Illini Insider

What to watch

Three Illini events to keep an eye on this weekend:

WRESTLING

7 p.m. Friday

vs. SIU-Edwardsville at Huff Hall

This is the lone home appearance of the month for Jim Heffernan's No. 20 Illini, who will hit the road for their next five dual meets after the Cougars' visit. Illinois (4-2) has lost 125-pound starter B.J. Futrell for the rest of the season due to a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Futrell (6-1), a 2009 NCAA qualifier, missed time earlier this season with an injury to the same shoulder. He then reinjured it during practice for the Dec. 29-30 Midlands Championships. The Illini staff intends to seek a medical redshirt for the sophomore. Junior JOHN DENEEN (5-5) will take Futrell's spot. Other expected UI lineup changes include redshirt freshman Conrad Polz (11-8) moving from 165 to 157 (as he did in the Midlands, an individual tournament) and junior JOE BARCZAK (9-5) starting at 165.

SIU-E is coached by DAVID RAY, a former teammate of Heffernan's at Iowa, The Cougars (0-9) are in Year 2 of transition to Division I status and will not be eligible for NCAA postseason until the 2012-13 season.

WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS

9 p.m. Friday

at Corvallis, Ore.

The No. 13 Illini, coming off the most successful season in program history, open the 2010 campaign in a four-team meet hosted by No. 10 Oregon State. They'll be joined by Air Force and Alaska.

Coach Bob Starkell returns 19 of 24 routines from the group that last year made the UI's first team appearance in the NCAA Championships, produced its first All-America first-teamer, and achieved its highest final national ranking (No. 12).

Junior Melissa Fernandez became the first Illini to advance to an event finals at the NCAA Championships, finishing seventh in balance beam to earn first-team All-America honors. Senior Sarah Schmidt was a second-team All-American in floor exercise, an event she won at the Big Ten Championships.

Other returnees include sophomore Kelsey Joannides, the Big Ten's reigning vault champion, and junior Allison Buckley, a 2008 second-team All-American who won the balance beam title at last year's NCAA West Regional Championships.

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD

1 p.m. Saturday

vs. Iowa at UI Armory

For fans who yearn for a return to an era when dual meets were a regular feature of college track and field, here's a can't-miss event. For the second year in a row, Big Ten rivals Illinois and Iowa will square off in an indoor season opener. Last January, the Hawkeyes prevailed 92-77 at Iowa City, Iowa.

The meet will mark the debut of Mike Turk as Illini interim head coach in the wake of Wayne Angel's resignation in November. Turk, in his fifth season on the UI staff, will continue to coach the field events and multi-events. (Field events Saturday begin at noon).

The Illini's top returnee is two-time All-American Andrew Riley, who last year as a freshman was selected UI Male Newcomer of the Year (all sports) after breaking school records in the indoor 60-meter hurdles and outdoor 110 hurdles. Riley's availability for Saturday's meet is uncertain. He returned to his home in Kingston, Jamaica, for winter break and might not be back in time for the UI opener. Other key returnees include senior high jumper Greg Shroka, who placed sixth in the NCAA Outdoor Championship to earn All-America honors; junior Cody Wisslead, who finished fourth in the Big Ten outdoor 400 hurdles; and junior sprinter Dan Jones, who ran on Big Ten runner-up entries in the indoor and outdoor 1,600 relays.

Illini of the week

JOHN DERGO

Wrestling

The Illini senior's career has come full circle. After earning a starting spot at 184 pounds as a freshman, Dergo wrestled at 174 the past two seasons. Now the Morris native is back at 184 and thriving. Just ask the trio of three-time All-Americans that Dergo beat last week en route to a Midlands Championships title. Among his victims were fourth-seeded Louis Caputo of Harvard in the quarterfinals; top-ranked and No. 1-seeded Max Askren of Missouri in the semifinals; and second-ranked and second-seeded Mike Cannon of American in the championship match. When InterMat's national rankings were released Tuesday, Dergo rose four spots to No. 2.

"He had an unbelievable tournament," Heffernan said. In the process, Dergo avenged a loss to Askren earlier in the season by pulling out a 3-2 nail-biter. Then, after Dergo and Cannon fought to a draw in regulation, the Illini's three-time NCAA qualifier scored a takedown in sudden-victory overtime to end a wild 11-9 match. "He's going as hard as he can every time he wrestles," Heffernan said.

Dergo's 18-2 record includes a 4-2 mark against ranked opponents.

