Illinois Wrestling: Illini crack top 5 ranking as latest polls released

Illinois is ranked No. 4 nationally by WIN magazine's Tournament Power Index Rankings released Monday.

WIN's TPI is based on where a school is projected to finish in this March's NCAA Division I Championships in St. Louis, based on the schools' currently ranked individuals and not on a school's dual-meet record.

Minnesota and Iowa take the top two spots, followed by Missouri.

The Illini are also slated at No. 6 in InterMat's tournament rankings. In dual rankings, the Illini are ranked No. 9 in both polls.

Seven Illini wrestlers made the polls.

125: Jesse Delgado, No. 1 ahead of Alan Waters of Missouri, Nahshon Garrett of Cornell, Joey Dance of Virginia Tech and Thomas Gilman of Iowa. If Delgado returns to the mat this week he will grapple against Gilman on Friday in Iowa City.

133: Zane Richards, moved up one spot in the InterMat rankings to No. 5 and No. 3 in WIN rankings. Richards will wrestle No. 1 Chris Dardanes of Minnesota and No. 5/4 Cory Clark of Iowa this weekend. Richards previously beat No. 3 A.J. Schopp of Edinboro at the Midlands Championships.

141: Steven Rodrigues, moved up two spots in WIN rankings and leaped six spots to No. 13 in InterMat. Rodrigues will face No. 4 Nick Dardanes of Minnesota and No. 10/8 Josh Dziewa of Iowa this weekend.

157: Isaiah Martinez, is ranked No. 3 by WIN and No. 5 by InterMat. Martinez was previously ranked No. 4 and 7 by each poll. He will put his undefeated streak on the line against No. 1 Dylan Ness of Minnesota and No. 13/15 Mike Kelly of Iowa this weekend.

165: Jackson Morse, is ranked No. 8 by both polls just like last week. He faces No. 11/9 Nick Moore of Iowa and No. 19/17 Nick Wanzek of Minnesota this weekend.

174: Zac Brunson, is ranked No. 5 by WIN and No. 6 by InterMat. The 18-1 wrestlers was previously ranked No. 6 by each poll. He will wrestle No. 2 Mike Evans of Iowa and No. 3 Logan Storley of Minnesota next.

184: Nikko Reyes, is ranked No. 15 by WIN and No. 20 by InterMat. Reyes dropped a spot in WIN and held true in InterMat. He will face No. 8 Sam Brooks of Iowa and No. 12/11 Brett Pfarr of Minnesota next.

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