ILLINIWrestlingBlog

In an interview with Zane Richards, he said that he will be qualifying the weight at the Pan Am Championships. I haven't heard if anybody has challenged him or Lee for that right, but Zane's planning on making the trip and making weight.

Originally posted at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond. ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE IOWA GAMBLING CRISIS According to the esteemed head coach of the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team, there appears to be a great conspiracy on the part of the Department of Justice and sundry others to hold only Iowa State and University of Iowa athletes accountable for gambling violations. This unpleasant conspiracy of selective prosecution may have been illegal, the coach mused. There was also the allegation that there are so many other student-athletes at so many other institutions gambling so much of the time, that they must be struck on the head unconscious and dragged from their wagering speculations onto the football fields, volleyball courts, wrestling mats and other various fields of play or they'd be too busy betting on the Iowa women's basketball team to pursue their own sport. This, of course, was classic DARVO, which stands for deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. The acclaimed coach of the Iowa team went on to blame everybody but himself for the calamitous affair, going so far as to provide the local media with enough blame to put a dozen men on the gallows. It was all a very spectacular way for the coach to bully his way out of answering direct questions such as: Why did this happen? Do you feel responsible, even in the tiniest bit, for the outcome? What changes, if any, will be made to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future? The one iota of news that was uttered by the acclaimed Iowa coach was that two appeals are still ongoing, but we don't know who is still appealing and what relief they have requested. To celebrate this amazing show of exuberant buffoonery, we felt the need to create a buffoonishly exuberant video. This is that video: We have previously reported on the Iowa gambling crisis in depth here. That report also includes a fun JOMBO™ strip on the topic of wagering by Iowa athletes. .

After watching the video, I'd just like to note for the record—and for the benefit of Thomas, Spencer, Daton and Vito—that 57kg is equal to 125.663 pounds. It's science.

OMG. I never want to hear "headlock" and "Sheptock" in my mind at the same time ever again. Robin Ficker would scream that every four seconds for however long that particular match lasted. I have to say, though, that you having headlocked Sheptock makes me laugh! Irony. Cheers!

High school and college. There's nothing better than wrestling teammates for friends. My favorite story involved a wrestling teammate in college who put up posters around campus advertising a match between a bear and me at a local mall. Peer pressure being what it was, I agreed. When the time came, I showed up in my sweats, headgear and singlet, but the bear was a no-show. The mall manager said that he had stepped on glass the week before at another mall and therefore had to forfeit. Man 1, Beast 0.

Woke up with a nightmare and read this, and it kind of scared me, even though I know it's essentially not true. By the way, I loved the photo of Izzy and the Brain at the ILLINOIS Matmen Open. LOL! The sunglasses. Great tournament, and this made for a wild backstory! I guess it must have hurt like hell, but ya gotta laugh about it now. Willie was like the anti-Cyclops from the X-Men. As for my favorite podcasts, why, I like Wrestling Changed My Life, the Intermat features, Fivepointmove, ILLINOISMatmen, although mostly it depends on who's going to be interviewed. When big tournaments and the NCAA are being handicapped, those are good shows as well, and then there's this guy with his minute and a half broadcasts:

Both Brawlnagels and Lucas Byrd in the lineup, and you have quite a different result. Their absences accounted for three losses. Two of those three were bonus: Pin and Tech. Additionally, Navy is young but bona fide. This was my preview here. The guy who took Edmond Ruth into overtime was at Blair two years ago winning a couple of Beasts of the East and other tournaments. The big news out of the dual was Kannon Webster making his Orange and Blue debut with a tech fall. He will redshirt this year, but, man, wait until he and Scoles and Moore and the others break into the lineup with the Brawlnagels and Byrd. Luffman will be back as well, and he's looking real good. Check it out:

In this historic battle, I believe that we can safely say that NATIONAL SINGLET DAY was a partial success. We had a proclamation from the Mayor of Buffalo, held a contest, had a contest winner, and many people in the wrestling community became aware of our sacred trust. Next year, we will send our request for an official proclamation to the United States Congress. By the way, the winner was a guy from a Chicago suburb, who wore his singlet in class. His prize package has already been sent out. Once we make NATIONAL SINGLET DAY an annual mainstay, we bring wrestling to the Winter Olympics!

Zac Braunagel tech falled his first opponent, then fell in the quarters. Joe Rau got a bye, then teched his quarterfinals foe. He lost to the Cubano in the semis. They both won team points that go to the Pan Am Games team race, and more importantly, UWW ranking points. GO USA!

