Illinois

2026 IHSA Illinois Wrestling State Finals Schedule And Brackets – FloWrestling

Published

5 months ago

February 9, 2026

2026 IHSA Illinois Wrestling State Finals Schedule And Brackets – FloWrestling

Of all the states in the country, Illinois has a unique format for its postseason high school wrestling action.

The Illinois High School Association Wrestling State Finals will feature three events across two action-packed weekends.

First up, will be the 2026 IHSA Boys Individual Wrestling State Finals, being held Feb. 19-21 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. The venue is home to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign basketball and countless other events throughout the year.

The following week (Feb. 27-28), the boys will be back on the mats for the 2026 IHSA Dual Team State Finals, and they’ll be joined at the Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington, Illinois, by the top female wrestlers in the state for the 2026 IHSA Girls Individual Wrestling State Finals.

Though these tournaments won’t be broadcast live on FloWrestling or the FloSports app, each match will appear in the FloWrestling archives minutes after concluding.

While giving each field of competitors the chance to shine, the three events also have very different histories.

The first individual state meet for boys took place in 1937. The dual event was held for the first time in 1984. Only just recently, in 2022, did the girls get their first opportunity to compete for state titles.

From 1937-1973, there was one classification, and there were two (A, AA) from 1974-2008. Since 2009, the boys side of things, including the dual tournaments, have featured three classifications – 1A (under 600 enrollment), 2A (601-1,200) and 3A (more than 1,200).

So far, the girls have been limited to a single classification.

To reach the state finals, student-athletes in Illinois must run a gauntlet of competition.

For the boys, the postseason journey began with one-day regional events across 16 locations on Jan. 31. The first-, second and third-place finishers from each regional advanced to the sectional round.

The two-day sectional tournaments, held at four locations, are scheduled for Feb. 13-14.

Once again, the first-, second- and third-place finishers will advance and get the chance to wrestle at the state finals in Champaign.

The girls schedule is similar, with regional meets taking place Feb. 6 or Feb. 7, and sectionals set for Feb. 13-14.

Three top performers from the regional meets advance to sectionals, and the top four finishers at sectionals, in each weight class, advance to the state finals in Bloomington.

As the individual drama unfolds for the boys in February, teams also must focus on the Dual Team Tournament Series.

The Feb. 5 sectional qualifiers were held at the home of the teams that scored the most points at the individual regionals, and each included four teams, or semifinalists. The two semifinal winners from each sectional meet qualified for the state event.

In all, 24 teams now will compete at the Dual Team State Finals (eight per classification).

Whew, that’s a lot of information!

The important thing to remember is that the best of the best from the state of Illinois will get to battle for state titles this month, and every single match will live forever in the FloWrestling archives!

As you get settled in for the new championship season, here’s everything you need to know about the 2026 IHSA Wrestling State Finals, including links to the brackets.

What Are The Weight Classes For High School Wrestling In Illinois?

In Pounds

Boys: 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, 285
Girls: 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 155, 170, 190, 235

2026 IHSA Wrestling State Finals Brackets

Here’s where you’ll be able to find the brackets for the 2026 IHSA Wrestling State Finals:

How To Watch The 2026 IHSA Wrestling State Finals

Coverage of the 2026 IHSA Boys Individual Wrestling State Finals, being held Feb. 19-21 in Champaign, Illinois, and the 2026 IHSA Dual Team State Finals/2026 IHSA Girls Individual Wrestling State Finals in Bloomington, Illinois, the following weekend, won’t be broadcast live on FloWrestling and the FloSports app, but the matches will be available in the FloWrestling archives minutes after they conclude.

News, notes, stats and more will be available on both platforms.

If you’re going to be in the area and want to catch the action in person, check this page for spectator and ticket information for the boys finals and this page to purchase tickets for the dual/girls finals.

