Moline's Musings

Illini Wrestling Notes

Posted by: Brian Moline

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 3:23 PM

Mark Johnson's Illinois wrestling team picked up dual meet victories over Findlay and McKendree colleges at Huff Hall on Saturday.  Seven Illinois wrestlers went 2-0 on the day, as the Illini won by scores of 32-6 (Findlay) and 39-9 (McKendree).  The large margin of victory wasn't a surprise, as Findlay competes at the Division II level, while McKendree is an NAIA school. 

One big positive from Saturday was that John Dergo wrestled for the first time this season at 174 lb. for the Illini.  Dergo had been recovering from offseason knee surgery.  He posted wins by pin and technical fall on Saturday, so it appears he's come out sharp and aggressive.  That's a very good sign for the Illini.

The results that have me scratching my head a little bit are Patrick Bond's two losses.  The junior at 197 pounds is a two-time NCAA qualifier, who was ranked in the top ten nationally for much of last season.  Bond is now below .500 on the season.  Patrick had offseason shoulder surgery, and according to Mark Johnson, was still regaining strength in the shoulder as of late last month.  But this has to be a cause for concern, as Bond was considered a strong All-American candidate at the start of the season.

Now, for the weekly wrestling rankings.  For those of you who followed along with the rankings through soccer season, there are just as many different rankings in wrestling as there were in women's soccer.  First up, here are the rankings from W.I.N. Magazine.  They have the Illini dropping two spots in their team rankings from 9th to 11th after a 13th place finish in Las Vegas.  However, the Illini were without Dergo, Mike Poeta, Roger Smith-Bergsrud and John Wise in Vegas, so take that finish with a grain of salt.

Next up, the individual rankings from Amateur Wrestling News.  AWN has Poeta ranked #1 at 157, Jimmy Kennedy #2 at 133 and Wise ranked #5 at heavyweight. 

I'm still waiting for the weekly rankings to be released from Intermat and d1collegewrestling.net.  I'll post them as soon as I see them. 

I'm hosting Sportstalk for Steve Kelly again tonight.  I'll talk with Tony Bleill about Saturday's Shootout at the Hall and Illinois women's basketball.  Then, three area coaches will join me at 5:45 to talk about their 8th grade girls basketball teams advancing to the state championship games in three different classes.  St. Matthew's in 2A, St. Joseph in 3A and Champaign Jefferson in 4A.

bmoline@wdws.com

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