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INTRODUCTION
Holy Tri-Meet, Batman, when have you ever been given an "Introduction" and a "Conclusion" in a sports preview? It's like you're sitting on a toilet reading a wrestling forum, but you're actually getting The New Yorker or the Hudson Review. That's why we're the best. Look for late-breaking reports about the ILLINI here, from your Accu-ILLINI News Team!
This will be the first duals of the year for both Ohio State and Wisconsin: Advantage ILLINOIS. Additionally, the triangular will take place at Huff Hall: Advantage ILLINOIS. OSU and Wisky have some good film to show their wrestlers from the ILLINOIS/Indiana dual: Advantage Bad Guys. We’ll start with a look at Buckeye.
WHAT: Triangular between the ILLINI, OSU and Wisconsin
WHEN: Sunday, January 17, Start times TBD
WHERE: Huff Hall. Big Ten rules state that no fans are allowed until further notice.
WHY: Because we hate those guys. Where do they get off? What the Hell are they thinking? I simply despise Ohio State and Wisconsin. If you are a sensible man or woman, then you do too.
PREVIEW
Last year’s dual with Ohio State ended with a 6-28 drubbing, even though it started out really well as Justin Cardani and Travis Piotrowski secured wins. After that, it was a bit of a disaster. Gone from the Buckeye lineup are #1’s Luke Pletcher and Kollin Moore. The OSU team seemed bigger and stronger and more aggressive. The ILLINI are coming off a very impressive (and aggressive) performance against Indiana, and look to have a different mindset this season.
Ohio State has won five in a row against the ILLINI. Before that, the teams split a pair of matches, and then before that, the ILLINI won at least five in a row against the Buckeyes. In the last ten, the ILLINI are 4-6.
125. #35 JUSTIN CARDANI vs. #36 MALIK HEINSELMAN. Against Heinselman, we have another key match for Cardani for seeding and NCAA purposes. The Buckeye holds a 2-1 career advantage over Cardani. Two of the matches were close, but the last one during the Big Ten Championships was less close, with Heinselman coming away with a 4-0 victory.
Cardani has the better ranking, and he’s been much better against common opponents (15-8 versus 13-11), so Wrestlestat.com predicts a tight win for the ILLINI. The ILLINI will have to avoid Heinselman’s super duck, which he will try at least a couple of times during the match. They are both deft at jumping at the opponent’s right leg. A couple of factors that will favor the ILLINI include home cooking and the big confidence boost from beating #8 Brock Hudkins. It will remain to be seen how the scheduling will affect the teams. As the home team, the ILLINI will probably wrestle first and last. Wisconsin is listed first on the schedule. I would suspect the ILLINI go first against Wisky, then Wisky wrestles OSU, and then the ILLINI take on the Buckeyes. There should be an advantage for the home team.
133. #34 LUCAS BYRD vs. #35 JORDAN DECATUR. The Buckeyes are a bit shorthanded at 133, so they might have to go with Jordan Decatur. I don’t know how he makes the weight this year, after seeming to have such weight-cutting and energy issues last season at the same weight. When faced with really good college wrestlers like Travis Piotrowski and Austin DeSanto, Decatur wilted pretty quickly. He looked sharp during the first period, then became a giant human-shaped medicine ball the rest of the match.
Lucas Byrd is exactly the type of wrestler that Decatur doesn’t want to see in his first match of the season after making 133 pounds. I expect that Decatur will win the first period and then lose the next two. What could be a difference-maker is when the two get to wrestle. If Decatur gets hours to rehydrate, that could help him. On the other hand, Byrd has a coach who beat the Buckeye last year, while putting up 2:30 of riding time and a stall warning on him. Pio probably spent a minute of that riding time with an arm bar.
This match will showcase two Ohio kids, and it can only help recruiting if the ILLINI comes out on top.
141. #23 DYLAN DUNCAN vs. #71 DYLAN D’EMILIO. The Buckeyes had a public wrestle-off, and D’Emilio rode Anthony Echenmendia like he was the Mach 5, and D’Emilio was Speed Racer. The Buckeye is a four-time Ohio state champ in the small school division, a winner at Fargo, and a Cadet world team member. Last year, he was injured and finished with a 6-2 record. His two losses were to a non-D1 wrestler and the #63 guy. His wrestle-off win must have come as a bit of a surprise to Tom Ryan. Wrestlestat predicts a major for Duncan, but that’s likely because of the lack of matches for the Buckeye.
