Wrestlers Take On The Hawkeyes

While the football team takes on mighty Drake at Jack Trice on Saturday the wrestlers will be headed over to Iowa City to take on the #3 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Despite that lofty ranking there should be a lot of good matchups in this one. Ranked opponents will face off at 133, 149, and 197 while 174 and HWT will, in a rarity for this dual, have neither wrestler ranked. So far this season Iowa has utilized a lot of lineups due to injuries, suspensions, and teammates shooting each other in the knee then lieing to the police about it. As a result these “projected lineups” are a best guess. Depending on who Iowa sends out and how Iowa State rises up to the environment in Carver this dual could range anywhere from Iowa winning nine matches to Iowa State pulling off an upset win. All we know for sure is that the Carver crowd will be mad about the lack of stalling calls.

Where: Carver Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, IA

When: 2:00PM, Saturday, Dec 1st, 2018

TV/Stream: FloWrestling ($) or BTN+ ($)

Projected Lineups

*rankings from Flowrestling/Intermat/TheOpenMat

Key Matches

133

This is a huge match for Austin Gomez. He has yet to take a loss in folkstyle since stepping on campus in Ames as he has put together a 4-0 start to this season after going 8-0 during his redshirt year. But up to this point he hasn't had the opportunity to face any ranked opponents - DeSanto will be his first opportunity to pick up a signature win. A close loss wouldn't be the end of the world for Gomez, as the season is still young and he has a lot of room to grow. But a win would be a big statement that he needs to be included in the All American conversation at 133 pounds this season.

141

Unlike Gomez, Parker already has a few signature wins on his record. A 7-5 victory over DeSanto in his first ever match in an ISU singlet, while he was still at 133, and a 3-1 victory over NCAA Champion Dean Heil in his first match up at 141 near the end of last season. When Parker was wrestling his best last season he was capable of taking out just about anybody. And most of his losses were to pretty good wrestlers. He missed NCAAs mostly due to a late season weight change and a 141 bracket at Big XIIs that left him no margin for error. This year the hope is that he can make the jump from “good wrestler that can be great when the stars align” to consistently being a top twenty caliber wrestler. A win over Murin would confirm he’s on that path.

149

Degen vs. Lugo will be the first of two marquee matchups for this dual. Both of these guys made it to the NCAA Championships Round of Twelve as freshmen. Lugo, at Edinburo at the time, then went 1-2 out of the 8 seed as a sophomore before sitting out last season after transferring to Iowa. So both of these guys are looking at this match as a chance to prove they belong in the top twelve of the rankings this year. I think this’ll come down to what happens when Degen does his normal “here, take my leg” move in Carver with the crowd calling for the ref to give 2 immediately. If the ref lets them scramble and lets Degen finish I think he can walk away with the win. If the ref gives in to the crowd and calls an early takedown it’ll be a tough out for Degen as that will take away the main way he scores from his feet.

197

The second marquee matchup of the dual, these two have wrestled once before. In the finals of the Lindenwood Open last year Warner took Milkus out 16-7 in a match where he struggled to stop Warner’s shots . Despite Warner having the head to head win, Milkus is ranked higher and has to be considered the slight favorite based on his overall resume. For Milkus this is a shot at avenging that loss from last season. For Warner this is a chance to pick up his first ever win in Carver and announce himself as a legitimate All American contender for this season.

Prediction

This is a tough one to predict. Iowa has been pretty cavalier about tossing out backups so far this season and if they do that again some matches could go from Iowa being heavily favored to Iowa State being heavily favored. And even with their full lineup there are a number of tossup matches - 133, 141, 149, 174, 197, and HWT could all go either way. Add in Iowa State being a pretty young team and I think they probably pick up a couple of wins but ultimately get Carver’d for a 10-28 type loss.

Next Up

The wrestlers will compete unnattached at the UNI open next weekend before coming back to Hilton to take on the Ohio Bobcats on December 16th.