Men take second at Big Ten Championships

Austin Happel

Austin Happel

By Majesh Abraham

For only the third time in school history, the Illini qualified all 10 starting wrestlers for the NCAA Championships after another impressive showing at the Big Ten championships on Saturday and Sunday.

The Illini did not repeat last year’s tournament victory, finishing second behind No. 1 Minnesota, but for the first time since 2000, the team sent 10 wrestlers to the NCAA’s.

“We had a great Saturday and a disappointing Sunday,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “Overall, it was a good weekend, because everybody gets a chance to wrestle in the NCAA tournament and that is a neat opportunity.”

The Illini had a one point advantage over Minnesota going into Sunday’s placing matches, and a whopping five out of the 10 Illini wrestlers had made the finals. However, all five wrestlers finished second, allowing Minnesota to take the title.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t win any finals,” Johnson said. “We had a chance to grab some individual titles, and if we had won those we would have put ourselves in a position to win the tournament.”

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Senior All-American Kyle Ott (125 lbs), the No.1 seed, made the finals for the second year in a row, but was defeated by No.2 Nick Simmons of Michigan State, 11-4. In the next final, redshirt-freshman Troy Tirapelle’s (149 lbs) amazing run in the tournament was cut short when he lost to No.1 seed Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota, 13-0. Tirapelle, who was not seeded, had a breakout performance in the tournament as he defeated the No.6, No.3 and No.2 seeds on his way to the finals.

“Troy’s a talented young man, all season he just needed to put some things together,” Johnson said. “He did that during the tournament, he wrestled very well and it should be a big boost for him going into the NCAA’s.”

In an interesting twist, the next final pitted the two older brothers of the wrestlers from the previous match. Senior All-American Alex Tirapelle went for his second-straight title at 157 pounds when he took on No. 3 seed C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota. Tirapelle (28-1), the No.1 seed, was undefeated in dual matches heading into the finals, but could not pull off the victory as Schlatter won 5-2 and gave the Gophers a six point lead.

The Illini gained a point back when redshirt-freshman Mike Poeta (165 lbs) won the third place match over Eric Luedke of Iowa. The final head-to-head dual between Minnesota and the Illini took place as senior All-American and No.4 seed Pete Friedl took on Roger Kish of Minnesota in the 184-pound finals. Friedl, who was the 174-lb champion last year, lost a tight match as Kish held on to win 3-1.

Senior Tyrone Byrd (197 lbs) repersented the last chance for a title, but the No.1 seed could not break through as he lost to No. 2 seed Philip Davis of Penn State, 4-0. The other wrestlers who placed for the Illini included junior Matt Weight (4th- Hwt) sophomore Gabe Flores (5th-133 lbs), junior Donny Reynolds (6th-174 lbs) and junior All-American Cassio Pero (8th-141 lbs).

The No.7 Illini will get a week off before they head to the NCAA Championships on March 16-18 in Oklahoma City, Okla., in search of their first team national title.

“The regular season doesn’t matter anymore,” Johnson said. “The NCAA’s are in two weeks and right now we’re all focused on that. We have to regroup a little bit after Sunday and let the bodies heal up, and we’ll go back to the drawing board.”