IT'S ILLINI TIME!
Illinois beats clock to claim first Big Ten title since '52
IOWA CITY, Iowa — For over half a century, the Illinois wrestling program did not get too many opportunities to win a Big Ten team championship. And for a short intense time on March 6, current Illini coach Mark Johnson saw his most recent time for a conference crown slipping away … literally.
It mattered little that the Illini had placed a school-record five wrestlers in the Big Ten finals the previous day in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and led the conference field by 16 points after the semifinal round. It mattered more that Johnson’s first two finalists lost at 125 and 133 pounds and both Minnesota and Michigan were gaining steam and cut Illinois’ margin to four points before Illini Alex Tirapelle stepped on the mat for his 157-pound final.
While the Illinois junior had his hands full with rival Ryan Bertin of Michigan, he also felt the weight of his team’s fortunes on his shoulders. While warming up for his match, he knew that two of Michigan’s four finalists had won their matches at 141 and 149 pounds and Minnesota’s wrestlers were gathering bonus points with pins, including Gopher Mack Reiter who flattened Illinois’ Mark Jayne in the 133-pound final.
“I tried
not to think about it,” Tirapelle said. “But it’s in the back of your head. Minnesota was putting guys on their back and pinning them, which cut the margin quick. I tried to keep the team out and wrestle my match but you couldn’t help it.”So it appeared that Illinois chances for a championship was slipping away as were the seconds on the clock that showed Tirapelle losing to Bertin, 3-2 with 18 seconds remaining. That was until the defending Big Ten champion from Illinois scored the match’s deciding takedown and a 4-3 victory.
That extended Illinois’ lead to eight points, which eliminated Michigan from catching the Illini. But Minnesota, which qualified all ten wrestlers for the upcoming NCAA Championships, still had another finalist in heavyweight Cole Konrad, compared to Illinois’ final two shots at individual gold in the hands of 174-pound Pete Friedl and 184-pound Brian Glynn.
“I talked to Friedl and Glynn,” Tirapelle said. “I said, ‘Don’t waste time. It may come down to the last point.’”
And so too were the last seconds … as Friedl learned when the junior trailed Northwestern’s Jake Herbert, 3-2, before the Illini scored the winning takedown with one second remaining.
Friedl’s 4-3 victory clinched Illinois’ first Big Ten team championship since 1952, which left Johnson with a big smile and a hug from the free-spirited Friedl.
“When he won, I said, ‘Pete, you sewed it up for us.’” Johnson said. “I went to shake his hand and he said, ‘Handshakes are for friends, give me a hug, brother.’”
In the end, it didn’t matter that Glynn lost his championship match or that Minnesota and Michigan each added another championship at 184 and heavyweight, the Illini scored 130 points to out-distance the runner-up Gophers (123.5) and third-place Wolverines (118). This marked the first time since 1977 that a team other than Iowa or Minnesota earned Big Ten team gold. The Illini will also send nine wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, March 17-19.
Winning a Big Ten championship was the first goal set by Johnson, when he took over the Illini program in 1992. The native of Rock Island, Ill., knew he had his work cut out for him considering the Illini had finished among the Big Ten’s top three teams just once — with a second-place finish in 1958 — between Illinois’ last championship under former coach B.R. Patterson in 1952 and Johnson’s arrival 40 years later.
But Johnson, a former assistant coach of Dan Gable’s during Iowa’s 25-year run of Big Ten domination, knew success was possible in Champaign.
“I talked about it many times with Gable that if Illinois ever made a commitment to wrestling, that would be my dream job,” said Johnson, who left Iowa in 1990 to become Oregon State’s head coach until the Illini job opened two years later. “I knew that once (Illinois) made the commitment that we could be successful because of the high school wrestling where the coaches are so good.
“I felt I had a good background in working under Dan Gable. It’s been coming true. We’ve been pretty consistent for the past ten years.
“We’re still not near where our ultimate goal is. This is another big step.”
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