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There are a lot of news every day. Illini Inquirer will try to ease digestion each morning of the week with the Daily Digest.
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Illinois to build $14 million stand-alone wrestling facility, the athletic department announced Thursday. The new Illinois Wrestling Training Center will be located on the South Lawn of the State Farm Center, across St. Mary’s Road from the Illinois Conference Center.
- Funds: Illinois said it received $10 million in private donations for the facility – fueled mostly by three families with deep ties to the struggle, and the rest of the project, which includes additional costs of $1.2 million to modify the parking lot, will be financed either by donations or DIA funds.
- Chronology: Construction of the facility is expected to begin in spring 2024 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
- Details: According to Illinois, the facility will have approximately 19,000 square feet of space, including a wrestling room with three mats, strength and conditioning and sports medicine facilities, a team locker room, locker room and offices for coaches and a multi-purpose meeting room.
Why is this important: For years, Illinois wrestlers trained and worked at Huff Hall for decades, sharing the facility with volleyball. Last season, Illinois moved competitions from Huff Hall to the State Farm Center.
- Illinois Wrestling Coach Mike Poeta said the new facility will be the “best in the country” and that the new building will help elevate an Illini wrestling program that hasn’t finished in the top five at the Big Ten championships since 2013.
- “This building will get us into that conversation sooner rather than later,” Poeta said. “…With this installation, we are now the beacon. We are the place to be.
