In his last match at home, the team down by three points, and blood trickling from under his right eye, the smallest wrestler on the team came through at the biggest moment of the meet. On Senior Day, it was fitting that senior All-American Kyle Ott (125 lbs) gave the Illini the points to come back and salvage a tie against the Wisconsin Badgers on Sunday.

“I actually tried not to focus on the score, and tried to wrestle a good match,” Ott said. “He did a good job of being defensive, I knew I needed to attack. I wish we could have got the win today, but we can live with the tie.”

The score finished dead even at 15-15 as a depleted Illini squad, who were without two of its starters, took on the No. 23 Badgers. Before the meet, the team was told that junior All-American Cassio Pero (141 lbs) would sit out because of an injury, and junior Donny Reynolds (174 lbs) was out because of an illness.

“Donny Reynolds went to bed sick, and woke up feeling horrible, and a dual meet isn’t worth risking his seed and confidence going into the Big Ten tournament,” said head coach Mark Johnson. “We knew with Cassio Pero also out, we’re without two of our wrestlers that would be favored to win, and it would be a difficult meet to win.”

The Illini started off the dual in uncharacteristic fashion, losing the first three matches as No. 19 sophomore Gabe Flores (133 lbs), Pero’s substitute junior Joel Karr (141 lbs) and redshirt-freshman Troy Tirapelle (149 lbs) were all defeated.

It was fitting that the Illini’s first win would be from No.1 senior All-American Alex Tirapelle (157 lbs) against No.5 Craig Henning in the feature match of the meet. Both wrestlers were undefeated in duals coming in and were an even 6-0 in Big Ten duals.

The match was tight throughout as the only point scored during the meet was an escape for Tirapelle. Another point was given to Tirapelle at the end of the meet for riding time as he won the dual 2-0. Tirapelle finished with his second undefeated season of his career as he was 11-0 in duals, and 4-0 against Big Ten ranked opponents.

The Illini jumped back into the meet as No. 7 Mike Poeta (165 lbs) defeated No. 17 Jake Donar, which included the Illini’s first takedown of the day. Redshirt freshman Roger Smith-Bergsrud stepped in for Donny Reynolds at 174 pounds, and lost a close match 1-0, as the only point of the match came off of riding time against No. 14 Kelly Flaherty.

But the seniors brought the Illini right back into that match. Senior All-American Pete Friedl (184 lbs) defeated Matt Maciag 9-2, while senior Tyrone Byrd followed suit with a 1-0 victory over Dallas Herbst and tied the meet at 12-12.

Junior Matt Weight, who was also honored on Senior Day as he is graduating early, lost a hard fought match 7-5 to put Wisconsin up 15-12 with one match remaining.

There wasn’t a better man for the challenge than Ott, who has overcome multiple knee surgeries in his career, to become a two-time All-American and two-time NCAA Finalist. Ott, No. 8 at 125 pounds, took control from the beginning of the match with two takedowns in the first period on his way to a 5-3 victory, and tied the meet at 15-15.

“To be honest, I’m disappointed,” said Byrd. “It wasn’t the way that we wanted to go out, but going into Big Ten’s with our full lineup, we’re going to be one of the top teams in there. It’s going to be a battle, but we can bring home the championship again, and we’re looking at trying to win Nationals too.”

There wasn’t a better stage than Senior Night for the seniors to show how valuable a class they have been to the Illini wrestling program, and they did not disappoint.

“It’s kind of sad for me to see these guys go out in their last home meet,” Johnson said. “They’ve won a lot of matches for us and have carried us to two Big Ten Dual Meet Championships and three Midland’s Championships. This is as great a group of guys I’ve had.”