Illinois Matmen
STATE COLLEGE, PA • Today is all that matters. Friday has been wrestled out and the Challenge Tournament has been completed—all of the everything will now play out over the next few hours inside of the Bryce Jordan Center in Happy Valley. Illinois’ two wrestlers will be Haley Augello (53kg) and Kennedy Blades (76kg).
For Illinois, fifteen women qualified for the Trails, and now it is down to two. For Augello, a 2016 Olympian, she will have to move past Dom Parrish who, like Augello, is a seasoned veteran. For Blades, she will have to contend with the most prolific wrestler in women’s American wrestling. Last year, Blades defeated Gray in the first of the two matches at the World Team Trials, but Gray came back for the next two.
For both women, there are two incredible stories being told—Blades, the young and hungry talent looking to make her first team, and Augello, the veteran who has placed herself in the middle of a journey that has given her a renewed outlook on life. In each of these two journeys, each has visions that her wrestling today will lead her to Paris this summer.