2026 IHSA (IL) State Championships – ARCHIVE ONLY

2026 IHSA Wrestling State Finals Schedule

Here’s a look at when everything is going down in Illinois:

All Times Central

Thursday, Feb. 19

Session 1

8-9 a.m. – Packet pickup in lobby of East Main entrance
9 a.m. – Doors open for weigh-ins and skin checks
9:30 a.m. – Weigh-ins and skin checks
9:45-10 a.m. – Coaches meeting
10 a.m. – Table workers meeting
10:15 a.m. – Official meeting
10:15 a.m. (approx.) – Open mats
10:45 a.m. – Close mats
11 a.m. – Class 1A Preliminaries
1 p.m. (approx.) – Class 2A Preliminaries
3:15 p.m. (approx.) – Class 3A Preliminaries
5:30 p.m. (approx.) – Class 1A, 2A, 3A Winner’s Bracket Quarterfinals

Friday, Feb. 20

Session 2

6:30 a.m. – Doors open for weigh-ins
7:30 a.m. – Weigh-ins
8 a.m. – Doors open to the public
9 a.m. – Round 1 Wrestlebacks (1A, 2A, 3A)
1 p.m. (approx.) – Round 2 Wrestlebacks (1A, 2A, 3A)
4:30 p.m. – Clear State Farm Center

Session 3

6 p.m. – Doors open to the public
7 p.m. – Championship Semifinals (1A, 2A, 3A)

Saturday, Feb. 21

Session 4

6:30 a.m. – Doors open for weigh-ins
7:30 a.m. – Weigh-ins
8 a.m. – Doors open to the public
9 a.m. – Quarterfinal Wrestlebacks (1A, 2A, 3A)
11 a.m. – Semifinal Wrestlebacks (1A, 2A, 3A)
1 p.m. – Third-, Fourth-, Fifth-, Sixth-Place Matches (1A, 2A, 3A)
3:30 p.m. – Clear State Farm Center

Session 5

4:30 p.m. – Doors open to the public
5 p.m. – Grand March line-up
5:30 p.m. – Grand March
6 p.m. – Championship Matches (1A, 2A, 3A) (three mats)

Friday, Feb. 27

Girls Individual Tournament (Six Mats)

7:30 a.m. – Weigh-ins
8:15 a.m. – Coaches meeting
9 a.m. – Round 1
11 a.m. – Quarterfinals and Round 1 Wrestlebacks
1:30 p.m. – Round 2 Wrestlebacks

Dual Team Tournament (Six Mats)

3:30 p.m. – Weigh-ins
4:15 p.m. – Coaches meeting
5 p.m. – Top Bracket Quarterfinals
7 p.m. – Bottom Bracket Quarterfinals

Saturday, Feb. 28

7:30 a.m. – Weigh-ins for all wrestlers

Girls Individual Tournament (Three Mats)

9 a.m. – Championship Semifinals & Round 3 Wrestlebacks
11:30 a.m. – Consolation Semifinals
12:15 p.m. – Placement Matches
1:45 p.m. – Grand March
2 p.m. – Championship Matches (one mat)

Dual Team Tournament (Three Mats)

9 a.m. – Top Bracket Semifinals
11 a.m. – Bottom Bracket Semifinals
6 p.m. – Championship & Third-Place Duals (three mats)

2026 IHSA (IL) Dual Sate | Girls State Championships

What Teams Won At The 2025 IHSA Wrestling State Finals?

Here are the 2025 team state champions in Illinois:

Boys

Class 1A – Coal City
Class 2A – Elmhurst (IC Catholic)
Class 3A – Aurora (Marmion Academy)
Duals – Aurora (Marmion Academy) def. Rockton (Hononegah), 42-31

*Illinois only crowns individual champions in girls wrestling.

Read more: 2025 IHSA Illinois Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets | 2025 IHSA Girls Individual State Finals

Did You Know: There Are Layers To The History Of Illinois HS Wrestling

The three segments of high school wrestling in Illinois – boys, boys duals and girls – began wrestling for state titles in 1937, 1984 and 2022, respectively.