The Ohio State kid was very aggressive in high school, while Dylan Duncan has been more laid back. This is a big step up in quality for D'Emilio, so we'll see if he can handle it.
SIDE NOTE: An exhibition match between Danny Pucino and Anthony Echenmendia would be as interesting a match as you could get. Also, if Pucino rides him out, the Cuban will be afraid of Italians for the rest of his life.
149. #19 MIKEY CARR vs. #4 SAMMY SASSO. This is going to be one of our marquee matchups of the day, as Mike Carr gets a stiff test from the fourth-ranked Buckeye. Sasso has the gaudy ranking, and he finished last season with a 24-3 record. Regarding common opponents, Carr is 5-0 while the OSU kid is 5-1. Sasso did seem to beat those opponents worse, for the most part, except for getting pinned by Brent Moore. Wrestlestat is calling for a decision against the ILLINI. This will be Mikey Carr’s first experience with a really good 149-pounder who’ll be dropping serious pounds to make weight.
At the dual last year in Columbus, Sasso scored a 13-3 major over Mousa Jodeh. His five losses in college have come at the hands of Brent Moore, Pat Lugo, Brayton Lee, Jacori Teemer and Micah Jordan. Moore and Teemer were ranked in the twenties when they pulled off their upsets. In the just-released WIN rankings, Sasso is at #2, while Carr enters the rankings at #9.
157. #134 JOHNNY MOLOGOUSIS vs. #30 ELIJAH CLEARY. After the first four matches of the dual, it is possible the ILLINI could be winning. To secure an upset in the dual, the Orange and Blue need Johnny Mologousis to shake off the ghost of Eric Barone and beat his Buckeye opponent. In the dual last year—a dual that I thought was the worst of the year for the ILLINI—Barone lost in a tie breaker against Cleary.
Wrestlestat is predicting a 6-4 decision for the Ohio State kid, even with the great disparity in rankings. Cleary is a pretty big fellow, and this will be his first dual of the season, although he beat a freshman, three-time Utah state champ and Reno TOC winner by an 8-1 margin. I bring that up because of reported issues in the OSU lineup. The Utah kid, Isaac Wilcox, could get the start because Tom Ryan has decided to move up Cleary to 165 to replace the injured Carson Kharchla, who is supposedly out for the season because of an ACL issue. Moreover, Quinn Kinner is not enrolled at the school this semester.
The Buckeyes have other options besides this, with one of them being pretty good on paper, so we’ll have to wait and see how this will be handled. Mologousis will now have a week to stabilize his weight, and he’s over the adrenaline rush of his first ILLINI start. What is left is for him to defeat the ghost of Eric Barone.
165. #18 DANNY BRAUNAGEL vs. #20 JASHON HUBBARD. With the injury to Kharchla, one likely lineup could include four-time Ohio placewinner Jashon Hubbard filling in at 165. He has a very good ranking, although he’s only had three matches in a Buckeye singlet. He did beat some very good wrestlers in Michigan’s Cam Amine and NIU’s Izzak Olejnik. Hubbard transferred in from Notre Dame. Wrestlestat sees this as a tight win for Brawlnagel.
Another option for Tom Ryan is having Ethan Smith drop down to 165, if that is still possible. I’m thinking there hasn’t been time for a proper descent given the recent injury to Kharchla. Also, Smith had some problems with weight control at 165 in the past. Or, Fritz Schierl could drop from 174 to snag the starting spot. He’s a senior depth guy, but he’s managed a very nice 71-29 career record in opens. He’s wrestled in three duals for OSU during his career.
A lot of people were looking forward to the matchup between Brawlnagel and Kharchla, but they will still see a good match.
