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Iowa State is on the road this weekend for their first competitions since Kevin Jackson announced he’ll be stepping down as coach at the end of the season. With two winnable duals scheduled we’ll get the chance to see if the cloud of Jackson’s future being removed helps the team outperform or if the uncertainty surrounding who their new coach will be proves to be too large of a distraction going in to the closing weeks of the season.
Projected Lineups
PittWVULineups.csv
| Weight | Pitt Wrestler | Record | - | ISU Wrestler | Record | - | West Virginia | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight | Pitt Wrestler | Record | - | ISU Wrestler | Record | - | West Virginia | Record |
| 125 | LJ Bentley | 12-9 | vs. | Kyle Larson | 8-11 | vs. | Devin Brown | 6-12 |
| 133 | Dom Forys 8/8/8 | 14-1 | vs. | Earl Hall 11/11/11 | 18-7 | vs. | Cory Stainbrook | 12-9 |
| 141 | Nick Zanetta | 16-9 | vs. | John Meeks | 6-10 | vs. | Joe Wheeling | 5-13 |
| 149 | Mikey Racciato | 9-8 | vs. | Gabe Moreno | 4-7 | vs. | Christian Monserrat | 11-8 |
| 157 | Taleb Rahmani | 16-6 | vs. | Colston DiBlasi | 20-13 | vs. | Dayton Garrett | 2-16 |
| 165 | TeShan Campbell 13/7/15 | 15-2 | vs. | Logan Breitenbach | 4-6 | vs. | Dylan Cottrell 20/15/12 | 12-4 |
| 174 | Cam Jacobson | 15-13 | vs. | Lelund Weatherspoon 10/8/10 | 18-8 | vs. | Ty Millward | 2-16 |
| 184 | Zach Bruce | 12-9 | vs. | Pat Downey 10/8/8 | 7-0 | vs. | Parker VonEgidy | 5-11 |
| - | - | - | or | Carson Powell | 12-10 | - | - | - |
| 197 | John Rizzo | 12-12 | or | Marcus Harrington | 4-7 | vs. | Jacob Smith 5/9/5 | 14-4 |
| HWT | Ryan Solomon UR/UR/20 | vs. | Quean Smith | 7-8 | vs. | Brandon Ngati | 1-18 | |
| or | - | - | or | Joe Scanlon | 6-2 | - | - | - |
Pitt
Where: Fitzgerald Field House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
When: 6:00PM CST, Friday, February 10th
Stream: WatchESPN
Key Matches:
133
Dom Forys spent some time out of the Pitt lineup after getting robbed by a hooker he hired off the internet.
Gonna let you read that again. Take your time. Soak it in.
But now he’s back and doesn’t seem to have lost a step. These two met at NCAAs last March with Hall coming away with a 13-7 decision. Hall’s up and down season has left his likely NCAA seed up in the air and a win over a top ten wrestler in Forys would go a long ways towards helping him stay away from the top few wrestlers at 133 until the quarterfinals.
HWT
Smith has spent most of the season right on the edge of being an NCAA qualifying caliber wrestler. On Friday night against Solomon he’ll have his last chance to get a statement win to show the ranking committee that he deserves a spot in the top 27 and an allocation for the conference for St. Louis. With a win he’s probably got about a 50/50 shot at an allocation. With a loss Quean would surely have to steal a spot.
Prediction:
Pitt has a lot of solid, but not great guys in their lineup and is able to counter one of ISU’s best wrestlers with a top ten wrestler of their own. There aren’t likely to be many blowout matches (outside of 165 because Kevin Jackson clearly hates Logan Brietenbach) but unless the ISU team looks totally different now that Jackson’s end is in sight look for a 13-19 type loss for the Cyclones on Friday night.
West Virginia
Where: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia
When: 1:00PM CST, Sunday, February 12th
Stream: WVUsports.com
Key Matches:
149
Christian Monserrat has a pretty pedestrian record for WVU this season. But Gabe Moreno hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as he attempts to keep his body together and working through the end of his senior season. This is a tossup match that Moreno has to win if he wants to have any chance of a decent seed at Big XIIs and a reasonable path to stealing a ticket to St. Louis.
HWT
You’d think we wouldn’t have to bring this up in the last month of his senior season. But Quean, please stop pinning yourself.
Prediction:
Iowa State has had a disappointing season. West Virginia’s has been worse. Iowa State should be able to romp to a 29-11 or so win.
Next Up:
The Cyclones will host Minnesota for senior night next Friday in their last dual of the season.