Illinois rolls to Title No. 3 in Junior freestyle

Saturday, July 24, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

Illinois finished the week with a record three team championships, scoring a 72-64 victory over runnerup Iowa in the Junior National freestyle tournament.

The rest of the top 10:

1. ILLINOIS, 72
2. Iowa, 64
3. Minnesota, 40
4. Missouri, 37
5. Wisconsin, 30
6. (tie) California and New Jersey, 24
8. Florida, 22
9. Michigan, 21
10. New York, 19

Matt Garelli (98) and Eddie Klimara (125) got Illinois off to a flying start with wins in their championship matches and got some backup from Trevor Jauch and Joe Gosinski at 130, then from Nick Dardanes and Blaise Butler at 140 to clinch the team title by mid-session. Even though they lost both head-to-head matches against Iowa in the final session, Illinois actually extended its lead from the ...

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Four to the Junior freestyle finals...and the lead

Saturday, July 24, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

Preparing the finalist bios for the Junior freestyle cut my available time short last night, so here's your Junior wrap for Friday...and the news is better than I thought it was going to be.

Not only does Illinois have four in the finals - Matt Garelli (98), Eddie Klimara (125), Edwin Cooper (140) and Chris Lopez (285), but we still hold the lead over Iowa, which was really looking like gangbusters heading into the Friday night session.

Iowa also advanced four to the finals, and I thought they would have more high placers. But with five advancing to third-place matches for Illinois, as well as three to fifth-place matches, Illinois holds a 64-57 lead over Iowa as we head into the championship and medal matches at noon.

So it probably won't be the cliff-hanger that the Cadet Nationals were. Only ...

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Upper weight wins seal Cadet freestyle crown

Friday, July 23, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

After some anxious moments, Illinois now has its name on a second Wells Fargo team title here at Fargo.

Illinois came from behind with three championships and some key place wins in the upper weights to hold off Minnesota, 77-75, for the Cadet Nationals freestyle crown.

Jered Cortez (112), Ben Whitford (125) and Brian Murphy (140) were champions, with Whitford becoming one of four double champions.

Cortez was awarded a takedown with 12 seconds left in the second period in a 1-0 victory over Jack Hathaway of Iowa. Hathaway hung onto Cortez's foot for nearly 20 seconds trying to avoin the score, but the hip-over-hip position won it for Cortez.

Whitford's three-pointer on the edge gave him a 7-1, 3-1 victory over Mike Labry of Ohio.

Murphy scored a crotch lift in each ...

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Another nail-biter looms in Junior freestyle

Friday, July 23, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

Illinois will again win the All-American count in the Junior Nationals freestyle tournament.

As we enter the evening session, Illinois has 14 Junior All-Americans. Josh Marchok could become a 15th medalist, but he must beat Northwestern freshman-to-be Alex Polizzi of Wisconsin in the next round, which is possible but unlikely. He's in if he wins and out if he loses.

This time, it's Iowa that's right on our heels. They have 13 All-Americans. Minnesota is next with 10.

That makes it two straight years in which Illinois has come away with double-digit totals of All-Americans in all four tournaments. Nice job!

Matt Garelli has already made the finals at 98. Here are the rest of those who are in:

98 - Garelli (finals); Nkosi Moody
112 - Derek Elmore
125 - ...

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Junior wrap: 24 still alive

Thursday, July 22, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

The Junior National freestyle tournament also started, and though Illinois took some hits, thanks to some tough draws, 24 wrestlers remain alive after the first day.

And those 24 look pretty solid, with 16 of them still unbeaten heading into moving day.

Here's who remains alive:

98 - Matt Garelli, 3-0; Nkosi Moody, 3-0
112 - Derek Elmore, 4-0; Brayan Gonzalez, 4-0
125 - Eddie Klimara, 5-0; Danny Sabatello, 5-0
130 - Joe Gosinski, 4-0; Trevor Jauch, 4-1; Jameson Oster, 5-0
140 - Blaise Butler, 5-0; Edwin Cooper, 5-0; Nick Dardanes, 5-0; Steve Robertson, 4-1; Luke Smith, 4-1
145 - Joey Kielbasa, 4-1
160 - Nick Proctor, 4-0
171 - Andrew Spangler, 4-1
189 - Austin Marsden, 5-0; Dan Santoro, 4-1
215 - West Cathcart, 1-1; Gage Harrah, ...

