CHAMPAIGN – Joan Siebert's seen wrestling battles of epic proportions right in her own living room.

One day it was Barry Davis against Dan Gable. The next time around it might have been Mark Johnson versus another Olympian. Anytime Eric and Tony Siebert tangled, they were going for the gold.

"They would watch the Olympics and take on a persona," Joan said. "They would keep score and everything."

They were little kids – 5, 6, 7 years old – but they could do plenty of damage.

"We've broken bones, chairs, couches, lamps, you name it," said Eric, a senior at Illinois and Tony's elder by three years. "My mom used to have a fit."

Joan doesn't have to worry about wrecking her Peru home anymore. The two UI grapplers save their energy for the practice mat at the Huff Hall wrestling room. As one of the top 150-pounders in the nation, Eric still teaches Tony a few tricks – the same way he did a decade ago.

"I'd always whup him, and I still whup him," Eric said. "And now that he gets better, I still think I have the big brother syndrome on him. No matter how good he gets – I could be in a wheelchair – and I still think I could whup him. In his mind, he knows he's going to lose."

Tony – a 1997 NCAA qualifier at 134 pounds – is not the only guy who's run into trouble against Eric. Ranked No. 2 in the country, Eric's run up a 16-1 record that includes titles at invitationals in St. Louis and Las Vegas and a second place in the Midlands Invitational at Northwestern University.

"So far, I've really been concentrating on enjoying myself, trying to relax," Eric said. "In the past, I would put too much pressure on myself. I just have to realize it's a sport that I've been doing my whole life, and it's something I should have fun with."

Siebert won his first 16 matches – losing in the Midlands final to a post-collegiate wrestler – to give him 91 career wins. That moves him into a tie for sixth with former teammate Seth Brady on the UI's all-time wins list.

"I've seen him wrestle since he was a freshman," Indiana coach Duane Goldman said. "I think in all phases of the sport, he appears to be more knowledgeable and more quick. He's an all-around good wrestler."

As the Illini's only returning All-American – he took fifth at NCAAs last year – Eric's been Mr. Everything for Illinois this season.

The captain's on the cover of the media guide, and if you ask UI coach Mark Johnson, he could have a statue on the quad.

"The kids like him and they respect him," Johnson said. "They just see this is how you act and this is how you want to behave and train to be a national champion. So when he says something, it has authority behind it."

Johnson called Siebert a born leader. He's a guy that paid his dues behind All-Americans Ernest Benion and current UI assistant Steve Marianetti before claiming center stage.

"He keeps everybody strong as a group, as a unit," said Tony, a redshirt sophomore. "He doesn't leave anybody out of any conversations or social gatherings."

Siebert and co-captain Jevon Herman are the lone seniors on the team, and the two roommates have an open door for their teammates. Johnson said that's helped build a "close-knit" group out of a team loaded with sophomores and freshmen.

"He's taught me even more about the other things: how to handle my grades, how to handle college life in general," Tony said. "It's difficult on campus to find people who know what you do every day, being in a sport that's tough on you mentally and physically and then handle a top-notch school like Illinois at the same time. He does a great job of keeping the team together like that."

Those qualities will make the kinesiology major a good coach in the future, Johnson said.

"He understands wrestling, and he understands coaching," Johnson said. "He's going to be a very good coach himself because he's a people person. Especially in our sport, you have to be a hands-on guy that understands kids. And that's where he will be outstanding."

Coaching might be in Eric's blood. Wrestling's definitely high on the priority list for the Siebert family.

Father Mark coached Eric and Tony at LaSalle-Peru High School, and both parents and sister Molly try to make as many meets as possible. Joan remembers the boys playing some football and even that each was MVP of their eighth-grade basketball teams.

But she's a wrestling mom first and foremost. Johnson, a longtime family friend, said the whole family's good "wrestling people."

"What's made this a special thing for me is to coach one of my closest friend's kids," Johnson said. "I can't say enough about that family."

They say plenty about Johnson, who kept in touch after taking the Oregon State head coaching job in 1990 before coming to Illinois in 1992. Joan said the boys probably would have followed him to Corvallis, Ore., and definitely wanted to wrestle for him closer to home.

Eric, who won the 1993 Class AA title at 145 pounds while amassing a 46-0 record, didn't make any other visits before signing with the Illini.

"You're talking about two good starters who I didn't hardly have to recruit," Johnson said. "His dad said 'I want him at Illinois.' And it was the same with Tony."

The Sieberts have been all over the Midwest to watch the boys wrestle. They headed to Evanston earlier this week for the Midlands, and they've been as far as Las Vegas and Fargo, N.D., in the past.

Joan said she'd be the one holding the video camera and yapping away.

"I do videotaping, and when I get nervous I talk more, so when the boys watch it they turn the sound off," she said. "I do a little praying, although I know the Lord has way more important things to do."

And how about dad?

"You don't want to be sitting next to him," Joan said. "He leans whichever way they're supposed to go. So you might get an elbow."

The Sieberts want to watch Eric wrestle for the national championship come March. Johnson's got faith in his senior.

"I think Eric finally believes he can be the national champion this year," Johnson said. "I think that's the big difference, knowing he can be the guy this year."

To be the man, he'll have to get past Minnesota's Chad Kraft, who's been his nemesis the past few years. Kraft's ranked No. 1 and has beaten Siebert the past two years at the NCAAs and last year at the Big Ten meet. Michigan's Bill Lacure ranks third and will also be in the mix.

"It looks like most of the competition's right here in the Big Ten," Goldman said. "Mark thinks highly of him as a kid, and that speaks for a lot. He expects him to have an opportunity to win a national championship. And Mark's a good judge of horse flesh in that regard."

There's plenty of history between the trio. Siebert beat Lacure in the Vegas final and knocked him off at NCAAs last year.

"We have an interesting little triangle where Kraft does pretty well against me, Lacure does well against Kraft and I do well against Lacure. It'll be interesting come seeding time."

Tony said confidence will be no problem for big brother. Eric said he's not letting early success get to his head. And he's hoping all those hours of grappling with Tony at home and on the practice mat will pay off.

"I have to remember I have to take it step by step," Eric said. "I want to do my best and work my way to the end of the year. I want to remember what the focus is. No one remembers anything else except how you finish at the NCAA tournament."