As the Illinois wrestling team heads into its fourth year under coach Jim Heffernan, expectations for this season have been raised.
The Illini will be led by 2011-12 Big Ten champion Mario Gonzalez (197 pounds), as well as four returning All-Americans in Jesse Delgado (125), B.J. Futrell (141), Conrad Polz (165) and Jordan Blanton (174).
The Big Ten is known as one of the toughest conferences in the country, and the 2012-13 season is no different.
Five of the top-six nationally ranked teams hail from the conference, including No. 1-ranked Minnesota. Heffernan expects a lot out of his No. 6-ranked team this season.
“For us, it’s a matter of competing with the best teams in the Big Ten, and those are the best teams in the country,” Heffernan said.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
In many sports, holding a high ranking puts a lot of pressure on the favorite, motivating the opponent to play up to its competition.
Heffernan said his athletes know what to expect from opponents.
“I think with what we did last year and what we have coming back, I think everybody kind of has an idea anyway of what to expect,” Heffernan. “The early-season ranking doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot, it’s kind of what you do.”
Wins will determine how good this team really is, not the preseason ranking.
Redshirt freshman Caleb Ervin (149), who was a three-time state champion in Kentucky and led his high school to a national championship in 2009, will be replacing Eric Terrazas.
“We all think very highly of him and are expecting big things from him,” Heffernan said. “He’s an exciting kid to watch wrestle. He gets in crazy positions, scores a lot of points and I think he’ll fit right in.”
Redshirt junior Tony Dallago (184) will also be a key component on this year’s team after finishing 12th at the NCAA championships last season. Finishing last season strong has motivated Dallago to perform even better this year.
“I mean, the goal is to become a national champion, everybody has that,” Dallago said. “But I want to be able to do really well as a team and do really well individually.”
Dallago is looking forward to getting the season underway this weekend.
“I mean, it’s the Big Ten, so pretty much every team is going to be pretty tough,” he said. “But we just have to go out every match and pretty much wrestle and win.”
Dan can be reached at daberns2@dailyillini.com and @callitcomisky.
