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WHAT: Dual with IndianaWHERE: Huff Hall (No Fans Allowed)
WHEN: Sunday, January 10, 2021, 11am (Central)
WHY WE HATE INDIANA: It's not so much that we hate Indiana, my friends, oh no, on the contrary, what we feel is pity. They live an unending Groundhog Day life part World War Z and Nightmare on Elm Street and part bad wrestling. They were born with all the yokel genes with which Iowans were graced, but none of the wrestling skills. That, of course, means they are rather dumb and yet defenseless. Evolution will eventually take care of them, but until then, it will be up to the ILLINI wrestling team.
TV: BTN
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LAST TIME Since the year 2000, when Nintendo introduced the GameCube and Dale Earnhardt Sr won his last race at Talladega Speedway, the ILLINI have remained undefeated against the Hoosiers, going a spotless 12-0. The last time out, on January 12, 2020, the ILLINI mistreated the Hoosier wrestling team to the tune of 32-3. This is what that looked like on paper:
125: Justin Cardani (ILL) dec. Liam Cronin (IU), 6-2, ILL 3, IU 0
133: No. 8 Travis Piotrowski (ILL) dec. Cayden Rooks (IU), 3-1, ILL 6, IU 0
141: No. 14 Dylan Duncan (ILL) major dec. Eddie Bolivar (IU), 10-0, ILL 10, IU 0
149: Graham Rooks (IU), dec. Mousa Jodeh (ILL), 6-1, ILL 10, IU 3
157: No. 22 Eric Barone (ILL) dec. Fernie Silva (IU), 4-0, ILL 13, IU 3
165: No. 14 Danny Braunagel (IU) tech. fall Davey Tunon (IU), 18-3, ILL 18, IU 3
174: No. 16 Joey Gunther (ILL) dec. No. 24 Jacob Covaciu (IU), 3-1, ILL 21, IU 3
184: No. 11 Zac Braunagel (ILL) tech. fall Jake Hinz (IU), 18-3, ILL 26, IU 3
197: Matt Wroblewski (ILL) dec. Nick Willham (IU), 3-1, ILL 29, IU 3
285: Luke Luffman (ILL) dec. Rudy Streck (IU), 4-1, ILL 32, IU 3
Since then, the Hoosiers have upgraded their roster, while the ILLINI will be missing Piotrowski, Barone and Gunther to graduation. The good guys do welcome back Mikey Carr and add Lucas Byrd, Johnny Mologousis and one of the three-headed monsters at 174 (Shannon, Riojas or Sizemore). According to wrestlestat.com, there could be an improvement for the Hoosiers in the final dual score from last year. That site predicts a 27-6 win for the Orange and Blue.
PREVIEW
125 #35 JUSTIN CARDANI vs. #24 BROCK HUDKINS. This weight is supposed to be an area of improvement for the Hoosiers. They lost Liam Cronin to Nebraska, but brought back previously-injured Brock Hudkins. Wrestlestat sees this as a 5-4 victory for the Indiana kid. He's a transfer from Northern Illinois, where he qualified for nationals twice, making it to the Round of 12 as a freshman. Depending on how he's recovered from injury, Hudkins' #24 ranking could be low or high. He's a big, strong kid, who physically resembles Spencer Lee. The ILLINI might have a weight-cut advantage if this match starts off the dual, assuming Cardani is not yet cutting a lot.
Of special note, Hudkins will throw in a leg while riding. Cardani will need to be prepared for that. The Hoosier will keep the leg in or slip it down to hook the ankle. If you get low, he will get low with an extra-wide stance, which could be exploited by a quicker wrestler. In his young career, Justin Cardani has shown the ability to compete with the big, strong 125 pound wrestlers. In fact, the best transitive comparison between Hudkins and Cardani is one of those, Central Michigan's Drew Hildebrandt, a top ten wrestler at the weight. He beat Cardani 1-0. The Hoosier beat the CMU wrestler in three of four matches, but the wins were all very close, including a sudden victory. The loss came about four years ago, and it was by six points.
