Moline's Musings

Three All-Americans for Illini

Posted by: Brian Moline

Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:43 AM

Jimmy Kennedy and John Wise gained All-American status on Friday night with wins in the consolation round, and Mike Poeta avenged last year's championship loss to Cornell's Jordan Leen to once again move into the finals.  The Illini are in 8th place as a team through Friday night's results.  The team race is a tight one, and a surprising one at this point, with Ohio State holding a narrow 84.5-81.0 lead over the top-ranked and heavily favored Iowa Hawkeyes.

Ryan Prater and John Dergo both lost in the consolation round of 12 to come up one match short of being All-Americans.  You can see all the results from last night on fightingillini.com.

Kennedy picked up two wins last night against Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra and Iowa's Daniel Dennis, while Wise got a win over Virginia Tech's David Marone, before dropping a tight match to Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State.  Wise wrestles for seventh place today, while Kennedy has a match in the consolation semifinals against Minnesota's Jayson Ness to determine which of them will wrestle for third place later today.

Poeta will face top-ranked Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska tonight for his first NCAA Championship.  He is trying to become the first Illini since Matt Lackey in 2003 to win a national title.

bmoline@wdws.com

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