ILLINIWrestlingBlog

About that Missouri - Air Force score: Ouch! I watched Hendrickson's match at the U23 finals, and what happened to his knee was a crime. He gimped through the rest of that match to pick up the Gold, but I thought for sure he would be out a couple of months for a repair job. I was astonished that he wrestled in the NWCA All-Star classic. On another note, we've published a preview of the ILLINI/Mizzou dual up at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond. Thanks to KCMO2, we've purchased a month-long subscription to UFC Fight Pass for $9.99 plus tax. Missouri is a huge favorite, and a favorite to win by a lot. Wrestlestat.com predicts a 29-6 win for the bad guys. Still, there will be a lot of great matches, including Luffman versus Elam and Ruth versus Mocco. Moreover, some of the other matches should be very close.

AN AIRING OF GRIEVANCES 1. Flo and Track, why do you make me click that "Are you still there" link every two minutes? You are the clingy girlfriend who is not worth this much attention. See image below. 2. With regard to #1 above, I'm a Flo subscriber, so why is this hurdle in my path? At least in the before times I got to see a stupid Jake Varner youtube video about Defense Soap, but now, what purpose does it serve other than to anger your consumer base? 3. The commercials. They still interrupt. I want to see hands raised, celebrations, the coach pumping his fist, etc. By the way, why commercials? 4. The cameras [at Senior Nationals] were better than the Flo average but still not as good as a birthday party in 1999. 5. Whoever manned the scoring table for Mat #6 wasn't trained enough. There was no link to Trackwrestling [most of the morning] and thus no live scoring. I had to go to the actual camera on FloWrestling to see that there were people wrestling on that mat. Surprise! 6. Why force us to toggle back and forth between Track and Flo? The bout board on Flo was useless, so I had to go back to Track to see who was wrestling. 7. At least during the matches that I watched somebody thoughtful at the table was usually kind enough to turn the camera when the action went off the screen. It didn't happen enough, mind you, but it was better than usual. 8. In the list of events on Track [on Friday], you [had] to go to page two and then a quarter of the way down that page to find Senior Nationals. Seriously, that's insane. On the first page of events, you [had] a Triangular, a Middle School conference tournament, two JV "mixers," four JV invites, a JV tournament, and a JV Open. There's also a Jamboree. What the **** is a "Jamboree"? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know. You're all going to prison for that! We have to scroll through all of this stuff. Please put an obvious link to the big events on the front page. This is so freaking obvious I laugh. Is there somebody at Flo sitting in a big leather chair petting a cat and chuckling evilly while thinking about the confusion this causes? "Chaos! I love CHAOS!" 9. Are you hiring?

I asked because they are calling the match "Mizzou in the Lou." It took me some time to put the pieces together and figure it out. I make fun of that in the preview. I'll link to the preview here tomorrow. I get it, though. Missouri wants to own St. Louis like ILLINOIS wants to own Chicago. Streaming, streaming, streaming, that is the question. There's no streaming listed by either website. That would be a crying shame. Thanks for all the responses. I wish that I was as couth and gentlemanly as you awful and horribly evil Missourifolk.

I'm doing a preview of ILLINOIS and Missouri. Some questions for Mizzou fans: 1. Can we expect Rocky Elam? 2. Has Kade Moore won 133 over Zeke Seltzer? 3. Does anybody actually call St. Louis "The Lou"? 4. Noah Surtin is now 8-0; does that surprise you? Please explain.

Who do y'all have in the 57kg finals? The guy who took out the PSU backup and the 4x nonAA or the guy who took out the tween and the other guy with 59 college losses?

KAMAL BEY!

As for the IRTC and IRTC-adjacent wrestlers, I think this is their status vis-a-vis an Olympic Team Trials spot: IN Joe "The Wraustler" Rau Kamal Bey (waiting in the finals) MUST WIN ONE OF THEIR NEXT TWO MATCHES: Zac Braunagel Danny Braunagel West Cathcart Danny has the toughest road, followed by West and then Zac. Zac already teched his first matchup earlier today. And now for the Airing of Grievances: 1. Flo and Track, why do you make me click that "Are you still there" link every two minutes? You are the clingy girlfriend who is not worth this much attention. See image below. 2. With regard to #1 above, I'm a Flo subscriber, so why is this hurdle in my path? At least in the before times I got to see a stupid Jake Varner youtube video about Defense Soap, but now, what purpose does it serve other than to anger your consumer base? 3. The commercials. They still interrupt. I want to see hands raised, celebrations, the coach pumping his fist, etc. By the way, why commercials? 4. The cameras were better than the Flo average but still not as good as a birthday party in 1999. 5. Whoever manned the scoring table for Mat #6 wasn't trained enough. There was no link to Trackwrestling early on and then later in the day and thus no live scoring. I had to go to the actual camera on FloWrestling to see that there were people wrestling on that mat. Surprise! 6. Why force us to toggle back and forth between Track and Flo? The bout board on Flo was useless, so I had to go back to Track to see who was wrestling. 7. At least during the matches that I watched somebody thoughtful at the table was usually kind enough to turn the camera when the action went off the screen. It didn't happen enough, mind you, but it was better than usual. 8. In the list of events on Track, you have to go to page two and then a quarter of the way down the page to find Senior Nationals. Seriously, that's insane. On the first page of events, you have a Triangular, a Middle School conference tournament, two JV "mixers," four JV invites, a JV tournament, and a JV Open. There's also a Jamboree. What the **** is a "Jamboree"? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know. You're all going to jail for that! We have to scroll through all of this stuff. Put an obvious link to the big events on the front page. This is so freaking obvious I laugh. Is there somebody at Flo sitting in a big leather chair petting a cat and chuckling evilly while thinking about the confusion this causes? "Chaos! I love CHAOS!" 9. Are you hiring.

