Editor’s note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down Sunday nights and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the Week. Student-athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.

As the Illini faithful rose to its feet at Assembly Hall with just under a minute left in the first title match of Sunday’s Big Ten Championships, sophomore Jesse Delgado was about to do something that no Illini had done since 1945: win a Big Ten title in the 125-pound weight class.

As a returning All-American following a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships a season ago, the Gilroy, Calif., native found himself in the championship match against Iowa’s two-time Big Ten and NCAA Champion Matt McDonough. The Iowa senior held a 103-5 collegiate record heading into the Big Ten title match.

Last season, Delgado handed McDonough his only loss of the year. Earlier this season, he broke McDonough’s 42-consecutive match winning streak and became the only college wrestler to defeat McDonough twice in his career. It would be difficult for the Illini 125-pounder to defeat the Hawkeye for a third time in the Big Ten final on Sunday, considering McDonough’s career dominance throughout the weight class.

“My style is a lot different from other people,” Delgado said. “Other people aren’t as fast as me. The people that are can’t keep it up as long as I can.”

Delgado prides himself on his quickness and his ability to attack his opponent’s legs. He explained that some of his talent is inherent, but his work ethic is what separates him.

“Everyone out there has God-given talent, and mine is speed,” he said. “But I work on it at practice and conditioning. I’ve tried to take my gift and polish it to what it is now.”

Delgado began the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 3 seed and pinned Nebraska’s Eric Coufal 4 minutes, 10 seconds. He then defeated Purdue’s Camden Eppert by a 10-2 decision before capturing the semifinal match against Penn State’s Nico Megaludis 4-2. Megaludis had pinned Delgado in 6 minutes, 45 seconds during the regular season.

“When I’m working hard and I’m focused, I’m pretty hard to beat,” Delgado said. “When I’m not as focused, anything can happen.” 

Delgado attributes much of his success to associate head coach Mark Perry and assistant coach Jeremy Hunter.

Perry coached Delgado at Cal Poly in 2011, and recruited Delgado out of high school. After Delgado redshirted his freshman season at Cal Poly, Perry was offered the associate head coaching job at Illinois and took Delgado with him.

“I’m going to be the first that he (Perry) gets to recruit all the way forward, five years through,” Delgado said. “He recruited me out of high school, and I wasn’t one of the top recruits by any means.”

McDonough, on the other hand, was one of the top recruits out of high school after winning three state championships in his home state of Iowa. 

As the two 125-pound wrestlers took the mat and shook hands, Delgado shook out his muscles one last time.

The referee signaled for the match to begin, and Delgado was able to take control right away with an early takedown to grab the 2-0 lead. After recording over two minutes of riding time, Delgado took his 2-0 lead into the second period. He then chose down to begin the second and collected an escape and another takedown to increase his lead to 5-0, as both Perry and Hunter pumped their fists by the side of the mat.

“Me and Mark [Perry] have built a pretty good relationship to where I consider him part of my family,” Delgado said, which explains Perry’s emotions toward the match. “And when I got here, Jeremy [Hunter] just took me to the next level.”

Delgado has been able to work with Hunter, the 2000 NCAA Champion at 125-pounds. Hunter wrestles Delgado on a daily basis, which is part of the reason why Delgado has greatly improved during his collegiate career.

“[Delgado] has had the benefit and the opportunity to work with a guy like Jeremy Hunter, who is 10 times the wrestler McDonough is,” Perry said. “He’s a grown man. Wrestling Jeremy Hunter is a lot more difficult than wrestling any guy at 125 pounds in the country.” 

McDonough nabbed an escape before the end of the second period, but Delgado remained on top with a 5-1 lead heading into the final period. McDonough started in the down position and quickly added an escape point, but Delgado was able to use his quickness late in the match as he took another shot at McDonough’s legs to record his third takedown of the match.

From that point on, Delgado continued to control the match and never looked back. He won for the third time against the two-time National Champion, dealing him only the sixth loss of his career. But this time it wasn’t a regular season match. 

“It’s a pretty cool feeling watching him [McDonough] win nationals when I was a senior in high school and then going out and beating him the way I did,” Delgado said.

With the NCAA Championships coming up, the two are likely to face each other once more this season. Delgado will take his Big Ten Championship into Des Moines, Iowa, from March 21-23.

“In my opinion, he [Delgado] is just better,” Perry said. “He’s a better wrestler and we’re gonna beat him [McDonough] again in two weeks.”

Adding further to the impact of Delgado’s victory over McDonough was a tweet from Daily Iowan reporter Sam Louwagie that said: “This is the 2nd place 125 pound Big Ten trophy. We found it in the garbage.” A photo of the second-place medal accompanied the tweet.

“In my head right now, he can’t beat me,” the Big Ten champion said.

Seeing as he’s dealt one of the sport’s best 125-pounders half of his career losses speaks to that mentality.

Dan can be reached at [email protected].