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Brill gives Illinois the lead...barely

Thursday, July 22, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

This is going to be a nail-biter, folks.

In one of the last matches of the evening Cadet National freestyle round-robin session, Bryce Brill became Illinois' fifth finalist with a three-period victory over Ohio's Stephen Myers.

The victory also gave Illinois a 69-68 lead over Minnesota at the top of the team standings heading into what promises to be a nerve-wracking finals and medal-matches round tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.

With the win, Brill joined Jered Cortez (112), Brian Murphy (140) and Sam Brooks (171), who punched their tickets to the finals earlier in the round, and Ben Whitford (125), who settled his pool in the morning session.

Zane Richards (130) and Brad Johnson (189) lost three-period heartbreakers in their round robin finals. Richards won the first period against ...

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For 6 guys, tonight's the night

Thursday, July 22, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

With one finalist, Ben Whitford, already in the bag, Illinois has a crucial night ahead.

Six more Illinois wrestlers would advance to the finals with one round robin win in tonight's session.

Those six are:

Jered Cortez, 112
Bryce Brill, 119
Zane Richards, 130
Brian Murphy, 140
Sam Brooks, 171
Brad Johnson, 189

Five of the six already have one round robin win. Brill must still wrestle both his round robin opponents. Two round robin wins puts you on the big stage tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.

So let's wish them all the best.

All those All-Americans plus 56 Juniors starting their sessions this morning...even our thoroughbred coaching staff got spread a little thin at times with over 70 Illinois kids out on the ...

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Wow...what a morning!

Thursday, July 22, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

The morning session is not over yet, but Illinois will come away with yet another double-digit haul of All-Americans...15, to be exact...in the Cadet National freestyle tournament.

We lost only George Fisher (119) and Joe Dedick (171) this morning. Everybody else survived...and most of them go to the round robins, which will be completed in the afternoon session.

Ben Whitford has already advanced to the finals at 125. He had a close call on Mat 1 when, with a 4-0 lead, he got headlocked by Dylan Cottrell of West Virginia. He was in trouble for probably 20 seconds or so before fighting it off. Obviously, he wound up winning the match.

A little while ago, Barlow McGhee (112) came from behind to beat Indiana state champion Kyle Ayersman in three periods.

Sam Brooks and Jack Dechow ...

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Quality the theme, rather than quantity

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

Things are a little bit different for Team Illinois after the first day of the Cadet National freestyle tournament.

We're not going into the second day with nearly 30 wrestlers still alive, as was the case in the Junior Greco-Roman meet. In fact, we'll only take about half that number into Thursday's matches.

Only 16 Illinois wrestlers remain alive. But 11 of those 16 are still undefeated.

The big weights wrestled six rounds today. By the time we finish tomorrow night's Cadet competition, we'll know who's wrestling for first, third, fifth and seventh place. Only the finals and medal matches will remain.

Late eliminations included Colton Gladwell (135) and Troy Valdez (140), each with four wins, and Jordan Laster (98), Zach Synon (119), Nick Ruffino (135) and Zach Epker (171), who ...

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The final count: Illinois wins by 10

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 ~ Rob Sherrill's Blog

Illinois outscored Wisconsin 65-55 to win its first team title of the week as the Junior Greco-Roman tournament came to a close.

Here's what the top 10 looked like:

1. ILLINOIS, 65
2. Wisconsin, 55
3. (tie) California and Florida, 50
5. Minnesota, 43
6. Missouri, 22
7. New Jersey, 21
8. Idaho, 17
9. (tie) Michigan and Utah, 16

Note that Pennsylvania is nowhere to be found...and those team scores go down pretty low.

Dylan Ness (145) of Minnesota got the OW. Good choice.

Here's how our 16...count 'em, 16...All-Americans finished:

98 - Matt Sommers, 6th
105 - Jake Bellis, 3rd; Antonio Taylor, 8th
119 - Nick Harrison, 7th
130 - Kory Jauch, 6th
140 - Dillon Cowan, 5th
145 ...

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