No. 12 Illinois Wrestling Upsets No. 6 Missouri, Improves to 4-0

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The No. 12 Illinois wrestling team won their home opening dual over No. 6 Missouri, 23-14, on Thursday (Nov. 21) from the Lot 31 Stadium Club tent: improving to 4-0 for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

It's the highest ranked win Illinois has had since the 2011-12 season when they knocked off No. 5 Cornell on the road on Feb. 12, 2012, 19-16. Additionally, it's the first time since the 2015-16 season where Illinois has eclipsed 20+ dual points in their victories to open the season, that squad won their first eight duals with 20+ points scored in each.

"It's a big night for Illinois wrestling," said head coach Mike Poeta. "To have the 20th reunion of the 2005 Big Ten Championship team, the way everything came together and it all culminating to a win over a really good team. It's the best win our program's had in a long time, it's the best win I've had as head coach. The reason is because we had 10 guys that fought their hearts out. We lost a couple heart breakers but that was more on mistakes and not effort, how hard they wrestled or how much will they had. They made a few mistakes that if we cleaned up the score could have been even more lopsided and we would have taken some more matches."

HOW IT HAPPENED

No. 2 at 133 pounds redshirt senior Lucas Byrd started the scoring off for the Fighting Illini with his major decision over No. 29 Kade Moore (MIZ) to tie the dual up at four after Missouri scored four points in the 125 bout.

Illinois dropped the 141 bout to trail 7-4 heading into the 149-pound bout, where they didn't trail again afterwards. No. 10 at 149 pounds redshirt freshman Kannon Webster put Illinois in the lead, 8-7, with his major decision over No. 24 Logan Gioffre (MIZ), 20-7.

No. 20 at 157 pounds graduate student Jason Kraisser almost pinned James Conway (MIZ) in the first 20 seconds of the match but controlled the rest of the bout to a 9-3 decision, extending the Illinois lead, 11-7.

No. 24 at 165 pounds redshirt freshman Braeden Scoles scrambled in the second period with No. 15 Cam Steed (MIZ) which appeared to injure Steed. After a stoppage and Steed trying to tough it out, he conceded the match in an injury default at the 4:21 mark awarding the Illini six team points to balloon the lead to 17-7.

Illinois' next win would come at 184 pounds with No. 9 redshirt senior Edmond Ruth beating Logan Cole (MIZ) in a 10-3 decision pushing Illinois past the 20 point threshold, 20-11. No. 10 at 285 pounds redshirt senior Luke Luffman handled No. 21 Seth Nitzel (MIZ) in a 4-3 decision to lock up the dual for the Orange and Blue, 23-14.

FULL RESULTS

UP NEXT

The Orange and Blue grapplers return to action on Monday (Nov. 25) for a dual against No. 23 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. at 6 p.m. CT.