Wrestlers Kick off the New Year against Northern Colorado and Oregon State

After a break of almost a full month the Cyclone wrestlers will be back on the mat in Hilton this weekend with a pair of duals from teams out West. The first half of the season had a lot of growing pains and resulted in an 0-3 dual record for the team. But the work that the team and coaches put in during the layoff, combined with weaker lineups on the other side of the mat, give the team a great opportunity to pick up wins in both duals to end the weekend at 2-3 overall.

Projected Lineups

*Rankings from Flowrestling/Intermat/TheOpenMat (note that only TheOpenMat has updated rankings post Midlands/Southern Scuffle)

Northern Colorado

Where: Hilton Coliseum, Ames, IA

When: 7:00PM, Friday, January 5th

Stream: Mediacom/Cyclones.TV

Key Matches

125

Jakob Allison picked up the first dual win of his Iowa State career last time the Cyclones were in Hilton, and he’ll have a shot at his second against Johnson, whose 8-7 record includes just 2 wins against D1 competition. To be fair though, Allison only has three D1 wins of his own. That makes this match a tossup and based on the matchups the rest of the dual ISU needs to win a couple of the tossups if they are going to avoid needing an upset or two in the upperweights.

174

Bush wasn’t eligible first semester and will be taking the mat in Hilton in an ISU singlet for the first time on Friday night. While Bush probably isn't going to be breaking in to the rankings anytime soon, he has put together a winning record on the season and should be a big step up for this weight. On Friday night he’ll get the chance to ease himself in to the lineup as takes on the weakest wrestler in the UNC lineup in Bogulski. Having him pick up a win, and maybe even bonus points, would be a good sign that Bush can be the guy here for the rest of the year.

184

Gabel is an NCAA qualifier and fringe top 20 guy. That’s just the type of guy Pestano needs to get wins over if he is going to earn himself a second trip to NCAAs in March. At the start of the season I would have called this a tossup but based on results so far Gabel has a convincing edge. If Dane can put the first semester behind him and get a win that would not only likely salt away the dual for Iowa State, but it would also mean he’s putting himself on track to finish his last semester of wrestling out on top.

Prediction

I could easily see this one being split 5 matches each with it coming down to bonus points. But ISU has more bonus point opportunities than Northern Colorado so I think ISU wins it 17-16. If they can do better than that and pick up a win in a sixth or seventh match then you can start to get excited about the direction things are going for the rest of the season.

Oregon State

Richard Immel

Where: Hilton Coliseum, Ames, IA

When: 2:00PM, Sunday, January 7th

Stream: Mediacom/Cyclones.TV

Key Matches

141

Though he’s not currently ranked, Hathaway is a 2 time NCAA qualifier and fringe top 20 guy. On the other side of the mat Storr is in need of a win to hang his hat on. He had a rough December, losing 4 of his last 5 matches, and has almost fallen out of the rankings himself. All of those loses were to ranked opponents though, with 3 against guys ranked in the top ten. So Kanen might still be the guy we thought he’d be before the season started. A win over Hathaway would be a great way to keep that hope alive as the second half of the season gets underway.

157

Chase Straw has been right in there in some tough matches against ranked opponents, and finally came out on top in one of them last time ISU was in Hilton with a win over Archie Colgan. However, he’s also had some not so great losses and that’s why he is sitting at 6-6 on the season. His match against Willits is a tossup and if Straw is going to take the next step and qualify for NCAAs this year he needs to start being consistent. That can start by going 2-0 this weekend with wins over a couple of just over .500 opponents.

Prediction

Lots of toss ups in this one but I think Iowa State gets its second dual win of the weekend with a 19-16 type victory.

Next Up

The wrestlers will only have a few days off before heading to Hampton, Virginia for the Virginia Duals this upcoming Friday and Saturday.