Poeta Lone Illini to Reach Finals
It was a good news, bad news kind of evening for the Illinois wrestling team at the Big Ten Championships. The good news is that all ten Illini are still wrestling after the second session, which means that they will all place in the top eight. The other good news is that the Illini remain in second place, just ahead of Wisconsin. Iowa maintains a 25 point lead in the team race. Here are the updated brackets.
The bad news is that only one Illini will be wrestling for a Big Ten championship. That's Mike Poeta at 157 pounds. Four other Illini lost in the semifinals, all to the top seeds in their weight class. John Dergo dropped 6-3 decision to Michigan's Steve Luke, Jordan Blanton fell 6-1 to Northwestern's Jake Herbert, Patrick Bond took Wisconsin's Dallas Herbst to overtime before succumbing 3-1, and John Wise came up just short against Iowa's Dan Erekson 6-4.
Mark Johnson has to be encouraged by the overall performance of his team so far this weekend. B.J. Futrell shook off a tough opening round loss to win a pair of consolation bouts and can finish no worse than sixth. Futrell, Jimmy Kennedy, Mike Poeta, Roger Smith-Bergsrud, John Dergo and Jordan Blanton have all clinched spots in the NCAA Championships in two weeks, based on the number of automatic qualifying spots allocated to their weight classes by the selection process. Several Illini still have some work to do.
Ryan Prater can wrap up a spot with a victory in his seventh place match tomorrow. Patrick Bond needs one more win in the consolation round to guarantee a top four finish, and an automatic qualifying spot. John Wise needs to win at least one more match in his last two and finish fifth or better to automatically qualify. Eric Terrazas can finish no better than seventh, and only the top five will automatically qualify at 149 pounds. However, there are still wildcard spots out there to be earned, and Terrazas has finished his season strong. A seventh place finish would be a great result for the true freshman.
The Illini have a good chance to send nine wrestlers to the NCAA Championships in two weeks. That would be one more wrestler than a season ago, and a good start to the all important month of March for Illinois wrestling. The final session gets underway tomorrow at 11 am central time.
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