#10 Illinois Grapplers Take Down Northwestern, 33-7

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The No. 10 Illinois wrestling team beat Northwestern 33-7 on Sunday (Jan. 12) in Huff Hall. Illinois took eight of the 10 bouts with two wins via tech. fall, two major decisions, three decisions and an injury default.

"We rebounded well from Friday night," said head coach Mike Poeta. "I think the guys are happy with their performance, never satisfied, but everyone is happy right now. 149 I think he (Kannon Webster) wants that one back. This wasn't a good weekend for him. He's going to box it up, put it aside, he's going to move on and he's going to be fine. He's still going to be a threat to beat anybody in the country. Today I felt like we wrestled with a lot of passion, we were attacking a lot and we were exciting. We picked up some good wins; some of the guys I think Northwestern was expecting to get wins didn't get them, so it was good all around."

HOW IT HAPPENED

No. 2 at 133 pounds Lucas Byrd put the first points on the board for the Illini with his major decision over Massey Odiotti (NU), 22-8, to remain a perfect 11-0 on the season. He was a few seconds away from having the tech. fall, but his final takedown did not beat the third period buzzer. This tied the dual up at four after Northwestern got a major decision at 125 pounds.

No. 13 at 141 pounds Danny Pucino won his match over No. 10 Chris Cannon (NU) via injury default at the 3:24 mark. This gave Illinois a 10-4 lead and they never trailed again the rest of the afternoon.

No. 27 at 157 pounds Jason Kraisser picked up the 6-3 decision win over Jacob Bostelman (NU) to complete his 2-0 weekend and extend the Illinois lead, 13-7. No. 10 at 165 Braeden Scoles had a defensive battle with No. 19 Maxx Mayfield (NU) in a 2-1 decision. They each traded escapes at the start of the second and third period, but it was Scoles' pressure that forced Mayfield to take two stall calls and surrender what was ultimately the tiebreaking point. Illinois led 16-7 after the 165 bout.

No. 21 at 174 pounds Danny Braunagel picked up some more bonus points for Illinois with his 18-5 major decision over Aiden Vandenbush (NU) to make it 20-7 for the Orange and Blue. No. 10 at 184 pounds Edmond Ruth earned his first tech. fall of the season, 20-2 (6:08), over Matthew Kubas (NU) to balloon the lead to 25-7.

No. 11 at 197 pounds Zac Braunagel controlled No. 13 Evan Bates (NU) to an 8-4 decision win to make the score 28-7. No. 11 at 285 pounds Luke Luffman dominated Dirk Morley (NU) to pick up his second tech. fall of the season, 22-6 (5:30), and made the final 33-7 for Illinois.

This marks the fifth time this season that Illinois has surpassed the 30-point threshold in their duals. Today's attendance was 358.

UP NEXT

The Fighting Illini grapplers return to action on Friday (Jan. 17) to take on No. 2 Iowa in Iowa City at 6 p.m. CT on BTN.

FULL RESULTS