Checked out the Pan Am Sports streaming link this morning. Will we get to see Zac Braunagel and Joe Rau? No. We are gonna get ****** again. Listed among others: Gymnastics Trampoline Canoe Sprint eSports 200m Time Trial (Roller Blades)

They have replays of the 2019 Pan Am Games. I have seen nothing for 2023. Fivepointmove.com and FloWrestling have been on Twitter complaining about how Greco and Women's got screwed by Break Dancing and other "sports." I got to see ZERO of Kamal Bey's matches, and that pisses me off. I go to the results page, and their notations show that he's scoring 4 after 4 after 4 all day long. Didn't see any of them. He came from behind to beat the Cubano in the semis. Missed that. Then, Kamal fell behind 0-5 in the finals only to pitch a shut out and eventually pin his veteran opponent. That happened but not on any stream. Themat.com aka USA Wrestling took down the article (bad 502 Gateway) from October in which it was implicitly promised that all wrestling matches would be streamed.

They broadcasted a couple of hours of medal ceremonies for "Sprint Canoe" while wrestling was ongoing.

Kamal Bey is in the finals later this afternoon. I didn't realize this until a few minutes ago, Gold medalists earn 8,000 UWW points.

By the way, I think that eSports should have been held at 2:00 am, with a 6-pack Mountain Dew minimum, then continuing all night until a champion was crowned. And the Pan Am Games bowling competition should've been once a week for 3 months with the 9th being the beer frame.

The brackets at UWW are just a masterpiece of errors. They don't match with the results page, and it is blowing my mind. If you go by the results page, Bey just beat the Cubano and is into the semifinals.

Well, it looks like I screwed up the start time. Worse yet, I may have told others the wrong start time. On top of that, I missed Kamal Bey winning in the first round with Bey Bombs--all four pointers. Now, I don't see any wrestling on the video page. Hafizov is already in the semis. Bey has to beat a Mexican to make the semis. On the Women's side, Chavez is in the quarters against a Cubano. Kayla Miracle is in the quarters, and will probably face Brazil. Is anybody else having problems watching this?

In the broadcast of the ILLINI/SIUE dual tonight, the announcer quoted Coach Poeta as saying that Kannon Webster "will for sure get his 5 free duals." Also, I expect Braeden Scoles will get his five, especially if he's down at 157, while Chris Moore down at 165 and others will see some action.

Sorry for being absent today. Had to get ready for the ILLINI dual with SIUE. Then, there's been follow up on National Singlet Day. Y'all picked up the slack! Lots of great educational posts from NHS here. Love to hear about the prior histories of the wrestlers. That kind of information makes the present-day matchups even more exciting. It seems that day one saw the new Cubanos, but day two saw some of the old war horses. Cheers!

This video shows highlights of Zane Richards of the United States winning the Gold Medal match at 57kg at the Pan Am Games of 2023. He wrestled Oscar Tigreros, the Olympian and 2x (now 3x) Pan Am Silver medalist. Tigreros beat the Cuban in the semifinals, while Richards beat NCAA Champion Darian Cruz of Puerto Rico in his semi. The announcer is a Scot. There were Cubans at every weight, but no Cuban champions. Good day for America!

3-0 for Berger at the break against the Cuban (Maren). The Cuban is 36. "That shot was well-stuffed by Berger, and who doesn't like a well-stuffed burger." Berger wins 3-0. Four for four for the Greatest Country in History!

Anthony Valencia gets beat 7-2 by Venezuela for bronze.

Zane with the two-minute tech fall. Single to a leglace. After a bad Colombian shot, a reshot and three gut wrenches. GO USA!

Shot of Zac Braunagel in the crowd from the Fan Cam. Can't miss that big old lumpy head.

Mason Parris up against Diaz (Venezuela). Diaz is 34 years old. He's the Venezuelan Bruce Baumgartner. Parris with a point for passivity and another point for a pushout -- or was it the hammer fist that got called against the Anti-American Venezuelan? 2-0 at the break, USA. Almost fisticuffs at the end. Mason wins 2-0. No handshake from Venezuela. Like he had a chance.

Snyder with a wicked ankle pick for two. Torres responds with a dramatic double for four. Go behind and two guts for Snyder. Now 8-4 USA. Second ankle pick that Snyder turns into a double and a leglace. 12-4. Break. USA up 12-4. Torres is an athlete, but still raw. Go behind after a bad Cuban shot, and Snyderman wins 14-4. USA!