Tremendous! I think we need to amend the OTT qualifying criteria: -- Past World medalist -- Top American at Bill Farrell -- Top 5 at Senior Nationals -- Qualify spot at Pan Am Championships -- Lose 40 pounds to chase your dream

That's wrong. The "Brawlnagels" are 4-1 so far. Danny did lose to the number one seed Kikinou, but the next match on the same mat saw Zac beat Berreysea 3-2. If my math is right, Danny needs two more wins to qualify for the Olympic Trials. Zac needs one. They both have long rests and are rehydrated by now. Very excite! Joe Rau is 2-0, and I think he only needs 1 more win to qualify. West Cathcart likely needs 2 wins on the consolation side.

If Flo bought Track, why am I still seeing this as a Flo subscriber:

No Max Nowry or We Rachal in the brackets. Bummer. Seen some excellent women's wrestling, though. They are so technical. Great to see!

Micic had some tough years starting out but all of that eventually led to his Disney moment this season. That's what I've seen in Zane Richards. He has worked his way up, Fighting the whole way. Will he have his Disney finish? I don't know, but he's certainly earned it. At least for now, he's had a really nice Pixar moment. But, my friends, Greco! Tomorrow, I'll be watching the Brawlnagel twins, Kamal Bey, We Rachal, Joe Rau and West Cathcart in the most exciting domestic Greco event in years. Besides these warriors from ILLINOIS, there are other great storylines, and folks have popped up out of the woodwork. Additionally, I saw Max Nowry listed in an Instagram post. Is he wrestling as well?

In previewing the Pitt dual versus ILLINOIS, I thought the Panthers had two holes in their lineup. One of those "holes" is now 3-0 against Big Ten wrestlers. They're strong up and down the lineup. Young, too.

This. The ILLINI were cruising to a 60-0 win until the ref decided to stop looking for pinfalls. I watched the match live, and I'm an impartial and respected journalist.

UNDISPUTED!

I did a full recap of the dual at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond that includes a video of the highlights. What you noticed is something I also found curious. It happens at :25 in the video: My first thought was that the ref saw something he didn't want to see like a child walking in on Mom and Dad rolling on the couch, rolling numbers, rock and roll, they got my Kiss records out. Are there other possible explanations? Maybe he wanted to make sure it wasn't a choke? Or, perhaps he thought by vacating the ABSOLUTE BEST PLACE IN THE GALAXY TO SEE THAT PIN he could find another vantage point that was even better? I'm just asking questions.

Thank you for your play-by-play in this thread.

You got the win, at least let us have the whine. But yes, a stalling call with one second left to gift a point that allows the home wrestler to get to overtime is as egregious as it gets. Like I said, so egregious it was funny-egregious. Reminds me of the time Jesse Delgado beat Matt McDonough twice in one night at Carver.

So, is he too fat or too short? I wish you guys would make up your minds.

That was so bad it was funny.

He made the trip. There's also a flu bug or something going around the team. Of course, I don't think they'd bring him if he was sick. Maybe if he had just recovered? In any event, I don't know.

Pitt wrestled smart. Credit to them. The ILLINI missing Dylan Connell at 184 and Kannon Webster at 149. Big ups to Caden Ernd wrestling Reece Heller up from 165 to 184. He is a tough kid, and he worked his butt off for the team. Jake Harrier also did a great job filling in for Kannon Webster. Jake started for the ILLINI last year at 149 even though he was a 141-pounder. He is also very tough and almost beat a ranked Pitt kid. The big highlight for ILLINOIS was the Pucino upset. Cole Matthews got PUCINO'D! Edmond Ruth looked really good as well against a very good Luca Augustine, who has obviously worked on his body during the off-season. Joe Roberts got the only other ILLINI win, keeping him undefeated at 157. Nice arena. Nice call by the broadcast crew. Could've turned up the lights a wee. Stream only slowed down once. Good wrestling from Pitt even though I hate those guys. Time to cancel my YouTubeTV free trial.

That's Jake Harrier not Kannon Webster.

Homer ref. Pucino won in SV. That was sweet. Big win!

Big shout out to Santaniello for calling the ref's attention to the Madrigal injury.