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THE JANES GANG: HANNIBAL BROTHER ACT HEADS INTO COLUMBIA WITH CONSIDERABLE MOMENTUM

The Fabulous Fighting Lucies of West Hancock will carry the banner of Illinois State Wrestling hopes this weekend...

Northeast Missouri can now counter with its own Band of Brothers...The Janes Gang, which delivered an ahead of schedule with a star turn this weekend from the younger of the clan.

Tyler Janes: "You know with Austin, I feel like he knows his stuff. He's been right there with me through all the Big Tournaments so I think he knows that. And the big thing I've been telling him is don't get intimidated by the Big Crowd."

Austin Janes: "We've been to a lot of the Big Tournaments together. Been to Virginia, Florida, Texas and all that. So the Big Crowd, I don't think that's going to be a huge issue. But I think once we get down on the mat, all those nerves just kind of go away."

Austin Janes District Championship came with a higher degree of difficulty than most; as he weight in about 10 pounds light on Saturday for the 113 pound Class

Austin Janes: "Coach Coniglio, one of our wrestling coaches, made a really good point to me before I wrestled my Semis Match. He said, he wrestled with Jake Borgmeyer, our heavyweight, and he said if he wants to, he can take hm down and Borgie's got 100lbs on Coach. So he said 10 pounds is nothing. You just got to have the will and you got to want to. So that's kind of the way I fought through those last two matches: That if I wanted to, I could."

That drive has proven a great familty trait. You might remember that Austin's Big Brother Tyler booked his State ticket this time last year coming off a broken leg; the kind of shared resolve that puts the Janes Gang center stage in Columbia this weekend.

Tyler Janes: "I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare and I was out of shape last year. But we made the best of it...I kind of fell like I got cut short last year so I am really looking forward to (State) this year."

Austin Janes: "It's a Big Deal. There's a lot of colleges there that are always looking for recruits and kids that they can get to come to their college. They start looking at you when you are young. Not just that, but being able to pass along knowledge to the younger kids on the team. It's going to help not just me, but the entire team in the future."