 pounds, Byrd improved to 9-0 this season with his 3-0 decision over Indiana's No. 24-ranked Angelo Rini. After earning an undergraduate degree in recreation, sport, and tourism in the fall of 2023, Byrd is now pursuing a master's degree in management. We like to recognize the Poet-Warriors who represent the ILLINI so well on the mat and in the classroom. Cheers to you, Byrd is the Wyrd!  THE KENT STATE OPEN The ILLINI sent another powerful squad to the Kent State Open. This squad consisted entirely...

Brian Glynn is our featured guest on Episode 2 of Season 2 of the podcast. There are surprise guests, including a member of the 2012 ILLINI Wrestling team to debate Glynn as to whether the 2012 team was better than his 2005 team. The Great Debate begins! Credit to the legendary Rolling Stones for their song Gimme Shelter . The outro credit goes to Monday Night Football on ABC. Video credits to the Big Ten Conference, ESPN, Poeta Training Center, CIStv and Earl Smith. Image credit to the University of ILLINOIS Athletic Department and the individual wrestlers and coaches. This video is not to be monetized. LOOK WHAT JUST HAPPENED! During the interview of Brian Glynn, I asked him about my all-time favorite ILLINI dual . It was the #8 ILLINI versus a great #6 Michigan State team back in 2003 in Huff Hall. Glynn wrestled none other than Rashad Evans, the guy who would later become UFC champ. He won! And that win helped to seal the dual victory for the ILLINI by the score of 17-16. After o...

  Photo credit: FightingILLINI.com OVERVIEW When the schedule was first drafted, the plan was to send all of the starters and some others to the Cougar Clash. When the Big Ten offered the Fan Fest dual with Indiana on the day before, those plans were changed. The starters had to wrestle in Indianapolis, while a split squad would make its way down to Edwardsville for the Clash.  That squad turned out to be Brian Beers, Ryan Bennett, Dylan Connell, Caden Ernd, Charlie Fifield, Jake Harrier, Jackson Herman, Marko Ivanisevic and Joey Ruzic. Their task was daunting. They had to beat the well-rested starters from powerful squads like Missouri and Minnesota, along with the starters from other teams.  Although the ILLINI didn't have their starters wrestle in this day-after-a-dual match, the coaches did make the trip. A complete and full squad of coaches.  For Jackson Herman and Ryan Bennett, this was their first college wrestling matches. Bennett also got his first pin (of m...

  Podcast trailer (2-minute recap) Actual Podcast (16:49 of juicy goodness) ABOUT THE DUAL This was the Fan Fest dual in Indianapolis the day before the B1G football championship game. The ILLINI slaughtered the Hoosiers 34-3, yet this was a much better Hoosier team than in recent years. We are impressed with Angel Escobedo and how he has taken a dead program and mouth-to-mouthed it so that it is functionally alive.  Take Jacob Bullock for example.  That fellow looked like a heavyweight Baby Huey a couple of years ago. After some strength training, he now looks like a linebacker. He has not only gotten stronger and much more muscled, but he's also gotten quicker and better.  Thing is, this is a different ILLINI team as well.  From top to bottom, this team has big-time winners. Even Caelan Riley at 125 is coming around. We'll talk about Riley and each individual wrestler soon, but first, the atmosphere.  We weren't there.  It was described by people who...

  You've seen the picture.  That one of your favorite wrestler with his hand raised. It's a great picture except there's an amputated hand attached to his or her wrist. Where did that hand come from? Who does it belong to?  It looks like Thing from The Addams Family , but the thing about Thing is that Thing gets thanked for what Thing does.  In fact, his tag line is "Thank you, Thing."  Credit to Wikipedia; we added the images of Thing in case you didn't know what that thing was. Referees get thanked by having their bodies and faces cut out of wrestling pictures. That's shameful!  We've even been guilty of it in the past. That's not something we want to do, but we get rushed and hands or bodies get amputated. We are hypocrites. But we want to do better.  We want to apologize for that, and for how we've treated y'all over the years, except for the time you guys gave the win to evil Michigan's Ryan Churella over Mike Poeta  because of an ...

  From the Archives, Modified for the Fan Fest Dual OVERVIEW: A SPLIT SQUAD In the recent Coach's Corner podcast, ILLINI Wrestling Coach Mike Poeta indicated that the Cougar Clash, which is next Saturday, was initially the only thing on the schedule next weekend. Then, the B1G offered the Fan Fest dual in Indianapolis the day before the conference football championship. It also fell on the day before the Cougar Clash.  Still, Coach Poeta said it was easy to agree to the offer.  So, next Friday, December 6, the ILLINI will be in Indianapolis for the dual with the Hoosiers. The next day, Saturday, a split squad will show up to the Cougar Clash in Edwardsville. To wrestle in both events, the ILLINI starters in Indianapolis would need to get on the bus by 6:30 pm (Central), take a three-and-one-half-hour drive (225 miles) to Edwardsville, arriving around 10:00 to 11:00 pm (Central) for a tournament starting the next morning.  Not impossible, but also not conducive to win...