Across a long weekend on the mat at the National Duals Invitational, No. 12 Illinois (4-2) won three of its five duals.
Illinois faced No. 25 Little Rock, No. 4 Iowa and No. 7 Lehigh on Saturday, beating Little Rock 22-13 and Lehigh 21-13, while falling to Iowa 13-24. On Sunday, Illinois faced No. 11 Virginia Tech and No. 17 Missouri. Virginia Tech barely got the best of Illinois 19-18, while Missouri fell 26-18. The Illini’s performance earned them seventh place.
Strong start Saturday
The meet started off strong with 125-pound graduate student Spencer Moore with a major decision against Little Rock’s 125-pound sophomore Tyler Harper. After that, 133-pound graduate student Lucas Byrd followed with a technical fall win against 141-pound sophomore Dillon Cooper to put Illinois up 9-0.
The Illini stayed in the driver’s seat until the sixth match of the day, where 165-pound redshirt sophomore Braeden Scoles lost via decision against 157-pound redshirt senior Matty Bianchi.
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This cut Illinois’ lead down to three. This was as close as Little Rock got before Illinois began to dominate once more, winning three of the final four bouts to take the meet 22-13.
Illinois went 1-1 in its second session, falling to Iowa before bouncing back against Lehigh.
The Illini only grabbed three wins against the Hawkeyes in the form of a decision from Byrd, a major decision from 157-pound redshirt sophomore Kannon Webster and an injury default from 285-pound graduate student Luke Luffman.
Lehigh and Illinois went back and forth during their match. Lehigh secured the first points with 125-pound graduate student Sheldon Seymour’s decision against Moore.
Byrd avenged the loss with a technical fall win over 125-pound sophomore Mason Ziegler, giving the Illini a 5-3 lead and marking the 100th win of Byrd’s college career. The teams continued to exchange bouts until Lehigh pulled ahead 13-8.
After that, Illinois won the last four matches. 174-pound redshirt freshman Colin Kelly, 184-pound redshirt sophomore Chris Moore, and Luffman all won via scoring decisions. 197-pound graduate student Cade Lautt won via the major decision to give Illinois the 21-13 victory.
Rollercoaster Sunday
Illinois started the next morning against Virginia Tech. The Illini quickly found themselves down 11-3, with only Byrd picking up points.
Illinois began to come back as Webster scored a technical fall against 133-pound redshirt freshman Dillon Campbell. Decision wins from Scoles, Kelly and Chris Moore put the team up 18-11.
Virginia Tech took the final two bouts, leaving the teams tied at 18. With the Hokies holding a slim 4-3 advantage in near fall points, they took the dual 19-18.
To wrap up the night, Illinois closed with a strong win over Missouri. The Illini jumped out to a 26-6 lead, with only one fall during the first seven bouts.
Missouri scored the next 12 points on an injury default win over 197-pound graduate student Dylan Connell and a forfeit from Luffman. Still, Illinois came away with a 26-18 victory.
Illinois’ next challenge is again against Missouri on Nov. 24.
