Illini Wrestling Season

During the 2012-2013 of the Fighting Illini sports, football had a disappointing season, with a 2-10 record, being named “the worst college football team” by their own fans. While basketball is having a wonderful season right now, Illini wrestling is having a dream come true. Going from being ranked 15 last year, the Fighting Illini soared through and has a certain spot on the top five.
Although Illini’s wrestling season has not started yet, they have begun to practice and have gone to off-season tournaments and dual meets. With No. 5 Illini being led by 141 #3 B.J. Futrell, 165 #5 Conrad Polz and 174 #5 Jordan Blanton, who are two seniors who each have high rankings in the NCAA and FloWrestling. But these two aren’t just the all-stars. 125 #3 Jesse Delgado, 184 #11 Tony Dallago and 197 #6 Mario Gonzalez all have a really big chance of helping the Fighting Illini crush through their competition this year.
The wrestling team is led by last year’s coaches, which are Jim Heffernan, Mark Perry, Jeremy Hunter, and a coach who has transferred from Central Michigan University Wynn Michalak. These coaches have led the Fighting Illini to open the pre-season to 3-0 when they traveled to the Journeyman Duals in Troy, N.Y. The Illini mowed past Princeton 46-0, No. 15 Maryland 31-6 and No. 24 Binghamton 39-10 to finish the day undefeated. During the duals, Futrell became the holder of the school’s record of most pins, having 34 through his college-wrestling career. With this dual, we are hoping that the Fighting Illini wrestling crushes whatever competition they have this year.
As much as wrestling is really under looked, it is also the toughest sport that colleges and high schools offer, showing the kids that they don’t just rely on their team when they lose; they rely on themselves to become better. Soon enough, many schools are getting rid of their programs because they aren’t getting much funding from their communities. The Illini wrestling is actually one of the most funded programs, being funded $1,064,161, the sixth highest in the nation.
As the season will begin sometime this month, the wrestling nations following the Illini expect them to make it really big this year, perhaps placing very high in the NCAA tournament in March. All we hope is that the Illini can pull some upsets this year, like beat #1 ranked team, Penn State.