Congratulations to Mark Johnson's Illini for picking up a couple of road wins over the weekend at West Virginia and Pittsburgh.  The Illini shrugged off a LONG bus ride to take care of West Virginia on Friday night to take care of the Mountaineers 26-19.  Highlights of Friday's win were Jimmy Kennedy's pin of Tyler Oravec in just 1:16, and Mike Poeta's technical fall win against Ryan Goodman.  The Illini already had the dual meet in hand when 10th ranked John Wise was upset at heavyweight, as Dustin Rogers pinned Wise in the second period.  I'm sure that end to the meet didn't leave a good taste in Johnson's mouth.

It was a much shorter bus ride the next day from Morgantown, West Virginia to Pittsburgh as the Illini looked much sharper against the #25 Pitt Panthers, winning seven of ten matches en route to a 26-10 win.  Wise also bounced back extremely well from Friday's loss, knocking off Pitt's fourth-ranked heavyweight Zach Sheaffer 6-2.  The weekend also marked Poeta's first action of the season, and he looked ready with Friday's technical fall win and Saturday's 17-5 major decision over Phil Sorrentino.  After a long bus ride home yesterday, the Illini will have two weeks to get ready for the #1 team in the country, the Iowa Hawkeyes.  That meet is at 5 pm on Sunday 1/25, and you can hear it on WDWS-AM.

Wrestlers winning both of their matches last weekend for the Illini included B.J. Futrell (125 lb.), Jimmy Kennedy (133), Mike Poeta (157), Jordan Blanton (184) and Patrick Bond (197).  Only four Illini wrestlers (Kennedy, Smith-Bergsrud, Blanton, Wise) were ranked last week, but that number should increase by at least one, as Poeta will almost certainly return to the rankings after making his debut.  I'll have a complete look at those rankings for you in tomorrow's blog entry. 

bmoline@wdws.com