In the long history of boys high school wrestling in Illinois, only 16 boys have won four individual state titles. The latest was Seth Mendoza of Chicago Mt. Carmel, who won titles from 2022-2025 at 106, 113, 126 and 138 pounds.

For the girls, one athlete has won a state championship each year. Angelina Cassioppi from Rockton (Hononegah) won her first title in 2022 at 100 pounds and followed that with three victories at 120 pounds.

The pool of 14 winners at the 2025 Girls Individual Wrestling State Finals featured seven undefeated champions (five were repeat winners) and three others who only lost once all season.

Seven of the winners were the first girls wrestling champions for their schools. Five participants, including Cassioppi, became four-time medalists

2025-2026 FloWrestling High School Wrestling Rankings

Top 20 as of Jan. 12, 2026

Curious about how the top wrestlers from each state stack up against competitors from across the country?

Click here to see the latest high school rankings from FloWrestling.

You’ve Never Seen A High School Wrestling Dual Like This | Episode 2

Bo Bassett, Jax Forrest, Melvin Miller and Jude Correa are all ranked No. 1 in the country. What happens when you throw them all into one dual?

Trackwrestling Has Joined The New FloWrestling

Trackwrestling officially has merged with FloWrestling, bringing its powerful tournament tracking tools and live data into a modern, all-in-one platform.

Fans can follow every bout with pro-grade brackets, mat schedules, team rosters and detailed wrestler profiles—all seamlessly integrated within FloWrestling.

This move delivers a faster, smarter and more connected experience for the wrestling community. Through the updated FloSports app, users can track live results, explore brackets and even sign up for free alerts so they never miss a match.

FloWrestling Archived Footage

Video footage from all events on FloWrestling will be archived and stored in a video library for FloWrestling subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.

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Illinois

Illinois GOP trails badly in midterm cash

Published

11 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Press Room

Illinois GOP trails badly in midterm cash

The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223K in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101K higher than it had reported the day before.

But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.

Republicans no longer have a pet billionaire. Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin have fled the state. The legions of wealthy business titans who once contributed and raised money have either retired to sunnier climes or passed away. Several prominent party members have publicly shunned labor unions and their hefty political war chests, although the state GOP legislative leaders have at least tried to rebuild ties to trade unions and even the Illinois Education Association. But the heavily gerrymandered legislative map combined with the current political climate means they’ll mostly receive scraps.

And, yes, the House Democrats are struggling this month with scandals, including a state representative who resigned under pressure and another who was indicted. I’m not trying to downplay that at all. But Democrats have the national political environment, the local infrastructure and tons of cash behind them. The Republicans have little to none of that.

The GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Darren Bailey, raised $1.3 million in the second quarter, which ended June 30. That sounds like a lot, but he spent almost all of that on direct mail fundraising costs. The huge expenditures do give him a prospect list for future fundraising, but he ended the quarter with a mere $128K in the bank. That was still a whole lot more than the rest of the statewide ticket.

Attorney General nominee Bob Fioretti, a perennial candidate, raised $31K, spent $39K and had $28K on hand at the end of the quarter along with almost $15K in recent debt. Secretary of State candidate Diane Harris raised $6K, spent a bit over $4K and had a paltry $1,816.42 in the bank. Treasurer candidate Max Solomon, who ran as a write-in during the primary because the party failed to recruit anyone, raised less than $3K, reported no spending and ended the quarter with less than $8K. Comptroller candidate Bryan Drew raised $30K and received $47K in in-kind contributions from a company owned, ironically, by independent gubernatorial candidate Collin Corbett, spent less than $3K, ended with $54K and had $25K in debt from earlier this year.

Man, that’s just downright pathetic.

But I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway unless we see a massive sea-change in national opinion in the coming months or the federal government finds a way to not certify certain election results. Regardless of where individual candidates are at this moment, they’ll have the money to compete. Unlike the Republicans, the Dems do have a pet billionaire (JB Pritzker) and, I assume eventually for most of them, organized labor.

