Mark Johnson probably isn't all that pleased with his team's overall performance at the Midlands Wrestling Championships this week.  The Illini came into the week ranked 7th in the country, but will almost certainly drop a few spots after a 10th place finish at Midlands.  Only one Illinois wrestler placed higher than his seed going into the tournament.  That was true freshman Jordan Blanton at 184 pounds, who defeated two higher seeded wrestlers on his way to a fifth place finish, after entering the tournament as the seventh seed.  Here are the final brackets for all weight classes.

I'm anxious to talk with Mark Johnson and assistant coach Carl Perry about Jimmy Kennedy's semifinal match against Iowa's Daniel Dennis.  Kennedy lost a 5-3 decision in overtime, and it's still not clear exactly what transpired in the overtime periods.  There was a lot of yelling back and forth between the two coaching staffs (not surprising if you ever watch Iowa), and some sort of scoring issues at the table.  Jimmy entered the tournament as the top seed, and finished in a very respectable third place.  By the way, Dennis and Kennedy were teammates at Grant High School near Chicago.

The only other Illini to place was John Dergo at 174 pounds, who finished eighth.  Dergo's only varsity competition this season had been against Findlay and McKendree at Huff Hall a couple of weeks ago.  Dergo was the number six seed entering Midlands.  The Illini hope this is the season that Dergo turns the corner, as he's been an NCAA qualifier his first two seasons, but is yet to become an All-American.

The upper weights are where the Illini really hoped to fare better than they did.  Patrick Bond (197) and John Wise (Hwt) were both eliminated in the consolation round of 12, after both entering the tournament as seeded wrestlers (Bond 7th, Wise 4th).  I was following along with some of the action yesterday on Takedown Radio online, and the announcers there noted that one of Wise's knees was heavily wrapped.  I haven't heard anything about an knee injury for Wise, but if you know the sport of wrestling, you know that coaches can be as secretive as a Cold War spy when it comes to injuries;-)

The Illini will get a short break from competition before travelling east for dual meets against West Virginia and Pittsburgh on January 9 & 10.  There's a good chance Mike Poeta could make his season debut on that road trip.  Stay tuned.

bmoline@wdws.com