Wrestling Team To Spend Sunday Afternoon At The Theatre

The Dresser era got off to a disappointing start two weeks ago with a shorthanded lineup for the Cyclones falling 21-16 to Drexel in their season opener. Since then several wrestlers have come back from injuries/suspensions and the team put together a much improved performance at the Lindenwood Open last weekend. But they’re facing a top 25 Rider team that is going to be hungry to get back on track after getting shellacked 35-6 in Carver on Friday night.

Rider will be favored but based on the matchups this dual should be full of close decisions. If ISU can take more than their share of the toss ups and avoid giving up bonus points from 157-174 they might be able to pull off the upset and improve to 1-1 on the season.

Where: Stephens Auditorium, Ames IA

When: 2:00PM CST, Sunday, November 26th

Live Stats: Trackwrestling

*Cyclones.TV will not be streaming this dual

Projected Lineups:

*Rankings from Intermat/TheOpenMat/Flowrestling

Key Matches

141

Last weekend Storr ate two tough losses while stumbling to a 4th place finish at the Lindenwood Open. The first was a 1-2 decision to #18 ranked Mike Longo and the second an overtime loss by fall to Kaden Gfeller, a blue chip redshirt from Oklahoma State. Neither of these were “bad” losses in the scheme of things, as Longo is a 3 time NCAA qualifier and Gfeller would likely be a qualifier himself this year if he was redshirting. But expectations for Storr are pretty high this season so just staying ranked and qualifying for NCAAs would be a disappointment. Dippery is unranked but was an NCAA qualifier in 2016 and is a solid wrestler in his own right. A win would give Storr some momentum going in to Las Vegas this coming weekend and keep him on track for a seed in March. But a loss would indicate that Storr is in a post-redshirt slump and likely knock him out of the rankings only a few weeks in to the season.

149

Jarrett Degen put together a great day at the Lindenwood Open last weekend, including his first win over a top 20 wrestler. As a result he’s pushed in to the top 20 himself. Now that he’s announced his presence the next step is to show consistency and start to compile a resume that’ll earn him an allocation for NCAAs when they are announced next February. That’ll start on Sunday with his match against a decent, but not great, opponent in Dinmore.

184

There’s a good chance this will be the best match of the dual. Fagg-Davies has a resume not all that different from Pestano. Like Dane he’s a 1 time NCAA qualifier who sits right at the edge of the top 20 rankings. A loss wouldn’t be the end of the world for Dane, he’d still be on track to make his second NCAA appearance. On the flip side of that, a win would be a nice addition to his resume and might be the final nudge he needs to show up in the rankings next Tuesday.

Prediction:

Even though Rider is ranked and the Cyclones are not, the way ISU matches up against Rider isn’t bad other than 157 and 165. If the team was peaking for this dual I could see an 18-17 or even 21-14 victory for the Cyclones. However, based on the limited views we’ve seen of Dresser’s coaching philosophy, I think he’s training the team through this meet with a focus on next weekend’s Cliff Keen tournament. Given that, I think we’ll drop a couple of the toss ups and end up with a 15-21ish loss.

Next Up:

The wrestlers will be back on the mat on Friday and Saturday at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.