The Cyclones are 4-0 so far this season following wins over Central Michigan and Michigan State last weekend. The competition ramps up sharply on Saturday though, as they head over to Iowa City to take on the #1 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa leads the series with the Cyclones 62-16-2, with ISU's last win coming in 2004, and while many of the individual matches should be competitive, the meet itself is unlikely to be very close.
Where: Iowa City, IA
TV/Stream: Mediacom/BTN2Go
Live Blog:Available Here
When: Saturday, November 29th, 7:00PM CST
For those planning on attending the meet, please remember that much like the word "Aloha" means both hello and goodbye to Hawaiians, the word "Stalling" has many meanings to a Hawkeye wrestling fan. Upon entering Carver, you might get the impression that is the only word in their strange, guttural tongue. But don't worry, their ability to express their inner thoughts is much wider than it first appears. Depending on the situation, "stalling" can range from "Hello" to "Goodbye" to "Excuse Me", or even "Pardon me for troubling you kind fellow, but do you have any spare meth?" If you run into a native who is hostile, simply hold up a peace sign and yell 'TWO" as loud as you can. They will accept you as one of their own.
Projected Lineups
Iowa State Cyclones | Iowa Hawkeyes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Weight | Wrestler | Record | Wrestler | Record | |
125 | Kyle Larson | 7-1 | vs. | #4 Thomas Gilman | 8-0 |
133 | #14 Earl Hall | 7-1 | vs. | #4 Cory Clark | 7-0 |
141 | John Meeks | 1-3 | vs. | #5 Josh Dwieza | 8-0 |
149 | Gabe Moreno | 9-0 | vs. | #9 Brody Grothus | 10-1 |
or | Brandon Sorenson | 9-1 | |||
157 | Luke Goettl | 9-1 | vs. | Mike Kelly | 8-0 |
165 | #3 Mike Moreno | 8-0 | vs. | #5 Nick Moore | 8-0 |
174 | #6 Tanner Weatherman | 8-0 | vs. | #4 Mike Evans | 7-0 |
184 | #18 Lelund Weatherspoon | 8-0 | vs. | #9 Sammy Brooks | 7-0 |
197 | #3 Kyven Gadson | 8-0 | vs. | #6 Nathan Burak | 4-0 |
or | Kris Klapprodt | 5-2 | |||
HWT | Quean Smith | 7-1 | vs. | #3 Bobby Telford | 7-0 |
(Rankings from Intermat)
Key Matchups
125: Larson has done a decent job holding down the spot at 125 but Gilman is a legitimate national champion contender this season. If Larson can keep this to a decision that will be a win for the Cyclones.
133: The first of three possible match ups between returning All Americans, both up this year from from 125. Clark beat Hall twice last season, a close 8-7 win in the dual and a more dominant 10-4 win in the All American rounds at NCAAs. Hall doesn't have anything to lose here and I'd love to see him break out the gator roll that he almost pinned Clark with last year. A win at this weight isn't going to win us the dual, but it would be huge for Hall to keep himself as a favorite to repeat as an All American after his loss against Michigan State last weekend.
141: A few weeks ago I was feeling pretty good about this match. Dwieza is seriously overranked because of the "IOWA" on his singlet and I had high hopes for Meeks coming off of his redshirt year. But Meeks has struggled on the mat thus far so I don't see him picking up a win. Though this would certainly be a chance for Meeks to get a signature win and turn his season around.
149: Iowa has three different guys listed as possibilities at this weight but I expect Sorenson will be the one who takes the mat. Gabe Moreno will be the underdog and doesn't have anything to lose regardless of who ends up across from him.
157: This will be the second weight where we'll see a rematch where both guys have moved up a weight from last year. Goettl and Kelly met at 149 last season, with Goettl winning 4-2 on the strength of a takedown at the buzzer in the third period. Goettl has been a wildly inconsistent wrestler ever since he first took the mat as a freshman. In one match he'll take out an All American, and in the next he'll lose to a no name freshman. This is a toss-up match and hopefully we'll see the good Goettl rather than the bad and he'll be able to even up his record in Cy-Hawk duals to 2-2.
165: This is the marque match of the meet. Moreno has placed higher than Moore at NCAAs the last two years, but Moore holds a 2-1 head to head advantage on Moreno, with Moore winning both of their matches in duals but Moreno beating Moore when it counted in March. All of their matches have been low scoring affairs and I expect the same to happen this time around. This match is a total tossup, especially in Carver, and I could see it going either way. But if history is any guide, no matter who gets their hand raised on Saturday, Moreno will be the one higher on the podium come March.
174: Weatherman is a very good wrestler, but thus far in his career he has yet to get a win over any of the elite group of guys at the top of 174. In this match up, Weatherman is 0-2 against Evans with both losses coming by identical 10-1 scores. Weatherman has nothing to lose so I'd really like to see him just open up with his shots and see what happens. That being said, Evans has shaved off his legendary mustache. Perhaps his bare upper lip will be the difference maker this time around.
184: So far this season Lelund has shown he deserves his ranking and has a lot of upside at 184. This is a huge match for him. Brooks pinned Boaz Beard at Midlands two years ago and only lost to Gadson 3-2 in the dual in Ames last season despite wrestling up a weight. A loss here wouldn't knock Weatherspoon down in the rankings, but a win would move him into the conversation for R12 or even All American.
197: Not sure who we'll see for Iowa here. Nathan Burak is dealing with a knee injury and Iowa is at least considering redshirting him. While I doubt that holds, Iowa doesn't need a win here to win the meet so I'd expect they let Burak continue to heal up and send out their backup instead. If it is Burak, this will be a pretty big match for Kyven. Burak is hardly a gimmie win but with a bum knee Kyven should be able to work his offense and get a few takedowns for a comfortable victory, though past history would say he'll tighten up and eek out a 3-2 win while giving us all a heart attack. If Klapprodt takes the mat for Iowa then Kyven just needs to avoid a letdown.
HWT: Go ahead and try the lateral drop, Quean. Why Not? I won't even be mad.
Prediction
Honestly there aren't any matches from 133-197 that I would be surprised to see us win. But it would take monumental luck for us to win all the tossups and get enough upsets to win this meet. More likely I see us winning two or three matches, holding our own in the majority of the others, and walking out of Carver with a 6-30 or 9-26 type loss and echos of "STAAAAAALLING" running through our heads
Next Up
The wrestlers will be back on the mat on December 5th & 6th at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas.