In my opinion, He's the face of Illinois' resurgence at the college level. The last time an Illinois native won a second national title was in 2001(TJ Williams).
@patrickbrogan8770 I was kind of shocked myself. Fanco made a video talking about the number of national champs produced by the top states from 1999-2019, and Illinois surprisingly was 10th with 6 national champions in that span. Illinois was on fire during the 50s - 90s, but there was quite a significant national champion drought during the 2000s, and in 2010, hopefully, IL will be a top 3 state soon. Some people say it already is. During the last two seasons, Illinois had 18 AA finishes, 2nd most national qualifiers next to PA, and 6 Ironman champs. Everything points to Illinois returning to its former glory. Of course, there's also the huge upset pulled by Matt Ramos, who actually only won one state title.
Here after O’Connor became a 2 time NCAA champ
In my opinion, He's the face of Illinois' resurgence at the college level. The last time an Illinois native won a second national title was in 2001(TJ Williams).
@@dangerpowers4582 It’s really been that long? Crazy!
@patrickbrogan8770 I was kind of shocked myself. Fanco made a video talking about the number of national champs produced by the top states from 1999-2019, and Illinois surprisingly was 10th with 6 national champions in that span. Illinois was on fire during the 50s - 90s, but there was quite a significant national champion drought during the 2000s, and in 2010, hopefully, IL will be a top 3 state soon. Some people say it already is. During the last two seasons, Illinois had 18 AA finishes, 2nd most national qualifiers next to PA, and 6 Ironman champs. Everything points to Illinois returning to its former glory. Of course, there's also the huge upset pulled by Matt Ramos, who actually only won one state title.