The Republican legislative leaders have tried to scrape and claw as much as they can, but they’re vastly outgunned. Senate Republican Leader John Curran raised just $75K in the second quarter. He spent $71K and reported having a bit more than $3 million in the bank. His caucus committee reported having $160K in the bank.

Leader Curran has three Republican-held districts to defend in the Chicago media market that have all trended Democratic in the last three cycles. Depending how bad things get, he could be defending a couple, two or three more.

The Senate Democrats have a ton of money to do whatever they want. Senate President Don Harmon has about $20 million in his personal campaign account and $1.7 million in his caucus account.

Over in the House, Republican Leader Tony McCombie has at least four Democratic-trending or swingy districts to defend and just $1.3 million in her personal campaign account and another $363K in her caucus account so far.

In contrast, House Speaker Chris Welch had $11.4 million in his personal account and $1.2 million in his caucus account. Like Senate President Harmon, he has more than enough money already, but more is never enough when there’s so much out there, so those numbers will likely rise by November.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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Illinois

Hillsboro grad, Springfield golfer Alex Eickhoff 2nd at state amateur

Published

23 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Press Room

Hillsboro grad, Springfield golfer Alex Eickhoff 2nd at state amateur

BLOOMINGTON — Springfield’s Alex Eickhoff nearly had a magical Thursday as he tied for second place in the 95th annual Illinois State Amateur Championship at Crestwicke Country Club.

Eickhoff, a 2020 Hillsboro High School graduate and former standout on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s men’s golf team, shot a 4-under-par 68 in Thursday’s third round and followed that with an even-par 71 to finish the three-day, four-round event 1-over 285. He tied for second with Bloomington’s Logan Stauffer.

Eickhoff briefly took the lead through nine holes of his fourth round when he sat at 1-under par. Chicago’s Charlie Kulwin finished both of Thursday’s rounds under par and finished 2-under 282. He was the lone golfer to finish under par for the tournament.

Eickhoff was The State Journal-Register’s Small School Boys Golfer of the year twice in his high school career: once as a freshman in 2016-17 and again as a senior in 2019-20. After high school, he golfed for the University of Minnesota for two years before transferring to SIUE.

He began the tournament with a 3-over 74 on Tuesday and shaved off a stroke Wednesday with a 2-over 73. He closed out the event with an even-par 71 in Thursday’s final round.

Other area golfers who made the cut were Springfield’s Charles Hoogland (7-over 291, tied for 20th) and Jacksonville’s Brady Kaufmann (8-over 292, 25th).

The last golfer from The State Journal-Register’s coverage area to win the Illinois State Amateur was Jay Davis. Davis, a Jacksonville Routt graduate, won the 1991 and ‘92 tournaments.

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

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Illinois

Illinois awards AD Josh Whitman a new contract worth more than $31 million over the next 10 years

Published

1 day ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

Illinois awards AD Josh Whitman a new contract worth more than million over the next 10 years

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois has extended athletic director Josh Whitman’s contract through 2036, committing more than $31 million over the next 10 years on the heels of a series of standout seasons for the department and its teams.

The university’s board of trustees approved the new deal for Whitman at its regular meeting on Thursday. The fifth-longest tenured AD among the four power conferences will make $2.15 million during the 2026-27 school year, a salary increase of more than 40%.

Whitman is scheduled to receive $100,000 raises annually before a $200,000 bump to $3.15 million in the final year of the agreement and a $500,000 retention bonus each June 30 that he remains on the job at Illinois.

The contract also includes additional incentives of up to $500,000 annually related to performance goals set by the university chancellor and three automatic one-year extensions through 2039 if certain Illini football and men’s basketball performance measures are met.

Whitman, a former Illinois football player, was hired in 2016. This was the fifth time his contract has been amended. The men’s basketball team reached the NCAA Final Four in April for the first time in 21 years. The football team won 19 games over the last two seasons, a program record for that span. Illini athletics also set a revenue record for a fourth consecutive year and topped $200 million for the first time in 2025-26, according to the board of trustees meeting memo.

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