I'll never figure out polls.  There is seemingly no logic as to why teams rise or fall from week to week.  But more on that in a moment.  First, let's recap the weekend in Big Ten wrestling:

Friday 1/30

Illinois 29 Purdue 11

Iowa 40 Bucknell 3

Michigan State 25 Wisconsin 17

Minnesota 20 Penn State 19

Ohio State 18 Indiana 16

Saturday 1/31

Northwestern 17 Michigan 17

Sunday 2/1

Michigan 20 Indiana 18

Wisconsin 28 Penn State 13

Minnesota 18 Ohio State 16

Surprises?  Well, Ohio State was a bit of a disappointment this week.  The Buckeyes struggled to beat Indiana on Friday, before dropping a close dual to Minnesota on Sunday.  And how about Michigan State picking up the win over Wisconsin?  I thought the Spartans would be hard pressed to win a Big Ten dual this season.  Wisconsin was without one of their big guns (Kyle Ruschell at 149), and that definitely hurt, as Ruschell's replacement was pinned to end the dual.  If Wisconsin wins that last match, they win the dual meet, though coach Barry Davis would likely tell you it shouldn't have come down to the last match.

Here are the early standings through Sunday.  It's hard to make sense of everything at this point, as some teams have only two duals under belt, while others have four.  But here they are:

Now on to this week's rankings.  I'll start with Intermat, whose curious team rankings I referred to in my opening paragraph.  Last week the Illini were tied for 7th in the Intermat team rankings, unchanged from the previous week.  That was after the embarassing 32-4 loss at Iowa.  This week, after an impressive 29-11 win over Purdue, the Illini drop two spots to 9th.  I don't think the ranking itself is necessarily out of line for this Illinois team, but in the context of last week's poll it doesn't make sense.  Individually, five Illini continue to be ranked by Intermat, led by Mike Poeta (157 lb.) at #2.  The other Illini in the rankings are Jimmy Kennedy (133) at #3, Roger Smith-Bergsrud (165) at #15, Jordan Blanton (184) is #12, and John Wise (Hwt) is #10.

Elsewhere, W.I.N. Magazine moves the Illini up one spot to #14 this week in their dual rankings.  In W.I.N.'s Tournament Power Index (TPI), the Illini check in at #10.  Individually, their rankings are very similar to Intermat.  The biggest exception is that W.I.N. ranks John Dergo (174) at #14, while Intermat has him unranked.  Otherwise, no more than a one spot difference between the two rankings.

There's a little more variation in the individual rankings from the Amateur Wrestling News.  Six Illini are also ranked here, led by Poeta, who AWN ranks #1 at 157 lb.  Kennedy is a bit lower here at #5, while John Wise is a touch higher at #8.  John Dergo checks in at #16, while Jordan Blanton is #15.  Roger Smith-Bergsrud is the only Illini to have the same ranking in all three polls, at #15.

Now for the rankings from Wrestling Report.  As I noted last week, these individual ranking are interesting because they go all the way to #33, which is how many NCAA qualifiers there can be in each weight class.  As a team, the Illini check in at #13 here, and this is a tournament ranking, rather than dual meet strength.  Individually, nine of the ten Illinois starters are ranked here.  B.J. Futrell (125) ranks 28th, Kennedy is 3rd, Ryan Prater (141) ranks 31st, Poeta is 5th, Smith-Bergsrud 16th, Dergo 13th, Blanton also 13th, Patrick Bond (197) is 24th, and Wise checks in at number 18, the lowest ranking I've seen for him.

Finally, we check in with d1collegewrestling.net.  Like Intermat, they dropped the Illini a couple of spots this week, from 9th to 12th.  Individually, Kennedy ranks 2nd, Poeta 4th, Smith-Bergsrud 18th, Dergo 21st, Blanton 12th, and Wise 10th.

A big dual on Friday for the Illini, as they host #16 Northwestern.  The Illini dropped a 22-11 dual to the Wildcats last year in Evanston.  We'll broadcast it live on WDWS. 

Also, I'll have a nice interview with freshman Jordan Blanton on Steve Kelly's Sportstalk program tomorrow evening between 5-6 pm. 

bmoline@wdws.com