Wrestling began Thursday morning, and the action was non-stop. Wrestling took place on eight mats, and there was always a great match somewhere in the arena. I was fortunate to score a front-row seat near the college sports information director's table. I am sitting right on the edge of the mat, getting an unreal view from press row!

Competition will continue until Saturday, when the finals will be aired live on ESPN at 6:30 p.m.

Illinois had a pretty good morning session, winning two of its three first-round matches.

The evening round started well when Jordan Blanton won his second match of the day, 5-2. He wrestled well and is into the quarterfinals. John Dergo dominated his opponent in the second round, winning 21-5. Dergo looked awesome and is off to a great start in his attempt to win an NCAA championship.

I ran into Matt Lackey, an ex-Illini wrestler who was an NCAA champion in 2003. Matt was a successful student-athlete at Illinois, and I coached against him for a couple of years when he was in high school. He was very helpful to high school and youth wrestlers in our community when he was in college and actually was a substitute teacher at Champaign Central a few years back. Matt is now an assistant coach at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania, and the team has a 133-pound wrestler in the tournament. Lackey lives in Pennsylvania and has a daughter.

A really neat story that has arisen for the last couple of years at the NCAAs involves Anthony Robles. Robles is an Arizona State 125-pound wrestler who has one leg. He has no right leg but finds a way to wrestle very effectively. Robles is the fourth-seeded wrestler and was beating his first two opponents by a combined score of 30-0 when he won by pin and technical fall. He is much stronger than all of his opponents and looks like a 157-pound wrestler in the upper body. He is a remarkable young athlete, and he is safely into the quarterfinals.

It is more of the same this weekend when it comes to everyone versus Iowa. The arena is very loud when the Iowa guys are winning, but when someone is beating them, the arena gets even louder. They are in first place and are expected to win this year's tournament.

I saw a great T-shirt at our hotel this morning that read "Iowa ... We hate you even more!"

Today was a great day of wrestling. Each weight class is so even, and the wrestlers are very comparable at this point in the tournament. They are the best! One mistake this weekend and the dream of being a national champion can quickly be destroyed.