The Fighting Illini wrestling team concluded their participation in the Big Ten Championships on Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania. Kannon Webster, seeded third at 157 pounds, secured a bronze medal after defeating seventh seed and nationally top-ranked Brandon Cannon from Ohio State with a 9-2 decision in the third-place match.
“The guys wrestled tough,” said head coach Jeremy Hunter. “They won a lot of tough matches throughout the tournament. There’s a lot of things that we can look back to improve upon and make the changes for the next weekend. That’s what everybody’s looking forward to is the NCAA Championships.”
Webster advanced to the third-place match following an injury default win over Indiana’s Bryce Lowery in the consolation semifinals. This marks his second consecutive Big Ten Championship medal, after taking silver last year at 149 pounds.
Spencer Moore qualified for the NCAA Championships at 125 pounds by winning the ninth-place bracket, which earned him an automatic bid in his weight class. He defeated Dedrick Navarro of Northwestern with a 9-1 decision and then won against Wisconsin’s Nicolar Rivera by major decision, 16-5. This is Moore’s second straight season qualifying for nationals.
Illinois will send eight wrestlers to the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row. The last time Illinois had eight or more qualifiers in consecutive seasons was during 2014-15.
Lucas Byrd finished fifth at 133 pounds after opening Sunday with a sudden victory loss but rebounded by avenging an earlier defeat against Purdue’s Blake Boarman with a 5-2 decision. Byrd has placed in the top five of every Big Ten Championship he has entered during his collegiate career.
Freshman Colin Kelly took seventh place at 174 pounds, winning his placement match against Purdue’s Brody Baumann for a second time this weekend with an 11-5 decision.
Chris Moore earned fourth place at 184 pounds after advancing via medical forfeits before falling to Michigan’s Brock Mantanona in sudden victory, while Michael Gioffre finished sixth at 149 pounds after losses to competitors from Michigan and Wisconsin.
Braeden Scoles placed eighth at 165 pounds due to a medical forfeit in his final match against Ohio State’s Paddy Gallagher. Luke Luffman also placed eighth at heavyweight after losing his seventh-place bout to Minnesota’s Koy Hopke.
As a team, Illinois finished sixth overall with 78 points. Penn State led all teams with 184 points, followed by Ohio State (148.5) and Nebraska (116.5).
Next week, Illinois’ eight national qualifiers will prepare for the NCAA Championships scheduled for March 19–21 in Cleveland at Rocket Arena.