133 #34 Lucas Byrd vs. #84 Asa Garcia. This looks like another match that provides a reason for the ILLINI to start the dual at the lower weights. Garcia wrestled 132 in freestyle in high school two years ago. Last year, he had a very successful redshirt campaign (21-6), even though he wrestled at 141 and even 149 for a couple of matches. These folks have no common opponents, but wrestlestat still sees a major decision win for the ILLINI based on the rankings.
I have no idea what to make of this match as wrestlestat is calling for a major, but Garcia had a good year last year, including first place at the Lindenwood and National Collegiate Opens. He was a three-timer in high school in Indiana and was ranked #9 as a recruit at 133 by Flo. He also had an impressive win last year at the MSU Open against Michigan's Cole Mattin. On the other hand, Garcia lost to the #132 and #207 wrestlers at 141 last year. He also gave up a tech and a fall to the #19 and #48 wrestlers. He could be very sucked out for this dual.
From what little I've seen of him, the Hoosier kid looks like a slightly bigger Liam Cronin. He likes to tie up, will throw a fireman's or slide-by, and goes for the two-on-one tilt or bar-arm tilts. This will be the first time we get to see Lucas Byrd in the starting lineup, and he will have a gamer to beat.
141. #23 Dylan Duncan vs. #43 Paul Konrath. The third match in the dual also should be pretty good. Duncan will be favored (wrestlestat predicts a 7-5 win for him), but don't sell Konrath out, as he's no slouch. He usually keeps it close with good wrestlers and even picked off then-#8 Tariq Wilson of NC State in the dual two years ago. He must be coming back from injury, though, as he only wrestled six matches last year, and was decidedly mediocre.
Konrath is a very solid Big Ten wrestler with a meat-and-potatoes approach, although he shows some scrambling ability on the defensive side. He will be in shape and will fight for seven minutes. If I had to say who had the weight-cutting advantage, I'd say it was probably even. This is Duncan's senior season, and folks are looking for a big year from him.
149. #19 Mike Carr vs. #40 Graham Rooks. This will be a really good match to see where Mikey Carr is in his recovery from injury. His opponent from Indiana is very solid, having qualified for NCAAs last year with a 15-10 record. Rooks' record was padded with two wins against Mousa Jodeh, but they were relatively close at 6-1 and 5-2. The latter came at the Big Ten Championships, and Jodeh actually had a shot to win it.
Knowing Carr's penchant for working out and staying in shape, and the fact that he is moving up in weight versus a guy who wrestled at 149 last year, you'd have to think the weight-cutting advantage will be with the ILLINI. Last season, the Hoosier had some quality wins over Yahya Thomas, Griffin Parriott, Cole Martin and Collin Purinton. He lost by only 2-3 against Michigan's Kanen Stoor at the Big Ten Championships.
Wrestlestat sees this as a 7-4 Carr win. Speaking for all of ILLINI fandom, it will be good to see this Warrior-Poet back in action.
157. #134 Johnny Mologousis vs. #138 Matt Ortiz. This will be the battle of the new starters, as Mologousis joins the ILLINI lineup, while Matt Ortiz comes off his redshirt freshman year campaign. Ortiz, from St. Charles and having wrestled for Montini, is listed at this weight by wrestlestat, but he was listed as a recruit at 174 coming out of the IHSA. That's kind of like Mongo! If Indiana wrestles somebody else against Mologousis, they will not be as good.
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During his redshirt year, Ortiz wrestled at 165 to start off, and then he dropped down to 157. He finished with a 14-9 record, but that was actually 5-6 against Division 1 opponents. His best win to date was against the #106 wrestler during that freshman year. He lost twice to a bumped-up Quinn Kinner from Ohio State by the scores of 6-3 and 14-2. I would guess a 6-3 ILLINI win. If the Orange and Blue start the dual off at 125 as expected, we'll get some early definitive answers about who's going 125 and 133 between Cardani and Byrd. We also get to see Duncan's progress (healthy we hope!) against a decent conference wrestler. Of course, we are all wanting to see a healthy Mikey Carr back in the lineup to provide a spark, and we'll see Johnny Mologousis take over for Eric Barone in the rotation.
To be continued ...
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