Iowa City, Iowa - Illinois has become one step closer to becoming the Big Ten team champions for the first time in 52 years. The Illini are in first place with 114.5 team points, comfortably ahead of second-place Minnesota (95.5) and third-place Michigan (95).    Illinois will have five wrestlers competing in tomorrow afternoon's championship matches, a school record. Minnesota will have two and Michigan will have four. Only two of those matches, the 133-pound bout between Mark Jayne of Illinois and Mack Reiter of Minnesota and the 157-pound between Michigan's Ryan Bertin and Illinois' Alex Tirapelle, will pit Illinois against its closest competition.    Bertin defeated Tirapelle in the 2003 NCAA finals.    "It's a nice start, but now we have to finish this," Illinois head coach Mark Johnson stated. "We had some guys really step up tonight, and though at times we may not have wrestled as well as we wanted to, we pulled out some tight matches, which is always a positive."    Also qualifying for the championship matches for Illinois were 2004 NCAA runner-up Kyle Ott (125 lbs.),Pete Friedl (174) and Brian Glynn (184).    Ott defeated Bobbe Lowe of Minnesota 3-1 in the semifinals, setting up a championship match against Nick Simmons of Michigan State, a competitor that Ott has never defeated.    Jayne escaped with a 4-3 win over Mario Galanakis of Iowa in the semifinals. Jayne scored a reversal in the third period as both wrestlers were standing up, a call that infuriated the Iowa crowd, to break a 2-2 tie.    Reiter has been dominant so far in this tournament. Reiter's latest victim was Mark Moos of Michigan, who was put in a cradle in the first period and never recovered in an 8-2 loss.    Tirapelle and Bertin both dominated their opponents in the semifinals, setting up another showdown between these two close competitors.    Friedl downed Brady Richardson of Wisconsin 6-2 in the semifinals. He will face freshman Jake Herbert of Northwestern, who has only lost one match this season.    Herbert has extra motivation heading into this finals matchup.    "Tomorrow is my birthday," Herbert said the night before he turns 20 years old. "My goal when I saw the schedule at the start of the year was to win a Big Ten title on my birthday, and that's just what I plan to do."    Glynn downed Ben Wissel of Purdue in his semifinal bout, coming out on top 5-2. He will face Eric Bradley of Penn State, the 2004 Big Ten champion at this weight class. Bradley defeated talented freshman Roger Kish of Minnesota 3-2 in his semifinal bout.    Michigan, as expected, dominated in the middle weights, sending all four wrestlers between 141 and 165 lbs. to the finals.    Wolverines joining Bertin in the finals are Josh Churella (141), Eric Tannenbaum (149) and Ryan Churella (165), the older brother of Josh.    Josh Churella defeated Mike Simpson of Indiana 6-1 in the semifinals, setting up a showdown with Michigan State's Andy Simmons, who dominated Northwestern freshman Ryan Lang 15-6.    Ironically, Simmons is also the younger brother of a Big Ten finalist, Nick Simmons, who is competing at 125 lbs.    Tannenbaum will battle true freshman Craig Henning of Wisconsin, who is a surprise finalist after entering the tournament seeded sixth. Henning scored a controversial takedown against Iowa's Ty Eustice in overtime to come away with a stunning 4-2 victory in the semifinals.    Iowa's lone finalist, a statement rarely made at the Big Ten Championships, is freshman Mark Perry, who has dominated his competition. Though he gave up a late takedown in the match, Perry was still able to come away with an 8-4 win over Matt Nagel of Minnesota in the semifinals.    Perry will face Ryan Churella in the finals.    At 197 lbs., J.D. Bergman of Ohio State will meet up with Matt Delguyd of Northwestern in the finals and in the heavyweight finals, Cole Konrad of Minnesota will face Pat DeGain of Indiana, who pinned All-American Greg Wagner in overtime to advance.    Tomorrow's finals session will begin at 12:00 p.m. (Central), beginning with consolation rounds before the finals and placing matches.