174. #116 TREY SIZEMORE vs. #6 KALEB ROMERO. Whoever wrestles here for the ILLINI will be a decided underdog. Wrestlestat.com is predicting a decision win for Romero against all of the ILLINI’s three-headed monster at 174. I put Sizemore in the headline since he got the first start against Indiana. However, D.J. Shannon did get an exhibition win against the Hoosiers, and he also gave Romero a tough match last year at the MSU Open, losing in the championship bout by the score of 2-4. In the dual last season, Romero beat Joey Gunther 6-3.
The OSU kid doesn’t have a scintillating career record (42-14), but he seemed to really come on and get better over last season. The goals for the ILLINI here should be, in order, (1) try for the upset, and, if not, (2) don’t give up bonus points. In his dual win against Guns, Romero constantly pushed with his hands on the head and shoulders until he’d set up his patented blast double. You don’t want to stay in front of him, but keep moving to the side. A quick and well-timed slide-by might also work.
184. #22 ZAC BRAUNAGEL vs. #14 ROCKY JORDAN. This is a revenge match for the Brawlnagel. He lost at the dual last year by the score of 4-6, with time running out as he was attempting to secure the tying takedown. I remember feeling the whole time that Brawlnagel had this guy, but he eventually just ran out of clock.
Before the season started, I expected Jordan to move up to 197, but that wrestle-off was between Gavin Hoffman and Chase Singletary. The Buckeye will have to keep his weight in control to have enough engine to power through three periods with Brawny.
Rocky Jordan had the home-cooking last year. Now, Zac Braunagel (still called Zach at wrestlestat.com for some reason) will get to sleep in his own bed and not eat his own food.
197. #48 MATT WROBLEWSKI vs. #47 GAVIN HOFFMAN. The scuttlebutt on the various forums is that the best laid plan of Tom Ryan was for Chase Singletary to win the spot at 197, but that was not to be. During the wrestle-off, Hoffman beat him 4-2 in overtime.
Hoffman was a heralded recruit with three Pennsylvania state championships and a Cadet world bronze, who has had quite a strange journey while at OSU. During his redshirt freshman year last season, he went from 184 to heavyweight. Now, he’s come down about half way. That journey included a two-point win over Cornell’s #3 Ben Darmstadt at 184, then the move up to heavyweight where he won sixteen of nineteen matches. Overall, he has a 53-14 career record. He has never wrestled at 197.
If #16 Singeltary gets the start, wrestlestat predicts a major decision win for the Buckeye. They give Hoffman a one-point victory. If the ILLINI hope to get a big upset against Ohio State, they’ll need Wrobocop to limit the damage.
285. #34 LUUUUKE LUFFMAN vs. #7 TATE ORNDORFF. Orndorff won his wrestle-off with Gas Tank Gary Traub by the lethargic score of 2-0. At last year’s dual with the ILLINI, Traub used his motor and experience to take an 11-4 decision. As we saw in the Indiana dual, Luke Luffman has changed his body, adding muscle, and looked stronger. He still showed an amazing engine to go with a more aggressive attitude.
Orndorff is a portly fellow. In his most recent Greco matches, he had a pronounced belly and love handles. That didn’t stop him from earning the #8 seed at last season’s NCAA Tournament. He also compiled a 59-19 career record during his three years at Utah Valley, which included a Round of 16 as a redshirt freshman.
Like Luffman, Orndorff has a lot of Greco experience. Unlike Luffman, he doesn’t appear comfortable standing in front of another wrestler unless he is working for a tie. I’ve seen him favor the underhooks and use a Russian. He will push forward using his weight advantage. Orndorff had a lot of quality wins while at Utah Valley, including wins over Josh Hokit, Tanner Hall, Jordan Wood, Nebraska’s David Jensen and Gannon Gremmel. He’s lost two matches with Trent Hilger, but took the Badger to extra time both occasions.
CONCLUSION
Although the Ohio State team will be heavily favored, I could see a 5-5 split in matches happening, with the outcome determined by bonus points. I have the Orange and Blue favored, in my mind, in five matches. One of those is Zac Brawlnagel versus Rocky Jordan, so I might only have company in the Braunagel household and the ILLINI coaching staff with that opinion, but I still think he gets his revenge. The thing is, the ILLINI will be slight favorites in all those matches, whereas the Buckeyes will be more heavily favored in theirs.
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