News & views

Hambly lands commit

Allison Stark, a junior right-side hitter from Mount Vernon, Iowa, has orally committed to the Illinois volleyball team.

The 6-foot-1 left-hander was selected by Prepvolleyball.com in December as one of the top 50 players in the Class of 2011. After leading Mount Vernon to the Iowa Class 2A state title in November, Stark was named to The Des Moines Register's six-player Elite All-State Team. She averaged 2.7 kills and 1.9 digs per set and hit .447 last season.

A member of the Iowa City-based Iowa Rockets club team, Stark earned MVP honors in 2008 at the USA Volleyball Junior Olympic 15-and-under national tournament. Rockets coach David Rodgers has worked with Stark for the last six years.

"Her serving is awesome, her serve-receive is awesome, her defense is good and her attacking is very good as well as her blocking," he said. "We rely on her very much."

Stark is the third junior to commit to the UI, joining middle blocker Morganne Criswell of Decatur Lutheran and outside hitter Jocelynn Birks of LaGrange Lyons. Coach Kevin Hambly also has one sophomore commitment: setter Alexis Viliunas of Lyons.

Crossing his fingers

When the 2010 Illini baseball schedule was announced last month, one aspect in particular raised eyebrows: Dan Hartleb's team plans to open the season at home on Feb. 20. The opener is part of a two-game series against Bradley, which also is scheduled to be at Illinois Field on Feb. 21.

Hartleb admits the timing is a gamble.

"If we get a warm day on one of those days, we'll play a doubleheader; if not we just won't play," he said. "There are some (February) days ... where they're 50 degrees. Maybe we get lucky and hit one of those right."

Why such unusual timing? Hartleb cites an NCAA change to its 2010 baseball calendar that came after the UI schedule already was set up. Instead of keeping its opening date on the last weekend in February, the NCAA moved it up one weekend. That sent teams like Illinois and Bradley scrambling to adjust their schedules in, as Hartleb puts it, "midstream."

Hartleb said he could have gone to UI athletic director Ron Guenther and requested a travel budget increase in order to take his team to a warm-weather site for the new opening date.

"I just didn't think it was right ... with the way economic times are," Hartleb said. "Ron would have probably done it, but I just didn't think it was right at this time."

The fact that virtually all of the Illinois Field playing surface is covered by artificial turf gives the Illini and Bradley some chance of getting one or two games in that weekend.

"If we didn't have the artificial surface, we wouldn't even attempt it," Hartleb said.

NCAA track changes

Speaking of scheduling, there's been a significant change in the NCAA outdoor track and field postseason calendar. Instead of holding four regional meets that serve as qualifiers for the national championships, the NCAA next spring will conduct what it is calling "preliminary round" meets at two sites.

Athletes must meet predetermined qualifying standards during the regular season to be eligible for these meets. As many as 48 athletes in each event can be entered in the East and West preliminary round meets. The meets will be held May 27-29 at Greensboro, N.C., and Austin, Texas. Illinois is assigned to the West meet.

Baseball adds walk-ons

Four players have made the Illini baseball roster as walk-ons after training last fall with the team. The group includes right-handed pitcher Tanner Libby of Galesburg and outfielder Pat Sheehan of Springfield, who hit .353 and stole 22 bases for Springfield College in 2008. Hartleb also retained two catchers who tried out last fall: Alex Lincoln of Naperville Neuqua Valley and Matt Cervantes of Sandwich.

Eddleman Award watch

Each week we'll rank our top three candidates for the 2009-10 Dike Eddleman Award, which annually goes to the top male and female athletes at the University of Illinois.

MALE

1. John Dergo, wrestling. Senior needs one win to crack UI's top 25 career list.

2. Scott Langley, golf. Junior No. 27 in Golfweek/Sagarin collegiate rankings.

3. Dennis Nevolo, tennis. Sophomore nationally ranked in singles and doubles.

FEMALE

1. Angela Bizzarri, cross-country. National champ a Collegiate Woman Athlete of Year finalist.

2. Laura DeBruler, volleyball. Junior finished 14th nationally in points per set (4.96)

3. Jenna Smith, basketball. Senior center within 33 rebounds of school career record

The list

The Illini volleyball team won 26 matches for the second year in a row, tying the ninth-most single-season victories in program history. The top five winningest teams:

RECORD YEAR

39-3 1985

38-17 1977

36-3 1986

32-4 1992

31-7 1987

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